HANOI - the city
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It took me three days to figure out how to cross the street. I'm not kidding. The technique is to forget about linear thinking, and just walk. |
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| A vietnamese beauty on her motorbike. |
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| Cyklo madame were you go? |
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| From the back of a Xe Om, a motorbike taxi. I loved riding them, especially after I learned to bargain the price. However, the most common cause of death is head injuries caused by road accidents. No surprise. |
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| These men dressed in red were seen everywhere on Christmas Eve... |
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| The Hoan Kiem Lake with the Tortoise Tower in the middle. According to the myth this lake is inhibited by giant tortoises. If you see one it means luck. |
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| I loved walking around the Hoan Kiem Lake. Whenever I sat down, someone came to talk, usually trying to sell something, or just to speak. Many of the older Vietnamese speak French (Enchanté Madame!). |
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| There were restaurants everywhere in the streets, with little plastic tables and little plastic chairs. At one cafe I watched the Asian games, and learned that it's possible to play volleyboll with your feet (did you know that?). |
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| Having dinner at a street restaurant - piqeon, squid, chicken, everything delicious. I never got sick and I ate everywhere possible. Food was just wonderful. Maritta took me to the best places, where we had fresh spring rolls, papaya salad, lotus salad, banana flower salad, eel stew, hotpot and loads of other delicious things. And Tiger beer of course. |
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| Bay Mau Lake. |
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| This tennis court was in the middle of a slum like area. Strange. |
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| The Chinese Embassy. |
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| The only Lenin left. |
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| Commercials covering the walls, phone 0912853577 if you need concrete. |
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| One of many offices which functions were a questionmark to me. |
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| Note the altar in the back. They were in every shop, and in every home, as standard as the refrigerator to us. |
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| An very vietnamese café. |
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| A vietnamese coffee. Note the flower shape in the cup, made of foam? |
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| A typical vietnamese beer place. |
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| School kids. Whenever they saw me, they shouted Hello and I had to answer, because they thought it was exciting to speak English. |
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Vietnamese painter Vu Dan Tan, who was married to Natalia Kraevskaia, a Russian gallerist and a friend of Maritta. |
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| A buddhist temple. |
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| Worshipping of ancestors. |
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| The prison museum. This guillotine was used by the French to teach the Vietnamese people manners. There were also loads of images and text explaining how well the Vietnamese treated their American prisoners (American prisoner attends church, American prisoner receives letters from home, American prisoner recieves medical treatment, American prisoner recieves new clothes...). |
Gun Holmström 2006 |