Adventures in Indochina. First part: Vietnam

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E 'stato un viaggio quite varied.
We arrived by air via Singapore as having a single balance point, the reservation of the first night in a hotel in the capital.
Mimmo and I always travel well. It sets a goal that is typically a state (sometimes not even that) and, therefore, to book a hotel for the night of arrival and that prior to departure. Everything else is improvised on the spot.
We are two travelers lot for years together and our wives leave us to vent our desire for adventure leaving us the freedom to travel "savage."
Our tour of Vietnam was conducted through a visit to Hanoi and surrounding areas, a trip of three days a wonderful Halong Bay, a trekking in the mountains on the border with China in search of the tribes of the hills.
We then took a plane locally transferred to Ho Chi Min City (Saigon) where we organized the visit of the Mekong Delta by bike.
This first part is about the only Hanoi.
It is hard for people like myself was a student in those years, think of Vietnam without remembering pictures with scenes of war, helicopters discharging soldiers in the rice and faces marked dall'orrore. In fact, most single rare, this nation has lived with conflict virtually uninterrupted from 1939 to 1979 years the Chinese. But what may be the effects of a war of forty years on the spirit of a people? It may seem like a country where about 70% of the population has less than 30 years due to the boom of births that the war with the U.S. has generated and the almost total disappearance of the previous generations?
These were the things I thought while the Thai plane landed at Hanoi in a bright morning in January.
We have made very little to give an answer to these questions. It may seem strange but, in fact, the characteristic of the Vietnamese is most striking about them met for the first time it is mild.
From a people who defeated the French, Americans and Chinese on the battlefield, this is a virtue at the very least unusual, but, believe me, it is their distinctive mark.
The name Hanoi consists of two words: Ha, that means "river" and that we mean "inside" and then the whole name means "in the middle of the river." This city is actually surrounded by the Red River that forms some lakes within the city itself.
The first impact with the traffic in Hanoi is typical of all the major cities of Asia "poor."
Vehicles with four wheels are the least popular. For the most part the roads are blocked by bicycles, scooters, hand carts and a plethora of other strange forms of transport. There are no rules and the concept of precedence is unknown how the direction of motion.
Cross the road in these conditions is a business. Being in the middle of the road was immediately surrounded by dozens of media that come from every direction by playing the horn without stopping and, above all, no reason. The best way to survive, perhaps the only, is to proceed without hesitation, leaving to others the task of dodging.
Along the streets craftsmen have occupied the sidewalk in front of the shops to expose the dark merce.Qui you see many women who work. More than 50% of the workforce and this is another legacy of the war that the men committed to the front and the wives left the burden of running the country.
The old city of Hanoi is known as 36 Pho Phuong ie thirty-six roads.
Each path is characterized by a particular type of business or corporation. There is a way of slippers, one of the goldsmiths, the neighborhood of plumbers and butchers and so on. Remember the very medieval quarters in which the arts and crafts were a mutual benefit to gather in a limited area. Hanoi is one of the most polluted cities in the world.
In addition to smoke from the exhaust pipes of motor means antiquated and the reddish dust that is pushed into the city from a constant wind, makes a good contribution to the national perverse habit of using the powdered coal for heating.
It is sold everywhere in the form of cylinders of pressed powder over a kilo.
Almost all the people you meet on the street carrying a mask by the surgeon to protect against dust and smog. Most young people using handkerchiefs tied on her nose and mouth as many bandits were in the middle of a robbery.
The 36 roads bordering the lake of Ho Hoan Kiem in which stands an island with the beautiful Temple of Jade Mountain. Ho Hoan Kiem means "Lake of the restored sword" and is linked to a legend. Approximately 500 years ago the Emperor Le Thai To in Hanoi was returning from a military campaign against the Chinese Ming invaders he won thanks to a magical sword. While crossing the lake on a boat, suddenly there appeared a golden turtle that pulled the sword and disappeared into the waters of the lake. The emperor interpreted this as a demonstration of the will of the gods that the war ended. He decided, therefore, to conclude peace with the Chinese. The temple recalls the event. Unique is the fact that in 1968 it aground sull'isolotto a giant tortoise 2 meters long and weighing 250 kg. The zoologists estimate the age of 500 years in fact ... ... The huge armor is exhibited in the temple.
After a general survey of the city to define the photo the next day, go up on a cyclo to return to the hotel.
The driver, about sixty years, decide to let us take a tour of the capital in Vietnam by telling all the stories of war that each place brings to mind. Not understanding a single syllable of his language deduce the meaning of his words from his produce the sound of bombing and mimic the beating rain of bombs on the shoulders and head.
How often does the food market is one of the most interesting of all to visit the Old Town. Space is used with stalls at both sides of the road and also at the center of it. The two narrow walkways that are advancing Ingolf contract by persons who are also walking, carts supplying goods benches and scooters that are made between this crowd, bringing three or four passengers.
Like any market East worthy of respect, also, this is attacking the visitor with a wave of sound almost smells, sounds and colors. One has the impression of being immersed in this sea of sensations.
The taste typical in Asia have the merchandise each bank makes a impressionist.
In this ridda color exotic fruit plays the main role. Here you can find every type of food merchandise. Vegetables and fruits of all kinds, spices, white meat and red meat, fresh fish often kept alive in tubs of water, chicken eggs, goose, quail, pigeon and other bird breeds unknown to me. Most banks that offer more than the typical bread baguette shape show that the French influence did not end with the loss of the colony. At the end of the market place were the stalls of flowers. An explosion of colors and shapes that leave astounding.
In the few spaces left on the pavement, some women have turned on the fireworks between two bricks and then cook for their customers Pho. Segue to the next episode ....