It's Hot...it Even Smells Hot!

Hanoi, Vietnam

June 8, 2007
N 21°01.811
E 105°51.082

We’re back in the Northern Hemisphere where it is summer and the days are longer, so when we awoke to sunlight streaming in our window we thought for sure it was around 9:00 AM. We were wrong—it was only 7:00 AM. Since we traveled from Sydney, where’s it’s late fall, and three hours ahead of Vietnam we were slightly out of whack.

We opened the blinds to see what our neighborhood looked like in the daytime. As I stood looking out the window a small waft of air came through the window frame. I turned to Marc and said…“It just smells hot out there.”

We got dressed and headed out just in time to catch Bob and Teddy making their way down the stairwell. We all had the same mission: Coffee. We felt a slight breeze as we stepped into the moist morning air of Hanoi. We were encouraged. Maybe it won’t be as hot as we think.

We found a café on the third floor of a building just across from Hoan Kiem Lake. We had a perfect view of the lake and sea of mopeds as they zipped through the busy morning streets. The strong coffee quickly woke us up and ignited our desire to start exploring the city.

After wandering around the lake for awhile we decided to follow the Lonely Planet walking tour of Hanoi. The tour led us down alleys of Hanoi we would have never found regardless of how much we walked. Each street and alley had a different purpose in terms of the goods being offered. Some streets were dedicated to tin boxes, woks, or mirrors, while other alleys were devoted to shoes, jewelry, herbs, or even leather and PVC.

As we casually meandered down the alleys we constantly did our best to avoid the scooters and their incessant beeeeeep, beep, beeeeping! They were everywhere—in the streets, on the sidewalks, in front of doorways—everywhere. Plus, it appears the traffic rules, including the lights, don’t apply to scooters. We tried crossing at one of the rare crosswalks when the little flashing green man told us to; however, the swarm of scooters was so thick we didn’t even make an attempt. Then, since hundreds of scooters are parked on the sidewalks, the pedestrians must walk in the streets, only adding to the confusion, congestion and cacophony of beeping and honking.

Half way through our walking tour, right around lunch time, we stopped at a café near the tin and mirror shops for a light snack and to re-hydrate. The temperature was around 95F in the shade with about 80% humidity—re-hydration was essential at this point.

After our break the street vendors were out in force, becoming more aggressive as the afternoon progressed. Many women selling fruit ambled through the traffic carrying their produce with a contraption resembling an old fashioned scale—it was a long piece of bamboo with a basket hanging from each end. The women balanced the bamboo on one shoulder with equal amounts of fruits in each basket. On a few occasions, after politely refusing the fruit, the women would put the bamboo on my shoulder, quickly place their straw hat on my head and encourage Marc to take a picture. They were so fast with this maneuver it caught me off guard the first time, but now that I know their trick I won’t let it happen again. (Sorry, I discouraged Marc from taking the picture.)

The heat continued to increase throughout the day and our hope for a “not too hot” day was officially dismissed when the temperature peaked at over 100F in the shade at 5:00 PM. It was a perfect time to duck into one of the local watering holes for a cold draught and reminisce about the good ol’ days of Torres del Paine.