There are times though that the road looks like this, motorcycles at a near standstill and bumper to bumper. There is no rhyme or reason to where these traffic jams occur as it they never happen in the same place twice. My hypothesis is idiot drivers in cars are doing stupid things and blocking the road, but that's just my opinion as a motorcyclist. I'm sure the people in cars hate the moto's just as much as we dislike them, but I digress. These jams are actually a potential source of injury. One day on my way to class the side of my foot was cut up pretty good when a moto got too close to mine and my massive foot, which sticks out pretty far, sliced against some metal on the other bike.
Despite the potential danger to myself, I find riding a lot of fun. The bridge in the first picture is the Cuong Duong bridge and is the one that I drive over everyday. I live in the suburbs on the far side of the Red River, and so I have to commute to downtown and beyond everyday. In the distance of the second picture you can see Eiffel's (The same one as the tower) Long Bien Bridge. It's in pretty bad shape and is the bridge you have to use if you are riding a bicycle. Its for cyclists, both moto and bi, and for trains. You can also see one of the biggest islands in the Red River in Ha Noi. It's used for farmland, which seems odd to me seeings though right beside it is downtown Ha Noi. It makes sense when you think about the fact that there is really no central planning in Ha Noi, you just sort of build whatever you want wherever you want.
The building in the third picture is of the Ha Noi Opera House. Apparently it is a copy and paste job of a famous opera house in Paris. I have never been inside it, but I see it all the time as it sits on the corner of one of the biggest crossroads in Ha Noi. The buildings here in Hanoi are interesting because every once in a while you run across an old French building from the colonial period, or an old Soviet-style building from the 70's and 80's, or even an old Vietnamese pagoda/temple/compound. The city has grown rapidly in the last 200 years or so, and it has engulfed many buildings and places that were formerly standing by itself. It becomes almost a game to spot these places in amongst the bland multi-story places that make up most of the buildings here in Ha Noi.
Vietnamese classes are almost done, with only two weeks or so left. One class we were learning about road names, how to direct people to a destination, what vehicles are called, etc. when we got to a page on road control signs like stop signs, one way and wrong way. I jokingly told the teacher that we didn't need to know this because nobody in Vietnam followed the signs. She agreed with me and we moved on. I still don't know what the signs are and it really doesn't matter. I regularly go the wrong way on a one way street to get to school.
My birthday was a week and a bit ago on the 2nd and was really interesting. Prior to the day I was taken by my supervisor at The Gioi to go get a birthday gift. He took me to a shirt shop and got two new dress shirts for my birthday. I thought that this was an anomaly, but on my birthday I received another new dress shirt. Apparently that's what you get for your birthday, along with flowers. Another Vietnamese tradition is going out for Buffet to celebrate. It was a big, long meal that left me full for days, but it was really fun. My youngest host brother also has the same birthday as myself, except that he is five years younger, and so a bunch of his friends were there as well.
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