{"id":811,"date":"2024-01-01T04:19:27","date_gmt":"2024-01-01T04:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aerowalsh.com\/cr\/?p=811"},"modified":"2024-01-10T03:43:40","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T03:43:40","slug":"sun-31-dec-hanoi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/?p=811","title":{"rendered":"Sun 31st Dec – Hanoi"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hanoi is very exhausting. The smog is a little better today and that does make the day easier. Hanoi has something interesting happening on every street but it seems to have no structure, just a sprawling, stressful slide towards chaos. It’s hard to find a shopping mall, it’s hard to buy legitimate material goods, it’s hard to find a clean toilet. Everything is hard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am very glad we’ve come, and it’s fun to experience it with Declan, but I would have struggled here by myself. Thailand was easier to inhabit – there was an expectation in Thailand of not going anywhere too quickly, days were fine to trickle away from meal to meal languidly. In Vietnam (or specifically Hanoi), everything is moving. Watching the street is like watching a bucket of hundreds eels squirm, wanting a space to themselves but not knowing where to turn, only to move from where they are currently. And this atmosphere of movement and noise seeps into other spaces too – into the restaurants, markets and hotels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I feel like we’ve seen and done so much today, but I think we’ve only walked in a maximum 3km radius from our hotel in the old quarter. Hanoi, you have worn me out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Caitlin is a pro at pointing to things, nodding and smiling. This is the only language she has managed to assimilate in her travels so far. But to be fair, it works. This photo captures those skills in ordering two fried balls of something. DW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My fried balls of something. Hawkers sell these in the streets to tourists by tricking them into taking a ‘sample’ but we’ve happened upon the back of someone’s house where local people come to buy in a more relaxed fashion. I know they are locals because no one walks here, rather drives their motorcycle up, collects their fried balls and then whizzes back out onto the street. There are two ladies rolling the balls, one frying, and an old lady selling. CR.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The underground fights back. CR.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n