Between October 1st and October 10th a huge birthday party will take place in Hanoi as Hanoi or Thang Long as it was called when it was established has it’s 1,000 year birthday. Most streets in the city center and close to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum will be closed for traffic and there will be non-stop party, performances and fireworks for ten full days.
In short, a huge party and chaos in the traffic
I’ve included an image of Hanoi from my balcony. Is it the calm before the storm?
Hanoi Just Before The Birthday Party Starts
The lake with the small boats is called Truc Bach lake and this is the lake where senator John McCain was shot down during the Vietnam war. The lake in the distance is the East West Lake or Tay Ho in Vietnamese.
Coming home from work, just a couple of minutes from my home i noticed this hot air balloon.
I quickly went home, fetched the camera and quickly walked back to the balloon. Of course i forgot take a memory card so i had to go home again (very, very annoying). Nearly running i got back in time to take this photo hand held at 70mm.
Hot Air Balloon Pictures
The balloon is reflected in Truc Back lake which is near central Hanoi.
A lesson I learned and would like to convey in this post is to trust your first instinct.
Me and my friend Stefan were in Hoi An in central Vietnam a few days ago and we passed a small ponds with some flowers. The flowers and the pond looked ordinary so I walked past the pond and the flowers. Something nagged me however so I walked back to the pond and quickly snapped a couple of close up images of one of the flowers. At first it looked like the image was over exposed when i looked in the LCD screen but I didn’t care, i just walked up to Stefan who waited for me.
Once i was back home in Hanoi I opened up the image in Photoshop CS and i was amazed by the colors. I’m no flower expert but i think it’s a water lily or a lotus flower.
Water Lily or Lotus Flower
So something that looked ordinary turned out to be so beautiful. I really love the colors that almost look like painted.
Close up of water lily or lotus flower
In this close up the colors are even more amazing and can you see the small fly in the image?
I had a pretty dramatic experience a couple of days ago when a cockfight almost went on in my knees. I was sitting in a park, drinking a lemon juice when i noticed a cock coming up close to me. Cool i thought, and grabbed my iPhone to take a picture.
Moments after i took the first picture another cock came from behind me and attacked the first cock. It took only about 10 seconds until the owners separated the cocks but it were some pretty intense seconds.
Hanoi is both a beautiful city but can also be perceived as chaotic at times, especially the traffic in Hanoi.
I’ve made this short video that takes you from my home at the beautiful Truc Bach lake which is where John McCain was shot down during the Vietnamese was, passing through the presidential palace and the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and finally arrived to the office in Dong Da district.
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