Finally, after 12 hours in a sleeping bus we reached Hanoi, the capitol of Vietnam. We arrived at 5 am, when city was absolutely clear of traffic, but surprisingly full of people doing exercise, warming up, jogging or just walking around the lake… Did not know how Hanoi looks like but did not really expect that 😀
Hanoi is a fantastic mixture of all types of city districts. The old town district Hoan Kiem is very lively, full of street food and markets and of course motorbikes. Ba Dinh district is a political centre with President palace, Ho Chi Minh mausoleum and many embassies, large boullevards and huge West lake. Many places restricted to enter… I am just surprised how many lakes are in the city… Then we also visited Hai Ba Trung district, where the new highrises and huge shopping mall Times City are located. The modern face of Hanoi and original street´s look are placed next to each other in incredibly huge contrast.
Overall, we wanted to see the Red river to have an idea how the riverside looks like, cause this varies in every city… The biggest surprise was though when we were supposed to stay already in the river according to gps, but we were in the middle of banana fields 🙂 At least we know from where the markets are supplied 🙂 But it looked completely like the furthest countryside (at least the buffalos…) and not the centre of Hanoi 😉
Tak jsme nakonec dojeli do hlavniho mesta Hanoi, po 12 hodinach v nocnim autobuse. Prijeli jsme v 5 rano, kdy jeste nebylo mesto zahlcene dopravou, za to spousta lidi se na ulici rozcvicovala, vyklusavala nebo se jen tak prochazela… Nejak jsme netusili, jak Hanoi vypada, ale tohle jsme tedy necekali 😀
Hanoi je uzasnou smesici ruznych ctvrti. Stare mesto Hoan Kiem je samorostla ctvrt, plna lidi, motorek, poulicnich jidelen a trhu. Ba Dinh ctvrt je politickym centrem mesta, kde se nachazi prezidentsky palac, masouleum Ho Chi Minha a ambasady, ulice jsou siroke bulvary a na spoustu mist proste nesmite :-/ Pak jsme se jeste podivali do Hai Ba Trung ctvrti, kde se nachazi nova ctvrt s vezaky a obri nakupak Times City. Kontrast mezi novou ctvrti a puvodnimi ulicemi je neuveritelny…
Taky jsme se chteli podivat na Cervenou reku, ktera mestem proteka, abychom meli srovnani, jak vypada nabrezi… Prekvapko nas ale cekalo, kdyz jsme zjistili, ze podle navigace jiz stojime v rece, ale my byli uprostred bananovniku a policek. Tak aspon vime, odkud zasobuji mistni trhy 😉 Rozhodne to ale vypadalo jako nekde na venkove (minimalne podle tech buvolu…) a ne uprostred mesta 🙂