Images of Hanoi

Our last day in cool, smoggy, noisy Hanoi.  This evening at 7 pm we take an overnight train to Hue, and warmer weather and quieter streets.  After lots of walking through swirling Hanoi streets, here are a few random images:

Many electric poles are encircled in spaghetti-like masses of thin electric wires, with knots sometimes two and three feet thick. Makes me glad I'm not a Lineman here.  Walking down one city block I spotted ten men on the sidewalk separated by short intervals, each holding a hacksaw and waiting for a customer.  Need something cut?  That's where you go.  At night some people kneel on the sidewalks in front of a small, square-shaped stoves burning fake paper money as offerings to the Gods.  You'd think Gods might be able to tell the difference between fake and real money.  Almost no stop signs or traffic lights in his incredibly busy city.  When traffic from four directions enters a city intersection the cars, motorcycles, pedestrians, porters, and bicycle cyclos all slide together like shuffling a colorful deck of cards.  Miraculously, this happens hours at a time with virtually no accidents (but thousands of horns honking).   Temples and shrines full of clouds of joss sticks and people praying as Tet (Chinese New Year) approaches Feb 3-5. Lots of red banners throughout the the city celebrating Hanoi's 1,000th anniversary!

Enjoy the snow (and fresh air) for us!  Duncan