Horses and fat aunts

The last post was a bit of a diversion, but should not be taken to mean that I am getting bored of noodles/children/motorbikes, only writing about them. Now I will go back to writing about Hanoi.

I just had the most awesome run through some of the countryside on the outskirts of Hanoi. I've been running with this group called the Red River Runners, and so they know some of the more picturesque routes and I can follow them all over (even though they're all faster than me).

We start from a big ugly expat community called Ciputra (bleh), and then go along the motorway for a bit (bleh), but after that we go through some little windy back streets with children playing and getting very excited when we run past. You have to jump over big piles of bricks and occasionally the aforementioned children.

a bit like this

Then we go past some farms, where there are actually green things and fresh air and no motorbike horns. Then today, four of us went down to a 'beach' on the banks of the river. It was starting to get dusky at this point, so imagine big pink skies and orange water. It actually felt a bit like Witterings, except usually at Witterings there are not ladies in wedding dresses having their photos taken. (N.B. wedding photos here are definitely a bigger deal than actual weddings.) We were going to go back the way we came, but ended up exploring across the sand dunes to find a different route - there were randomly little ponies tied up in the middle of nowhere. Maybe you can ride them, that would be cool. There were also some cows; don't know if you can ride them, I would like to try though.

this is the picture that came up on Google Images when I tried to find a picture of the Red River...it is the right river I think.

Still going along the banks of the river, we went through this pottery village. Basically there are just loads of pots. It's more exciting than B+Q though because this ramshackle little village has grown up on the banks of the river to sell the pots, so more windy unmade streets and dogs and women barbecuing bun cha outside their house.

this is pork being barbecued for bun cha, a kind of grilled pork noodle soup thing

Shortly after the pottery village is the graveyard. On one side are a few big tombs. This is where bodies are buried right after they die; they're here for about three years, before being exhumed. The bones are cleaned, and then re-buried in the graveyard on the other side. Some important religious person has to arrange the bones in the right way, according to the alignment of the stars and planets at that time. Adele, who I was running with, was telling me her cook had to go to the exhumation ceremony thing of her aunt, except her aunt had had to be buried in the primary graveyard for five years instead of three, because she was so fat and took longer to rot.

secondary graveyard is a bit like this

After the graveyard is the flower market, and then a main road, along the banks of West Lake, and back into Ciputra where we go for beer, or in my case about 20 pints of water. I felt like Elsa when she gets back from a run, and slurps all the water from her bowl like a maniac. In total today I ran about 17.5km, which my legs will now attest is a pretty long way, although it didn't feel like it at the time because we were exploring all over and there was so much to see. Whether or not I will still be able to walk when I get up from this computer is yet to be seen.


I hope this has been an adequately Hanoi-centred post, as requested. Now I have to go and retrieve my motorbike from the other end of the city...damn....