The Museum of Ethnology provided a glimpse at the 54 different ethnic groups that live in Vietnam. Of these, the Viet people are the dominant group, comprising over 80% of the 91 million people in this country. The museum was of interest because it featured the Black Hmong, the Red Dao and the Dzay hill tribe ethnic groups that we would be visiting in Sapa. There were examples of costumes, housing, cooking implements, hunting weapons and items used in rituals, but the display I liked the most featured a bicycle laden with fishing traps.
After walking through the maze of streets that comprise the Old Quarter the previous day on the street food tour, it was a real treat to take a cyclo tour around the same streets in the afternoon of our second day in Hanoi. The rain brought out all the food smells and gave everything a fresher look. I surprised myself by recognising many of the places we’d visited earlier and even a few of the vendors I’d previously seen selling goods on the street. The guy peddling the bike took us at a very leisurely pace and it was a really enjoyable hour of taking in all the sights and sounds of the Old Quarter.
On The Road With Garry 