We arrived in Hanoi yesterday afternoon and on the way in from the airport in the taxi our minds exploded with images of the South East Asia we had always imagined. The moment I saw the guy with 48 dozen eggs strapped to the back of his motorbike racing the guy with the full sized banana tree strapped to the back of his moped, riding past the rice paddy field I just knew I was going to love Vietnam.
Hanoi is organised chaos. There are scooters and motorbikes and bicycles and cyclos EVERYWHERE, all crazily roaming the streets in apparent harmony with wide eyed tourists narrowly missing being wiped out and elderly ladies wearing conical hats carrying heavily laden bamboo baskets across their shoulders.
People sell baguettes and cook street food on every corner. The smells and sounds suck you in and you find yourself desperate to be part of it all. There is a photo opportunity every 2 seconds. The colour, the architecture, the ancientness, the grime, the beauty, the style, the charm, the smiles on the Vietnamese children’s faces, the spirit of the people... it all just reaches in and warms you. I can't remember a time when I have felt so alive. All my senses are working in overdrive just to absorb my surroundings. It’s exhausting too, but it’s a wonderful tiredness that also exhilarates.. if that makes sense?
