Hanoi part 1 (Andy)

I have a project in mind for our return to Hanoi on Monday, to take pictures of the mopeds and their riders, however to understand Hanoi and it's ground state of being you must talk about the traffic and the differences between the roads and the alleys.

All the roads, are always busy, very busy and given that there are almost NO private cars, (apparently they are subject to 200% sales tax, (someone please correct this if I'm wrong)), busy with mopeds, bikes, buses, lorries and the occasional taxi and car. The mopeds outnumber everything else by at least 10 to 1. This means that any road will have a constant stream of mopeds about 4 - 5 wide going in each direction at all times. There are traffic lights at all junctions, with pedestrian crossings and lights and these are obeyed by everyone; unless you are on a moped. Moped driving etiquette is also novel for a European in that if you want to turn left at the next junction it is fine to start crossing over the 4 lanes plus of mopeds coming the other way about 50 meters before the junction itself. It is also fairly standard if, for instance you emerge from a side ally wanting to head left and then turn left at the next junction to hug the pavement driving the wrong way up the road until you get to your turning.

Well, thinks you, not an issue as I'm a pedestrian so I can just stay on the pavement. Oh no you can't. Well not for more than about 6 paces anyway because then you will have to step around any or all of the following:-

• A broken manhole cover
• A pavement restaurant
• A bloke running a welding shop
• Another bloke running a key cutting stall
• Three women chatting
• Another woman calmly making a bonfire of money
• Another pavement restaurant
• Ten parked mopeds
• A pavement bar (see previous note on the price of beer!)
• Someone making a very good fake of the Mona Lisa - or any other old master you fancy
• Two women doing embroidery
• Two cages of chickens and one of turkeys
• A large pile of building materials waiting to be moved up an alley
• Half the stock from a clothes shop on display to attract passing trade
• A third pavement restaurant

Walking around all of this lot will have got you from the alley where you are staying to the first major junction where you have to make a decision - do you cross the road! I would not be surprise if significant numbers of Europeans just walk round the block back to where they started from and cower. If you walk across the road bear in mind that traffic will always a) go around you, front or back, as you cross and b) be coming from both directions and diagonally at once, or from above if they really want to impress.

Our guide, Phuong crossed the road with a sort of shooing chickens sort of maneuver as she wandered, seemingly unaware, from where she was to where she wanted to be. It seemed to work so we followed her like sheep. It is incredible how quickly this becomes normal, Liza was happily taking the lead within the day.

There must be a mess of accidents in all this you'd think and yes, you would be right. I saw 3 in our two days there, although I don't think anyone was injured beyond a graze. One bump that resulted in the moped going from down in the road to being in a repair shop (probably conveniently situated on an especially dangerous corner) in under a minute did make me smile - oh for service like that!! My thoughts would be that there are a number of serious ones daily. We were told that helmets became compulsory about two years ago for moped riders, this seems to be obeyed by about 90% of adults and disobeyed by about 95% of children. I'm still looking to see if I can spot 6 people on one moped, my current record is 5.

Alleys are however very different in that they are cool, shady and quiet, unfortunately most of them are also dead ends, and there is no map to tell you which can be walked through rather than down. The address of Mike's house is 149 Lê Duẩn, and give this to a taxi driver and you get to exactly the right place however this will in no way get you to Mikes house as 149 Lê Duẩn has  A alley, B alley and C alley, each of which are about 150m long with entrances to houses on each side. They are so different from the streets so they show almost a different city. One that is cool, quiet, children playing, open doors (well you get that on the roads but every open door on the road is a shop of some shape form or descriptions) flowers and plants often line each side, caged birds bought for their song can be found on hooks in the walls and the noise of the road just recedes. Our room in Hanoi, was at night almost silent; quite a contrast from our London home.