Early morning strolls through Hanoi's excellent parks
The Opera House
Beer junctionAh this is more like it - farewell 'Hotel Humping' and hello 'Hotel Sunrise 3' - $18 for a room including breakfast and internet connection, located smack bang in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, surrounded by cheap eats, travel agents, fruit & flower sellers and roadside bars that sell local beer at 8p/half pint....and its good, not gassy or too strong.
There is a specific area called 'Beer junction' in the old quarter, each corner has a bar, you wouldn't really notice it was a bar - just a regular shop with lots of small plastic red chairs outside, and by the early evening, all of them are buzzing, people squatting 8 inches off the ground, slurping away, whilst vendors circle, some selling photocopied bestsellers, others offering doughnuts, and some grilling up fresh squid on a rack over a flower pot full of coals - the junction is busy with motorbikes criss crossing back & forth. The young men and women who carry around the boxes of books rather like old cinema ice cream ladies also offer 'massage' or 'marijuana' if you dont want a book!
I have purchased a new camera, and am absolutely thrilled with it. It has given me a real kick up the ass to go out and take more shots, so I have been getting up at 6am to watch the locals exercising - a very entertaining photo assignment - all ages, meditating , playing badminton, tai-chi-ing, jogging, line dancing with fans - its a visual feast - the camera's so bloody complicated mind you that after a couple of reads through the quick start manual I am barely able to get the lens cap off - I feel such a fraud having such a fine piece of equipment! but I am studying hard, honest its just that my brain is made of pate after not having concentrated on anything for such a long time.
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