I walk around the city and I move very slowly. Everything attracts my eye, my nose my ears, my taste, my intellect.
I start with breakfast. A black coffee and a phô (soup) not without tasting my companion’s cà phê trứng (egg coffee). Hot, sweet, delicious.
Then, walk in the colonial city and in the district of the 36 corporations.
There are always prejudices when approaching a new country. So here are my first impressions.
-Hanoi is surprisingly clean for such a big city.
-People are smiling and helpful.
-The street vendors approach us very little and are not insistent. This is surprising considering the large number of tourists we encounter.
-Driving is totally anarchic but there are no incidents or accidents. Neither the lights, nor the stops, nor even the direction of traffic are respected by motorcycles and...not much more by automobiles. So it takes a lot of temerity to cross a crossroads on foot, but I got the trick...I cling to my companion who is bigger than me and we rush in, trusting the vehicles to avoid us while being aware of the two-wheeled wildlife that surrounds us. It must be said that Vietnam leaves a lot of room for personal responsibility. No mom ruler here.
-Despite the intensity of the traffic, our feeling is that it is a quiet, zen city, a completely different pace from the Colombia that I visited last winter.
While walking in the park, I meet a street vendor who offers me an unknown fruit.
I taste. Delicious. On my tongue it reminds me of a mixture of banana, pineapple and mango with a firmer texture
Google teaches me the name, it is a jackfruit.
crédit: Carbifruits
There is also this elderly couple who enchants my ears...
I end the afternoon of my first day by leaving a note for posterity in a cafe adorned with thousands of words...for posterity.
