maurizio caduto V i e t n a m

Hanoi - 2

The Chinese New Year is a big celebration for everybody but chickens. If you were a chicken you wouldn't want to be in Vietnam at that time. Starting few days before Hanoi becomes an open air butchery; cages are everywhere, full of chickens screaming like hell. You can buy them alive and bring them home on your bicycle or have them killed on the spot. Very well organized. You choose, they grab the lucky one, snap! and the neck is gone and off it goes to the next person who cleans it up with hot water, opens and empties it quickly.

Vietnam sports very good cousine - their noodle soup is unbeatable and very cheap, even by Asian standards. Little restaurants and food stalls are everywhere and the meal is always tasty. In some areas you should be a bit careful with hygiene but over all it is fine. Just avoid ice at all costs. One little piece of advice, travel with your personal chopsticks; if there was one thing I found disgusting was the look of the sticks you would find in certain restaurants.

Some little restaurants in the old center of Hanoi are popular with tourists but I would give a try to those less fancy and favoured by locals; the feeling is more authentic and if you like mixing with locals that's a great opportunity to see what they eat and how. In HCMC you will find many western reastaurants too. Some of them are located in very beautiful colonial houses.

Bad idea being a chicken in Vietnam, isn't it? Now see what it looks like to be a buffalo in Sulawesi.

The buffalo's point of viewc