On the backyards of our home in Ha Noi

In Finnish

After living some time in our new home in september 2000, we decided to take one saturday ourselves to explore all the small alleys that we can see from our apartment. It is a different world and at first thought you might even get lost there.

The first picture is our own road and if you look carefully, you can see our white building at the close to the right top end of the picture. The following is already a bit more narrow, which also means less traffic, which is good new for the pedestrian.

As we walked further we found ourselves in a maze, where you really walked on narrow alleys. You have to try very hard to keep a track, where you are going. After a good time, we managed to get to an alley, from where we could spot our house and apartment. In the left picture below you can see our balcony in close up and in the following is the view as it looks from the alley.

We managed also fin the Temple (Chua) that can be seen from the balcony. And we did not have to make too many U-turns, only three. The temples have traditional Vienamese scripting (nom) that are similar to Chinese characters as an heritage from the long Chinese rule. The current high literacy rate has much to thank the roman letters used today, that are much more easier to be learned

There is also a river flowing near by, but to us coming from Finland, it looks more a channel. Furthermore, the solid and liquid waste management is not yet on the international level. But there are, especially by Japanese, plans to make Ha Noi rivers and lakes to sources of refreshment, once again.

The right picture above shows the Rose Garden Towers from the side of our friends, the Mellin family. Hannu, Tuula, Mio and Mikaela live in the 15th, second highest floor and their balcony is on the right side.

This short reflection of our trip is ended in showing the definitively most enjoyable ride in Ha Noi. The Xich lo (pronounced siklo) is surprising comfortable and inexpensive, if you know how to bargain. For a first comer it can be a hair rising experience to move in the chaotic looking traffic.

You are sure that you are going to hit by the encountering car, motorbike or whatever and in the last moment (you think) there is enough deviation with the courses and you are safe. The second good thing is that the Xich los in Ha Noi can accommodate two persons and you do nor have to worry about your partner.