Hanoi

9th August

Reasonable priced taxi from station to Holiday Gold Hotel in Hang Manh Street in the old quarter of Hanoi, where I got a better room than I bargained for. Had lunch at Gecko, a popular local restaurant just a few doors down the street. Vietnam doesn't seem to have any effective trademark and name registering laws so there are several Gecko restaurants all claiming to be the original. Similarly every second travel agency claims to be Sinh Cafe. But the food was good and the beer was cold. Later met up with some friends for coffee and ice cream by Hoan Kiem Lake and then had a walk around the lake. The small square in front of a huge statue of Lý Thái Tổ, who moved the capital to Hanoi a thousand years ago, has become a roller skating zone with dozens of children showing various stages of proficiency. Nearby was a popular area for wedding photos.

Biere Larue in Gecko

Bags R Us

Small Boy, Big Skates

Wedding Photo

Checking the Photos

Evening Exercise by the Lake

 Had a fairly late dinner in Little Hanoi. It has been around for a long time and is very popular. In the past, I remember having a good, reasonably priced meal there. But tonight the service was slow, the food mediocre and overpriced. After another walk tried to go to one of the roof top bars near the lake but was told that all of them were closed at 11pm. On a Saturday night!

10th August.

Good breakfast of scrambled egg and bacon with juice coffee and fruit. Set out for another walk through the old quarter which I find eternally fascinating. Then down past the Post Office to a new luxury mall which opened last year but which I didn't go into then. Entrance is through gilded doors,  each with a doorman to open it. Inside there are all the expected luxury brands and at the entrance to each shop there is a "Man in Black" to usher you in. The only things missing from the illusion are the dark shades. Inside each of the shops there is another cohort of men and women in black to service your shopping desires. Didn't see many customers and I wonder who buys this stuff. My friend C told me, when we went round a similar mall in Saigon, that the main customers are wealthy Vietnamese, particularly those in the media. I wonder what people who fought for Communism must think when they see this conspicuous, decadent consumption? The ultimate was "Kid's Luxury World", but the gold dining set with gold chairs came a close second. And just across the street is another world.   

It's that Lake again

Conspicuous Consumption

Outside it was feeling very hot,  and remembering that only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun, decided that I would betray my nationality and seek shade and a cold beer in the pavement cafe of the Metropole Hotel, another bastion of capitalist decadence. Like the Saigon Morin in Hue, it plays shamelessly on its Heritage proclaiming "depuis 1901"; obviously a good year for Indochinese hotel openings.  But it provided me with a cold Hanoi beer and some delicious nibbles.

Beer in the Metropole

And Nibbles! 

Also plenty of entertainment,  as a continuous series of couples with wedding photographers queued up for the best locations. The maximum at any one time was four couples but I lost track of the total number. All the women were wearing traditional, Western style, white wedding dresses and the men were mostly in black tuxedos. Obviously the wedding shops have done a great marketing job. Don't know when the idea of taking pre-wedding photos around the iconic locations of the city took off. First time I saw it was in Leningrad in the 1980's; it was certainly well established in Singapore by the mid 90's. Has it caught on in Britain? Many of the women were wearing elegant high heels, as I would have expected, but was amused to see one woman wearing flip flops under the finery. But seeing her standing next to her beloved, I realised that high heels would have made her significantly taller than him.