Hanoi was an amazing City with total contradiction between rich and poor. The city was very busy with extreme congestion of motor bikes which is mainly the general population's only way of affordable travel. There were buses and other vehicles but mainly motor bikes - all beeping their horns constantly which is one of the road rules when you want to pass on the road. There does not seem to be any other road rules that anyone takes any notice of but it all seems to work very well somehow.
Walking across the road is the same as Saigon - cross with great care. The main rule to follow is to step out into the traffic when there is a reasonable gap - indicate that you want to cross by putting out your hand and then cross quickly but at an even pace so that the traffic can judge how to best avoid hitting you. Scary stuff!
Fortunately we had our guide with us and our own tour bus to travel in.
There were very poor areas where the local people struggle to survive but they are all a very happy and tolerant race who seem to just take everything in their stride - a day at a time - no stress or road rage.
We were amazed at how the very small children were transported on motor bikes with very little to no protection - they seem more concerned with the sun damage rather than risk of accident. We saw four people of a bike many times and bikes loaded to the hilt with merchandise and produce with seemingly no concern for their safety or anyone else.
Some of the city was magnificent, beautiful gardens & parks, nice hotels, government & office buildings. Around the corner or a few blocks away would be shanty type buildings, old dwellings well past their use by date and further out from the city it became very rural with shanty towns and road side stalls.
We were horrified to see how the city electrical and telephone wiring were just hooked up along the street with masses of wires running every which way, wrapped around poles, buildings, trees and anything else they could find to attach a wire to. I think they must run a new line rather than fix an old one as it would be too hard to identify a fault. OH & S would have a field day in Vietnam
Out where the golf courses were - say an hour out of the city centre it was very rural with nice mountain views. The roads and highways were not in the best condition mainly due to the constant traffic. The Golf Courses that we saw were lovely - the privately owned courses have had a lot of money spent on them.
We enjoyed our stay in Hanoi and were lucky with the weather. We had no rain and it was not too hot.
