Hanoi is a great city with many interesting alleys to explore, tasty restaurants to nurture your palette and please your stomach, and beautiful lakes beside which you can grab a beer and listen to the sounds of the city. The air is bit thick with all the motorcycle exhaust, as bikes swarm the streets throughout the city. In 1995, there were 600,000 motorbike trips per day in Hanoi. In 2005, there were 4million/day in the same area. The number now is probably much higher, as the population is continuously growing wealthier and motorcycle prices continue to decline.
The morning rush. (Masks are worn for the pollution, not swine flu!)
A shot down Kham Thieu Street, with a three-story KFC is the background. There are no McDonalds here, but several Kentucky Fried Chickens, which are very popular.
While here, be sure to stop in at the Green Tangerine on Hang Be Street for a tasty meal in the Ancient Quarter. Here is a seafood crepe, part of a delicious Sunday brunch. However, the menu is in dollars–not the local Vietnam Dong–so the place is targeting for foreign travelers, and their thicker wallets.
Here in Ba Dinh District, two worlds are juxtaposed as a motorcyclist navigates his way through two bicycles carrying chickens.
And the day comes to close over Ho Tay (West Lake), just north of the city.
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