Getting Lost in Old Town Walking Tour

Managed to find the meeting point at "Alley 13" for our GuruWalk of the Hanoi Old Quarter. GuruWalk are "volunteers" that you pay a tip or requested amount to depending on how it goes. A delightful young woman named Huyen introduced herself to us and three other women; one of them from Regina who was travelling alone. Huyen was raised in Hanoi but now lives about an hour out of Hanoi. It took her 1 hour by "beep beep honk honk" motorcycle to get to us for the tour, she had another in the afternoon as it was her "day off" from her usual job working for a motorbike company. Her parents were born in the 60s and remember the bombs dropping of the American War, they continue to be worried about food insecurity to this day. She hopes to travel one day but indicates that you need to prove that you have enough wealth to return to Vietnam before you can get a passport. First stop: coffee in a historical family home. Of interest a temple is where ancestors are worshipped and typically there a small shrine in the home such as this one. Going to the pagoda to worship Buddah is not a daily activity for most. Next stop walking through the Old Quarter seeing various vendors. She had arranged special permission to walk though one of the alley's in the old neighbourhood. These small breaks between buildings connect people to their very modest homes granted to them by the government at the time of Vietnam's Independence in the 1954 (Geneva Agreement establishing North Vietnam). About 40 families access very small apartments with hardly any space between buildings, almost no light or ventilation. Both the water piping running along the floors and electrical cables are antiquated and there is significant fire hazard. The new generation is less and less wanting to live in such spaces. The actual land value now is very high ($40,000 USD/sq m) but the families are asset rich and cash poor so stuck. We walked on to view the train that the French built north to south and the bridge that it runs on that was bombed and sort of rebuilt after WWII. Motorbikes and pedestrians only and it definately shakes when you stand on it. The train system has not been upgraded since when it was built; it is very slow and old. Long distance transport is by car with deluxe overnight sleeper coaches or plane.もっと詳しく