Night Market Night

About last night's evening.  It was great.  Unfortunately, between poor lighting after dark and not wanting to be rude to my hostess, I only have a couple of pics to share.  I'll make up for it next time.

As for the night, just as I suspected, Ms Hang pulled up in front of the hotel on her red scooter at 6pm with extra helmet in hand and said "hop on".  Of course, I'm probably twice her size, so I might as well have been a big ole Tet tree strapped on her back.  I kinda felt like I was on the back of a 6 year old's bike as she first learned how to ride without training wheels, so it was touch and go to start.   Fortunately there were only a handful of life-threatening moments on the trip downtown and we definitely had the advantage of both size and bulk versus our fellow "scooterers" (cars and buses, not so much). 

(I should add that Ms Hang is a very attractive, mid-30s native of Vietnam who spent four years in London and a year in Boston recently.  She has an amazing British Vietnamese accent and, she told me, is considered far too cosmopolitan (read: different) for most of the locals so is hopelessly single, she says). 

We arrived downtown and pulled up to our "Scooter Valet" where we paid all of 25 cents to have her bike parked while we decided to walk around Hoan Kiem Lake in Central Hanoi.  It's "the" lake in Hanoi and marks the center of town.  There's an ancient pagoda in the center and it's also home to a giant lucky legendary old tortoise (or, as they recently suggested, more than one) who recently made the New York Times due to its elusiveness (they made several unsuccessful attempts to catch it for medical care before finally succeeding a few weeks ago).

Afterwards, we took our lives in our hands yet again as we walked across the main traffic circle to a restaurant overlooking it all.  

The chaos at the traffic circle is beyond belief.  Picture hundreds of scooters, dozens of cars, pedestrians, all converging on this spot simultaneously (note handy map below; traffic "circle" is to the left of the "A"), each going in a different direction, like three intersecting lines of marching ants, none yeilding to the other. 

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Anyhow, after dinner was the big event, Night Market on Hang Dao Street.  The ratio of streets to traffic in Hanoi is horrible, so they can't close the street during the day.  Instead, it's closed on Saturday and Sunday nights from 6-11pm, hence, "Night Market". 

Unfortunately, after spending 45 minutes of bumping into hundreds of other Vietnamese window shoppers last night, I'm sorry to report that aside from it's sheer size - it goes on and on and on for blocks - it's nothing but cheap, Chinese made schlock!  Of course, if anyone happens to be in need of label underwear (mens or womens), $1 leather belts or designer sunglasses, let me know, I can get 'em cheap!

All in all, it was a nice night out on the town.  And especially nice to spend time with one of the "locals".  Too often I'm reluctant to leave my comfort zone and don't venture too far out, so this was definitely good.