Bloody beautiful

The unsettling quaintness of Luang Prabang forced us to scratch around for it's gritty side. On the contrary Hanoi at first slams you with it's ugly, dirty self. It's hard to see past it when it's coming at you, at great speed, from every direction. Sure, there are small glimpses of buildings with French facades and paint chipped wooden shutters but the beauty of this place is in its belly. It's often not seen so much as tasted and smelt. The magnificence of this place is found in its food and not only that but it's passion and obsession with food and eating. How could we not love a place with food stalls at every turn. Literally. Food also appears before you in bamboo baskets hanging heavily on arching bamboo poles being bounced along by a tiny street vendor.
As I write I am sitting in a smokey coffee shop sipping thick, almost grainy coffee sweetened with the perfect amount of sweetened condensed milk. Beautiful. The matriarch of the place just scuffed through in her plastic flips flops, openly looking me up and down with an expression that I could not distinguish between disgust, warmth or indifference. She sat in one of the diminutive plastic chairs, next to her on a small box was a large, bulging wad of cash held together with an elastic band and in the box slept two pet chihuahuas. The table in front of her has now been filled with bowls of steaming food which she shares with her daughter and granddaughters who run the shop. They come and go fluidly, gossiping and eating and breezing out again. Beautiful.
To get under the city's skin a little more we did a street food tour last night with an Aussie guy, Mark, who lives here and writes a fantastic food blog called Stickyrice. He unveiled some more culinary delights, twisting and turning through small dark alleyways introducing new and amazing morsels at every turn. Beautiful.
This afternoon we spent time with a couple of local uni students. An organization called Hanoikids coordinates free tours to give students the opportunity to practice their English and allow guests to meet locals and get a look about. Two gorgeous twenty year olds turned up to pick us up and the first thing we wanted to do was eat. Mark had told us where to get a special rice flour pancake we love so we asked them if we could make that our first destination. It took some convincing to get them to take us to an alleyway rather than a well known tourist restaurant but eventually they happily obliged. They weren't one hundred percent sure about how to get to the exact spot but Leo and I recognized where we had been last night and to their amazement we ended up leading them to the spot. We waved to vendors whose stalls we had eaten at with Mark last night and they gave us surprised but cheerful greetings. The pancakes were worth the search. Again, we crouched on our low stools, wrapped the crispy pancake full of sprouts and prawns and minced beef into a thin piece of rice paper with herbs and greens and dipped it into a sweet, spicy dipping sauce. Beautiful. The museum of Ethnology that they took us to was really interesting but the definite highlight of the afternoon was sitting in the street with them, sharing food and exchanging stories.
Amazingly today we ran into some friends who live in Bali. It's their first night in Hanoi and we were able to take them on our own street food tour visiting all the favorite places we have eaten so far. First stop cha ca fish. Beautiful. Then a stroll to creme caramel. Beautiful. Finish off at a cafe (with Alice in Wonderland ceilings so low even a ten year old had to bend down) that sells amazing homemade frozen yoghurt with a shot of coffee or chocolate or passionfruit. Sounds weird but got us back a second night in a row. Walking the streets, catching up with friends, knowing some of the best eating spots in town and being greeted like regulars when we arrive. Bloody beautiful.
It's a mad, dirty, beautiful, delicious place and we love it to the moon and back.