HANOI – winter 2015

The first morning the sun was lighting up my window. But when I looked outside something was clearly different from similar mornings three months ago. The girls sitting straight backed on their mopeds do not wear the usual T-shirt and wee little shorts, but padded coats and long trousers, and gloves—not to prevent darkening of their porcelain skin, but to keep warm.

To fully understand this we need to blank out the traditional belief that Vietnam is scorching heat with tropical downpours—images that linger from the 60s when the nightly news was saturated with GIs facing exactly those conditions. But that was of course in the country that was called South Vietnam, and the GIs never made it to the north.

Quite obviously, the north is different: four distinct seasons is one major difference. June, July, August and the first part of September are hot, with an average temperature of 32⁰C and heavy rains; December, January and February are cold, temperatures averaging 17⁰C; and the in-between months of spring and autumn are, temperature-wise, exactly that—in-between. The Hanoi tourist office suggests that autumn is the most beautiful and romantic time to visit Hanoi (September up to mid-November) with temperatures averaging 25⁰C due to warm sunlight and a cooling breeze.

Apparently that advice has not been heard far and wide. Now, December and almost Christmas, the old town is flooded with tourists. While the local inhabitants wear winter clothes, the tourists, and in particular the westerners, are dressed for summer. As the Hanoi winter temperatures are similar to cool summer days in western Europe and America, that is unsurprising. 

Looking at my recently downloaded tourist map to get an idea where to go next, it suddenly struck me that the Red River, on the southern shore of which Hanoi is located, is hardly ever incorporated in the tourist routes and objects. So I set out to explore the Red River to find out why.

What I hadn't realised is that this section of Hanoi bordering the river, that is the area between the two bridges, had streets outlined but without names, obviously the map is only meant for tourists visiting Hanoi's old town. And thus, I soon found out, tourists are a rarity in that section. I was looked over, and a few schoolkids even tried out their English on me… hello, how are you…! something that simply does not happen in the old town.

The area was difficult to access. An elevated road (built on a dike that protects the old town from the flash floods for which the Red River is famous) separates the two parts of town. On the old town side, the dike is adorned with the mosaic-murals that I have written about in a previous post.

After having traversed the dike I found myself at the entrance of the immense distributors' wet-market. It is not marked on the map, not for tourists, as it is muddy and smelly. And at the other end only a few alleyways (but indicated on the map as roads of the same width as those in the old town…) leading, I assumed, in the general direction of the river. After a few wrong turns and dead-ends I spotted a sign for the Riverview Hotel which led me to the river floodplain, an area that is heavily cultivated: I spotted wild growth and horticultural plots. The river was apparently a few hundred metres farther, but as far as I could see, beyond my reach.