Hanoi farewell

All things must pass. As we near the end of our visit to Vietnam these are some of the things I will miss...excersizing with thousands of Hanoians each sunrise at Huan Kiem Lake, custard apples, a knobby pale green apple that tastes like vanilla custard, the tart taste of warm passion fruit, the early morning  public service announcements of the 'party' that blare through the streets, the music of the dan bao, singing harmony in vietnamese in the karaoke bar, the villagers who, despite often desperate conditions,  laugh and smile broadly given the flimsiest provocation, the little kids practising their english with us, air filled with incense, burning temple money, motorcycle traffic that rivals the tour de france, cafe sau da, a deep, rich coffee sweetened with condensed milk best enjoyed at the 'secret' cafe, hanoi taxi drivers who have proved the expanding theory of the universe as each cab ride to the same destination becomes longer and consequently more expensive, the scent of flowers in the air in the evening, the joyous chaos of the farmers market, chillis so hot they make you rethink the value of tastebuds, the eeriness of the unlit streets late at night, the eel and fish mongers at sunrise, baguette sellers offering bread as light and warm as your first kiss, the old ladies haunched on the sidewalk tending to their cooking pots, (its amazing how cheaply you can get pig intestines here) the sound of the paddle piercing the south China Sea as we kayaked at dusk, and the people, mostly the people, like Diep and Hai and Hien and Mr T and so many others who, simply by their warmth and manner, give you a reason to find your way back.
Vietnam, she is beautiful, frustrating, unexpected, intense, she can stir your heart and kick you in the head, often at the same time. She can be demanding, she is sweet, and she is changing fast.
I hope we will still recognise each other when I come back.