Without an H

In my last post, I wrote about the winter sun in Hanoi. That sun has promptly been replaced with grey sky and drizzle. Hanoi does this to you; just when you’re feeling comfortable and at ease with the place, it does something to remind you who’s boss. Just to prove to myself that it wasn’t all a dream, I’m posting some more pictures taken in the December and January sunshine.

We love to moan about the weather in Hanoi. The English national obsession with the climate is perfectly at home here in northern Vietnam. Most of all, we love to moan about the Hanoi winter. Grizzled expats spend the summer months regaling newcomers with tales of the horrors that await them: the cold, the drizzle, the damp, the fog, the greyness, the mould. Oh God, the mould. My Vietnamese students, meanwhile, bring out their hats, coats and scarves as soon as the temperature drops below 25. “But this is like summer in England,” I tell them. Amidst all this bellyaching, we tend to forget the dry, bright, crisp winter days of December and (fingers crossed) January.

I like the changing of the seasons. Changes in the weather mark the passage of time, punctuating the year. In 2012, I lived in Ho Chi Minh City, where it’s always hot, and I missed the passing of the seasons. In my memory, that year in the south feels like one long indistinct stretch of time, with little to distinguish one month from another. Here in Hanoi, for a few months of the year, I get to swap my shorts and t-shirts for jeans and jacket, escape from air-conditioning, and feel that time is moving on.

These winter days are perfect for taking street portraits in the weak sunshine or under the high white cloud. These pictures, taken over the last two or three weeks, are my tribute to the Hanoi winter.

(Disclaimer: the author reserves the right to whine and carp, at length, about the weather when the damp and the mould kick in.)

I’m always on the look-out for people in the shadows of the alleys and doorways of the city. I really like the natural contrast that occurs as the natural light fades away in the background.

These three old boys were hanging out at a little tea stall outside an almost abandoned pagoda near Truc Bach lake this afternoon.

If a place can have a signature colour, then Hanoi’s would be this shade of yellow, which can be seen on walls throughout the city.

Autumn is my favourite time of year in Hanoi. The temperature is mild, the humidity bearable and the light soft and even.

A few more photographs taken in Hanoi over the last few weeks.