Hoan Kiem Lake In Hanoi

Hanoi has many great features, but by far for me my favorite has to be Hoan Kiem lake and the park around it. It’s great to be there any time of day but the early mornings are the best. It’s not just me who says it. Literally thousand of people vote with their feet (and their hands and their badminton racquets and their flags and their loudspeakers for aerobics) each morning to make it the best. This post is a collection of photos and paragraphs describing some of what goes on around the lake, as well as these first couple of paragraphs about running here.

Most mornings I’ve been lucky enough to start off with a run around the lake, joining the hundreds of other runners (whose faces are now beginning to look familiar). There is no single group to categorize them into except runners. There are old people, young people, rich people, poor people, girls, boys, women, men, some fairly overweight most relatively slim. Runners in fancy running shoes and runners without shoes. Runners with fancy running gear and others with dirty shorts and t-shirts. And a first for me in Asia: runners who are shirtless (this is the first time I’ve ever been shirtless in public in Asia except when I’ve been at the beach!).

Running the first couple of days was a bit rough, because of the heat and humidity. But it’s considerably cooler (i.e. less warm) in the early AM than late in the day (yesterday the temp was about 80 in the morning and reached over 100 by 2 PM), so after a couple of days of adjustment here the mornings actually DO feel cooler. And I think that all the activity going on in the morning at the lake also make it a bit easier to run. Sort of like people-watching for non-couch potatoes.

In addition to running there are lots of other things related to physical activity going on at the lake. I mentioned badminton and aerobics. There are three different regular aerobics classes that go on in different parts of the park in the AM ( and there are others that go on at night (see video clip of nighttime aerobics (here, ) These classes are great. In addition to the fairly large groups gathered around the instructors there are people (all women) who hang out within earshot of the music and simply do all the routines, following the instructor and group from afar. The photo above includes 3 of those "lurkers". It's easy to see why they would choose to lurk away from the main class, given the setting they chose. And these classes go on for hours! I’ve been there at 5:30 in the AM and 7:30 in the AM and they have been going on the entire time. Of course I did see one class where the instructor simply called out the instructions but did not participate herself. Judging from her less than perfect shape I would guess that as a general rule she’s not someone who believes in teaching by example.

There are several activities I don’t even know the names of, one of which I’ve got photos of (above). In this particular activity each person maneuvers, tosses and balances a single ball on a small racket, but each person in the group does the same thing in synchrony with the rest of the group.
There is also tai chi, (four different regular groups) and this morning for the first time I saw that people had moved some weight benches and free weights out and were using them. Hackey sacks were in evidence, as were soccer balls. In addition i saw a juggler, shadow boxers, people skipping rope, practicing yoga, cycling, and even courting. I guess hormones never sleep or there really ARE some young people who are morning people because even at 7 AM in the morning that particular activity ranked near the top in popularity. No photos of that here. Looks pretty much the same in any culture....

The entrepreneurial nature of the Vietnamese was in evidence all over the park. There were little stands where people were selling nutrition drinks, paper fans for cooling off, and someone was even selling shorts and t-shirts, I guess in case someone left the house and had forgotten theirs. But my favorite was a little old lady with a bathroom scale who will weigh you for a small fee. And if after a workout and weighing yourself you decided that you really could eat today there are vendors there to tempt you with whatever you might need to make breakfast. There are even flowers to brighten a table. About the only things I didn’t see for sale were diamonds and other precious stones.

One noteworthy absence—animals! I think I’ve seen two dogs in the park in all the days I’ve run there. But it’s not just dogs one doesn’t see. There aren’t any birds either, Also no insects--well, very few of them. And perhaps things have changed throughout SE Asia since I was last here in the early 90’s but even in the centers of other major cities I would occasionally see beasts of burden ( oxen, horses, donkeys, water buffalo); I’ve seen none of them here.