Around the Neighborhood

Photos mostly from Quang An neighborhood in Tay Ho. These pictures were taken within 2km of our apartment. We live in a nice neighborhood with a big lake that makes it cooler in many ways than other parts of the city.

Walking in Hanoi is not a spectator sport, there are no leisurely romantic walks in the evening. Josh and I still go for walks for the exercise and the lake is nice, don’t get me wrong, but, I need you to know that these photos are taken while standing in inches from chaos and a cacophony of horns and motorbike engines.

The sidewalks have broken bits, randomly end, get more and more narrow until it’s just a sliver of sidewalk, and feature obstacles like motorbikes, dog poop, tree wells, and 12 inch curbs. Often you have to walk in the street with other pedestrians, step over road kill rats, play chicken with old ladies on bicycles who go where they want, and be ok with being inches from motorbikes going the wrong way, motorbikes going the right way, trucks, buses, etc.

We live very close to a large lake often referred to as West Lake. Young couples love to cruise the streets around the lake, park and hang out. They may just sit by the lake, or stop by an open air cafe to get coconut ice cream in a coconut. Men love to hang out and fish and drink a cold beer.

There is one random goat who hangs out in the park

West Lake with a bridge to an out-of-business restaurant.

This street is closed on the weekend and families love to come and hang out in the community square.

Small alleys snake through the neighborhood. Some go through all the way, and some don’t. Look for the old lady on the bicycle turning into one for a hint that it goes all the way through.

A Couple Outdoor Cafe Options

Near our apartment is a row of shops that have astroturf flooring, lounge chairs, and copious amounts of coconuts and coconut ice cream. The matriarchs sit by the road and wave at the youth on motorbikes to pull over for a refreshment.

I’ve shown this cafe in another post, but I think it’s so cool. It is enormous with grassy fields forever that families and friends and lounge on outdoor rugs or bean bags while children run around playing. Hundreds of little solid wood tables offer unlimited seating options for catching up with a friend.

The first 2 photos are mine. The second two are from Google.

Abandoned Ideas

I am obsessed with the rusty abandoned restaurant cruise boats. They remind me of great ideas that inadvertently spew toxic waste and then are abandoned. Who’s job is it to remove them from the lake?

Sometimes in the morning, I see men fishing from them and I wonder how they got there.

You can see these photos plus a video of another restaurant cruise boat I took on the evening of the Mid-Autumn full moon.

Click Here for Facebook Video

Click through photos below to see video:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Casey Space (@caseyspace9)

Our neighborhood has a defunct theme park with a rusty broken down Ferris wheel. There are large wetlands with lotus growing around the park.

Truc Bach Lake aka John McCain Lake

I refer to it as John McCain lake because it is where he was either “rescued” or “captured” depending on the story.

Now you can rent a swan paddleboat or drink a coffee on a floating cafe on the lake.

The photo of the monument is not mine. “On 26 October 1967 near Truc Bach Lake in the capital, Hanoi, the citizens and military caught Pilot John Sidney McCain. The US Navy Air Force Aviator was flying aircraft A4, which crashed near Yen Phu power station. This was one of ten aircraft shot down that same day.”

Street Art

As I mentioned, walking requires your full attention. We have finally started to become comfortable enough to take some photos while walking around.

There are a lot more things I want to show, but just haven’t had time to take good photos because I’ve been subbing everyday at Josh’s school. I will probably do a ’round the ‘hood post part 2.