A relaxing walk around the lake is what we need. Ah it's Hanoi 2024! We last visited 24 years ago! The war was still fresh in everyone's mind and while most people were welcoming there was often more than a flash of suspicion from others. I remember the walk around the lake being a peaceful experience. Not today!
It was a tourist trap of swarming fan sellers! It was still beautiful if a little ravaged from the very recent typhoon, Fallen trees everywhere and muddy lake waters, teeming with fish.
We cooled down with a gin and tonic and half an hour of people watching. The best entertainment ever!
We were so lucky to make this trip... the airport only opened the day before we arrived and the evidence of the typhoon everywhere. We weren't sure if the road would be opened to travel to Ha Long Bay but hey, it was, and the sun shone.
It was sad on the journey up to the Bay to see how hard some communities had been hit. Mainly poor farmers had lost their shacks, although houses had lost their roofs, huge advertising billboards had been toppled and some bridges damaged.
The army and teams of young people were starting to saw the fallen trees and collect the debris. Trucks trawled the streets hauling the huge trees and branches away from the crowded streets.
And so finally to Ha Long Bay!
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