Being the capital of Vietnam, I had expected Hanoi to be filled with towering skyscrapers across the landscape but what I saw when the plane cut across the layer of thick cloud was expansive, agricultural land dotted with villages and towns.
To be fair, the airport was not exactly within the city centre and required at least 40-minute car ride. Nevertheless, looking at the land from high above was still an amazing as it reminded me of a miniature diorama.
Assuming this was a hypermarket, which would have been common as a large commercial space serving villages / towns within a sphere of more than 50 kilometers; a closer look revealed the key word. Toyato.
Next door neighbor was Honda! That explained why the cars at the car park were all lined up so nicely, and segregated by colors. Guess the region concentrated on the automotive industry.
Coming from a city that's also a country, it came as a shock when I realized that families would bury their loved ones within their own farmland. In Singapore, it would always be cemeteries or columbarium. Such scenes were common in China too.
Departing from Hanoi; the sky was still cloudy and gloomy although towards the last few days of our journey, the temperature hovered almost towards the 30 degrees Celsius. We missed the first day in Hanoi, when it was a cool 20 degrees Celsius.
Sun was out; reminding us that we would be going back to Singapore where the sun would always shine upon us. Interestingly, Singaporeans are one of the world's greatest lovers for air-conditioning. So much for being an island state with plenty of sun.
Hanoi getting out of sight; it was with a heavy heart as this meant that my vacation was ending. On a positive note; the longer I stay away from work, the more emails I have to respond to when I am back. Sad life but no choice given that we need money to survive in our little red dot.
Going into the thick layer of cloud that literally stayed permanently above the city almost throughout my seven-day visit; allowing only the sun to peek through in the last two days.
Finally the blue skies! Do you know we have not had a single glimpse of the blue, blue sky ever since we landed in Hanoi seven days ago!?!
Let's check out the time-lapsed video!
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