Back to Hanoi

After spending 8 or 9 days in Saigon I felt it was necessary to return to Hanoi and contrast the difference between the two cities.  Saigon is the economic powerhouse of Vietnam and you can really tell; stores and shops everywhere with neon signs and flash and chain store names, big towers and fancy malls.  Hanoi on the other hand, and according to the locals, is more about family values and less about making money.  You really don't see much flash and glitter in Hanoi. 

As an example in Saigon if you want to go out for ice cream it won't take long before you can find a trendy or chain ice cream place.  You can spend a lot of money on ice cream in Saigon.  In Hanoi I couldn't seem to find any ice cream places except for the place near the lake which mainly sells 50 cent ice cream bars.  In fact after Saigon, Hanoi seemed downright underprivileged when it came to places to spend your cash.  

So I didn't spend enough time in either place to make any type of judgment except to say that the people in both cities seem pretty friendly.

Back on a plane again.....back to Hanoi

Just some random pictures of the city

You never have to wait for a traffic light in order to cross the street

Saigon has a few....but there are no Starbucks yet in Hanoi

Had to face my worst nightmare in an emergency situation.  Not sure why there are no handles on the wall???

Of course you have to have fish soup from a street vendor in Hanoi

Pretty nice view from my downtown hotel room.  I'll never have this in Paris....

He's smiling for a good reason but I can't mention why ;)

This lunch and the one below are $2. 

That is the street below my hotel room.  A wonderful quiet street to hang out on....

Glad I came back to Hanoi for a second visit?  Perhaps not a good idea for the budget traveler to be flying around so much and seeing the same places two times...but you always get something new the second time around.  It also gave me a chance to go see the beautiful rice terraces in Sapa.