Winter time in Hanoi and Halong Bay

Hanoi and North Vietnam really was like a little winter for us. Temperatures around 15°C during the day without a sign a sun. The way the locals dress, and some obvious signs of French Colonial influence, made us feel a bit like in Paris.

Our neighbourhood in Hanoi, near the Cathedral

Locals enjoying a drink in sidewalk cafes, in the cold evening

Some places Really make you feel like in Paris...

A lot of restaurants here don't make too much effort on the presentation to the outside. For instance, this restaurant "Gecko" below, really looked bad from the street, yet we went it to check it out. It happened to be the coziest place we'd been in Hanoi and became our favourite spot.

During the couple of days we were here, we explored the little streets of the old town and its typical chaos.

Very often it seems that Vietnamese cannot walk 10m
and that they're stuck to their motorbikes.
So even in the most "pedestrian" street market you can imagine,
they drive through the alleys to buy their fresh veg...

This is the typical "tourist" picture. A street seller puts this on your shoulder
before you can even say no. Of course, they say it's free and then try to
sell you 1 pineapple for 5 USD... Bargaining it down to 1 USD (its actual price)
is VERY hard work...

Here's the weirdest unidentified fruit we found in the market.
It looked too weird so we didnt try this one

Railway in town

Old railway bridge designed by Eiffel at the end of the 19th Century.

you'll surely recognize the obvious influence of this street sign for new years...

We then went to the typical 2 day trip to Halong bay. Obviously, since it was winter and foggy, it wasnt the best season but the boat was full of latin americans, and we really had a good time, specially in the Karaoke evening on the boat.

Floating village in Halong Bay

David