Wandering in Hanoi
Hi everyone,
We have been exploring Hanoi on foot for the past two days, walking down the streets and looking in shops. We have been spending most of our time in the Old Quarter, where most of the old style shops are. It has been pretty interesting. Different streets have different specialties, some sell mostly paper goods, some bamboo goods, others silks and embroidery, and even others that have musical instruments (We walked by some of those today, I bumped a drum that was still wet with paint...now I have red paint on my pants). Another interesting aspect of the way these streets are laid out is that if you go far enough, you eventually run into the suppliers, the people who sell the stuff needed to make the goods on the other streets. So, we have run into stone, paint, rope, lacquer, bamboo, wood, thread, tool, etc. shops too. It seems to be a pretty different way to do business, and it's interesting to see every stage of it so close together.
We also ran into some art reproduction shops. It was kind of funny to see teams of artists working on reproducing Gauguins, Monets, and Picassos.
We are leaving tonight for the Sapa Highlands in northwest Vietnam . It will take us about 12 hours to get there (10 on a train and 2 on a bus). Luckily we have a sleeper car this time so we might actually get some good rest.
We will be there for 3 days and 2 nights. When we get back (hopefully on time this time; we only have 3 hours to work with, and coming to Hanoi the train was 2 hours late) we go straight to another tour agency in Hanoi. They will take us to Halong Bay (about 3 hours away) where we will take a cruise for 2 days. During all this travel I probably wont have an internet connection, so don't expect to hear from me for a while.
Finally, we have finally seen some indication of the impact of bird flu. No restaurants in town seem to have chicken or duck. Our guess, this is because they have had to cull so much poultry that either the costs are too high, or there just isn't any.
A professor from Maryland also wants to talk to me. I am going to try to call her tonight from the train.
That's all for now.
-Tim
We have been exploring Hanoi on foot for the past two days, walking down the streets and looking in shops. We have been spending most of our time in the Old Quarter, where most of the old style shops are. It has been pretty interesting. Different streets have different specialties, some sell mostly paper goods, some bamboo goods, others silks and embroidery, and even others that have musical instruments (We walked by some of those today, I bumped a drum that was still wet with paint...now I have red paint on my pants). Another interesting aspect of the way these streets are laid out is that if you go far enough, you eventually run into the suppliers, the people who sell the stuff needed to make the goods on the other streets. So, we have run into stone, paint, rope, lacquer, bamboo, wood, thread, tool, etc. shops too. It seems to be a pretty different way to do business, and it's interesting to see every stage of it so close together.
We also ran into some art reproduction shops. It was kind of funny to see teams of artists working on reproducing Gauguins, Monets, and Picassos.
We are leaving tonight for the Sapa Highlands in northwest Vietnam . It will take us about 12 hours to get there (10 on a train and 2 on a bus). Luckily we have a sleeper car this time so we might actually get some good rest.
We will be there for 3 days and 2 nights. When we get back (hopefully on time this time; we only have 3 hours to work with, and coming to Hanoi the train was 2 hours late) we go straight to another tour agency in Hanoi. They will take us to Halong Bay (about 3 hours away) where we will take a cruise for 2 days. During all this travel I probably wont have an internet connection, so don't expect to hear from me for a while.
Finally, we have finally seen some indication of the impact of bird flu. No restaurants in town seem to have chicken or duck. Our guess, this is because they have had to cull so much poultry that either the costs are too high, or there just isn't any.
A professor from Maryland also wants to talk to me. I am going to try to call her tonight from the train.
That's all for now.
-Tim
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on Thursday, February 09, 2006 at 7:06 AM.
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