Hanoi Summary

This place is a mad house. Crowds everywhere – both on feet and on motorbikes. Shops, shops, and more shops. Merchandising is unlike anything I’ve seen before. The food is good and prices are reasonable. Shopkeepers are honest. Cheaper than Laos. We went to a market that was acres (and two floors) of dry goods only (no food). Thousands of yards of material, million shoes, and every kind of knick knack and utensil imaginable. Walking is dangerous since the sidewalks are blocked with motorbikes or people sitting and when you step off the curb into the gutter there is a real risk of being hit by a motorbike. There are a few traffic lights but they are generally ignored. What a contrast this is to the laid back Luang Prabang.
People are eating at all hours on sidewalks – from early morning to very late at night. They never stop. Pho is the staple. They (and we) have had it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We were surprised to find that the majority of the things on the menu are fried. Even spring rolls come fried unless you make a special effort to order “fresh” spring rolls, which are also double in price. The most popular western foods are pizza and pasta. Even Vietnamese restaurants usually carry one or the other. No chocolate! The only chocolate we found was imported and the prices were exorbitant. Evidently, the Vietnamese don’t share our taste for this item. It’s only for tourists. Ice cream, on the other hand, is plentiful, inexpensive and very good.
Typical fruits you can find in the markets at this time of year are several kinds of bananas, papayas, custard apples, water melon, pineapples, oranges, pommelos, plums, Asian pears, grapes, persimmons, passion fruit and many other fruits we can’t identify. Ripe oranges are green and the same goes for one kind of bananas. We developed a passion for passion fruit. We eat massive amounts of them because they are so refreshing and tasty. Al is going to try to grow them in his garden so we can continue having them at home.