Ha Noi, Vietnam - City Vignettes



Above, in the early afternoon, a motor cyclist passes by a well maintained French styled colonial building in Ha Noi.  Below, the Presidential Suite at Hong Ngoc 2 Hotel in the Old Quarter.






Above, iced coffee, Viet fashioned, on small tables and with guests on low chairs, upstairs at a well patronised joint.
Below, buildings tend to have narrow fronts, long insides and border narrow streets  with overhead cables all over the place in the district known as 36 Streets or the Old Quarter, not far from Hoam Kien Lake.  The other major lake is the bigger West Lake, close to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and other government institutions.








Carved stone near the significant monument to a revered national figure, Ly Thai To, shows influences from China, Thailand and Cambodia, although all brought together with a niche Vietnamese feel (photo above).
Below, in a metropolis with at least 7 million people, Ha Noi's motor bikers are a varied lot- some with helmets, many using mobile phones whilst waiting at the set of lights, males observed also smoking whilst driving and some with covered mouth masks.





A placid and shady location (above)  with tourists strolling (below) along the shores of Hoam Kien Lake to survive the humidity of an early afternoon.  Ha Noi, sited in the north of Vietnam, does tend towards a more benign temperature in the winter  season of the northern hemisphere, especially when compared the country's tropical  south.






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