still moving

I'm not writing a travel guide here, but we stayed in a pretty nice little guest house in Ho Chi Minh City. "Giang and Son Guesthouse" was inexpensive, and we got a small but impeccably clean room with a window over the backstreet, an air conditioner (much appreciated when making the transition from -10c Vancouver to 35c Ho Chi Minh City), and a simple breakfast. It is located just steps from the bustle of Pham Ngu Lao, but on a backstreet that isolates you from the constant noise. To top it off, the customer service was just phenomenal - helpful, friendly, ready to book you a taxi or a trip, but never trying to sell you on anything.

So, yeah, review over: It's a good place, I'd stay again.

After a couple of days of acclimation, we are catching a quick flight up to Hanoi, which is at the other end of the country. At least we thought it would be a quick flight, but keep in mind Vietnam is a long country, and it takes two hours on a 777 to connect the commercial capitol to the government Capitol (not including quality time spent in a bar-less domestic terminal). Like I said earlier, Vietnam is not a poor country, so mid-day domestic service between the two major cities is on wide-body airliner, although the one we were on was a little thread worn, from the broken seats to the excitingly oil-stained flight surfaces.

All's well that ends well.

We were whisked by taxi into Hanoi along new and expanded freeways, everywhere we looked there seemed to be a construction boom, from an expansive new airport terminal to a gigantic new multi-span cable-stayed roadway bridge crossing the Red River. Then we are dropped into the Old Quarter of Hanoi, where the streets are tight, the people are close, the bustle is more intimate. This is, after all, a 1000-year-old City

One interesting and recognizable aspect of Vietnamese urban form is a result of (of course) the tax regime. Rumour has it (and how would I confirm this?) that property taxes are based on not the size of your lot, but by the length of your frontage. The apparent result of this is long, thin lots, covered with long, thin buildings. I have no idea how airspace or massing works here, but It is remarkably common to see a 7-story building so narrow that you might touch both outside walls with outstretched hands.

Our hotel in Hanoi is a less-extreme example of the kind. we are staying on the top floor (6th in the European sense, in that the 1st is above the ground floor), and our room takes up the entire width of the building... all of about 12 feet. With a 4- foot square staircase, there's s clearly no room for an elevator, so we walked the 7 stories. Not sure what happens in case of fire...

Tonight we ate pho.

...and I got to sample beers good:

... and not so good:

Live and learn. Has there ever been a good beer served in green glass?

 

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