Good Morning Vietnam!
Well I just had to use this at some stage, and since I arrived in the morning yesterday, why not now?
Saturday, 29 February 2020
Travelling in the midst of the outbreak of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is interesting. Most flight attendants on my two Singapore Airlines flights were wearing face masks – sensible given that they live in Singapore, and it does make passengers feel more at ease. In addition to that everyone arriving in Singapore is temperature checked using remote sensors strategically placed across the terminals.
The flight from Singapore to Hanoi was not full – great, ‘cos I was able to move to a window seat, and enjoy watching the clouds between naps! The airport in Hanoi was surprisingly empty – no lines at Immigration, and my bag arrived quite quickly. Then it was a 40 minute drive to my hotel, where I was able to settle in, enjoy a shower and later in the day, do some exploring with my camera.
A big, big thank you to all the people who had told me: “when you’re crossing the street, just step out and keep going. Don’t stop – they’ll go around you.” And it’s true – a little unnerving at times, but true.
Motorbikes are everywhere, alongside bikes – many with an amazing array of goods balanced precariously on the back. Motorbikes for families have dad driving, mum on the back, one child standing in front of dad holding onto the handlebar, and if there’s a second child, they’re hanging on to mum.
And right outside my hotel was a woman wearing a cone hat and selling fans – in return for taking some photos of her smiling face, I bought one fan, and received a ginormous hug! This afternoon (Sunday), she was there again waving to me and wanting to sell me a hat.
After a late lunch, I bumped into Liza, Ari and Ira in the lobby. Out we went to a local bar where we sat and chatted for a couple of hours, Ira telling us that he was going to Hoam Kiem Lake at 6:30 tomorrow morning, a few blocks from the hotel. We were welcome to join him and enjoy being there early to photograph the well known temple, the red bridge, and people exercising and dancing, including with fans – 6:30am it will be.
On the way back to the hotel, Liza took us a slightly different way, passing a shop that sells leather goods – shoes, bags – just what I need. I’ll check that out tomorrow! [Well that was the plan].
Sunday, 1 March 2020
At 6:30am, Lisa F, Dave and I were on our way to the Lake with Ira – it’s very warm and sticky, even at that hour. As we arrived at the southernmost point of the Lake, we saw 2 large groups of people dancing and exercising with music blaring at high volume.
Walking north, we came across group after group doing the same thing – each group using different music. I stopped to take some photos of the Turtle Tower that sits on an island in the middle of the Lake – it was almost misty with the high humidity, giving the photos a slightly mystical feel. A very beautiful and gentle place.
Further north six people were playing a vigorous game of badminton. To the side was a young woman doing her early morning yoga, her big black dog tied up beside her – a very good thing given that we were told that he hates cameras. As I moved closer, he growled - and also wagged his tail. I was hoping for simultaneous “downward dog” poses from the owner and dog, but unfortunately no luck there!
There were large groups of people everywhere – dancing, exercising, grooming their dogs (one poodle with its ears dyed a bright orange) – an amazing place that people come to exercise, socialise, quietly pray and just sit to enjoy some time out.
The red bridge almost glowed in the misty air - a temple to its left is surrounded by vegetation. This is a beautiful, gentle place with a history that includes legends of a magic sword – see Wikipedia (LINK).
At one entrance to the area , there is a small shrine perched high up on some rocks, a fire glowing inside. Two young women walked up the rocky path, placed some flowers into the shrine, then came back down and stood quietly, praying.
For us, it was time to go back to the hotel for breakfast, passing more people line dancing and singing – what a great start to the day!
This afternoon, I was out again, trying to find the shop we’d seen last night. It seems that I “zigged” when I should have “zagged,” and soon was just a little lost. I knew that if I kept turning left, I’d end up back on the street I’d started from – and so I did! But not before finding some fun photo opps along the way - but never the shop!
One wonderful thing here is that people really don’t mind having their photos taken – including a great guy, sitting on this motorbike wearing a shiny, glitzy suit! Photos to come later.
Tomorrow we go to the KOTO (“Know One, Teach One”) cooking school to learn how to cook Vietnamese food from the students. More on that in the next post.