Hanoi

Oh,wow.

H A N O I.

All 16 of us,including a whole loud bunch of family friends-landed early in the morning,and it took an hour's drive to the city.We went past countless paddy fields,vast and hauntingly quiet in that unholy time of day-finally reaching the city,still vibrant with noise and activity and people and vehicles at every corner that it was first a bit overwhelming to say the least.

The next day,I had a full itinerary planned for myself while the rest headed off for shopping in Hang Dai and Dong Xuan market(both part of my second day),both places situated in the Old Quarter,Hanoi's incredibly lively and sleepless central business district.

I first went to the Temple of Literature,then took a bike ride to Hoan Kiem Lake-from which my personalized walking tour took off-taking few tips from the two guidebooks I had purchased a week prior to the trip (Lonely Planet & National Geographic-Quick Note:While the latter was rich with glossy pics which I later found to over-glamorize locations,it was sparse with information and hardly recommended places aside from the usual tourist fare and the former is far more complete although with much less visual accompaniment,thus highly recommended for anyone intending to visit Hanoi)-I felt compelled to drop by the Shoe Market,St Joseph's Cathedral and a few other minor sightseeing/shopping places and small eateries which in the end were worth the tedious walking.

I can't describe to you daunting it was to travel alone in Hanoi-I was nervous as fuck even before going,knowing that spending a whole day alone in a new and unfamiliar place full of locals impatiently waiting for me to idiotically walk into any one of their many scams or whatever..was a bit tooriskytoodangeroustoocrazy..just TOO MUCH.

And true enough,I got lost-once for a full hour,desperately trying to find someone who could speak English and would point me in the right direction-a time in which my three maps each seemed to speak in their own different tongues,telling me to go here no there no here no there.But alas,with my ever-reliable camera in hand (also,a huge packet of M&Ms),getting lost turned out to be the greatest part of the 5-day trip,during which I crossed many of Hanoi's fascinatingly dirty inner streets full of local men and women engaged in their daily activity-women seated on flimsy plastic stools selling pho,large groups of elderly men playing checkers,schoolchildren in a frenzy playing games-I was lucky enough to unwittingly stumble into something so priceless and unforgettable,and driven to continue my journey with a continuously growing curiosity.

Not that I actually encourage getting lost-but there are things guidebooks just don't tell you to look out for,things you have to search at your own will and discover for yourself.Ironically,that's more or less what they say in the introduction part of almost every guidebook.

Moving on.I don't feel there was much to say about the trip-I can't be stuffed to lay out every single detail and place I went or food I ate because other from being too darn lazy to do that,above all,I felt it was a personal journey only I could truly understand and appreciate.A whole list of details would just bore you (more importantly,me) anyways.What I can share however,are the pictures.


Much more at my DEVIANTART.