"In the begining" a Hanoi Travel Page by JonnyVN

Send Photo to a Friend

Lunch

14 years on

I arrived in Hanoi 1994 on a seven day contract to design a newspaper for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after the busle of Hong Kong for 9 years, I immediately fell in love with the place. Stayed there 6 years before moving down to Saigon.
The city was very different then, only about 3 western hangouts in town, and they were pretty basic, the streets were much quieter, and the people more inquisitive about foreigners. Work was easy, mainly due to the regular power cuts then which would last most of the day, we would all retire to a Bai Hoi round the corner.
Expat life was very close knit, everyone knew everyone, well except the French who kept to themselves, this was mainly due to the lack of bars to go to so Saturday night down the pear tree was filled with familiar faces.

Hanoi is a beautifull city, to some extent more beautiful now than it was 12 years ago due to the renovation of most of the old colonial villas. A few got knocked down, the saddest loss being the russian market on the lake which is now a very ugly shopping mall.
It's a small city, I love walking the streets on cool autumn days, something I don't get to do down in Saigon.

Send Photo to a Friend

Filming for buffallo tours

Ha Long

No trip to Hanoi is complete without a night in Ha Long Bay. Once your on the boat just sit back with an ice cold Halida and watch the view, eat great seafood, swim and kayake through the tunnels. At night after big meal we hiked the lights on and did a bit on squid fishing, drank more halida, great fun.