The horn in Hanoi

We left Hanoi on the 22nd November, eight weeks ago - in travelling terms, a very long time, and so much has happened since! My memory of our time there has not faded all that much but perhaps my sense of the place has, which means that I don't really know how to approach this blog entry.

Looking back through my journal for some inspiration hasn't helped much. I discovered that it was during this period that my journal started reading more and more like a diary - it starts talking much more about my ever-changing state of mind than about what we were doing, or even how I felt about what we were doing. Although I'm sure that it would make some interesting reading, offering some unique insights into my frame of mind during this particularly intense period of travelling, I'm not quite ready to bare my soul completely to you good people.

However, I did find a short passage in my journal, describing my first impressions of the great city of Hanoi, which I reprint here.


Saturday 20th November, 2004
Location: Hanoi, Vietnam

I was told that there are 4 million people living in Hanoi and 2 million motorcycles. I can't quite bring myself to believe this statistic - surely it would mean that half the children in Hanoi have their own bike?! - but still, there are a lot of mototcycles. A lot a lot. A ridiculous number. Hanoi is like a narrow streeted Bangkok on speed. Compared to Hanoi, Bangkok is like a sleepy suburb.

Your first impression of the place is inevitably based on what you can hear because it is incredibly noisy. Vietnamese motorists like to use their horns. That's putting in mildly. The horn is indispensible - more important, certainly, than a mere engine. The roads are packed with vehicles of every shape and size (though mostly motorbikes), all of them jostling for position, following a mysterious highway code, all of them blaring their horns every few seconds in order to let everyone else on the road know that they are there. The result is a constant, intimidating cacophony of horns.


Hanoi: 4 million people, 2 million scooters. Approximately

The father of modern communism

Ho Chi Minh and me

Probably the best motorcyclist in the world

The banana market

Gently down the stream

Hoi An tailor-girl

Little lady

SEA Tour: Vietnam leg - the only match I won