It was a very interesting place and although I have been to Ho Chi Minh City numerous time over almost 2o years, it was still an adventure for me to explore Hanoi.
On the plane there, we met a Korean (I think) gentleman who was dressed in a Catholic monk fashion but I did not think he was one. The strange thing was that he was shoeless. He even tried to preach to everybody on the plane as it was taking off!!!!! I did not manage to get a picture of him but I noticed that there was a huge cross which was on the luggage conveyor...must be his. He must be on a mission here.
One of the first thing I noticed here was that it was still Christmas season here. The locals have still not taken down their Christmas decoration although it was the end of January. I wonder how long is the Christmas season in Vietnam. I''m sure no one's complaining though.
The fresh produce market which was located very near our hotel was full of surprises although not expectedly. There were quite a few strange stuff there.
There were a lot of fishes, eels of various types and other types of seafood which were all alive but kept in simple plastic or metal basins.
There were also a lot of fruit stall. This is a cut milk fruit (see my previous blog). Really yummy and please do try it when you are in Vietnam or Cambodia.
Also some flower shops with quite a wide variety. however, I managed to only take a passing photo of 1 stall.
The markets and surrounding shops had it fair share of weirder stuff. Like this guy, who was roasting pig trotters and selling them in the market.
I passed a stall who was selling meat and roast meat. I thought they had a nice roast piglet but to my horror, it was a roast DOG.....OMG. I asked to take a photo but the owner said no, later I took a quick picture but it was not clear.
There were also other strange stuff like this achohol soaked with a monitor lizard with a scorpion in its mouth. I suppose it must have been some kind of aphrodisiac! This product must be popular as we saw them in quite a few places.
Other interesting thing was small shopd selling a wide variety of pate, hams and sausages, very French and a stall selling mini baguettes with some kind of stuffing. It actually looked good but as we just had a huge lunch, we could not eat anymore.
We also visited the week end night market situated near to our hotel. It was interesting and very crowded.
They were also a lot of shops selling the "Tet" decorations, Vietnamese new year which is the same as Chinese New Year.
A stall which attracted a lot of attention was selling nigh lights but it looked so pretty that a lot people stopped to see it.
Some night views of a temple and the city.......
Until the next time, cheers.
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