Does it get cold in Hanoi ?

[Stig / Major Tom]

I was riding along in the dark recently and thinking about how cold it was - and wondered how these Piaggio scooter panels fare so well when they are coming from a factory in Vinh Phúc province, just outside Hanoi, Vietnam.

I once visited Vietnam's central highlands for an extended outing - and to this day I swear that, one morning, I saw that a thin film of ice had formed on a puddle next to the puddle I was sleeping in. None of my camp mates believed my story - as they were occupied with other matters.
Still, wonder how cold it gets up there, around the Hilton, in Hanoi?

Stig

[randyo]

Hanoi is the same latitude as Cuba

[Stig / Major Tom]

Hanoi is the same latitude as Cuba

I didn't realize I was south of Cuba during my visit....
Well, my shorts did.
Interesting.
Stig

[Kansas kymco]

Right now 6am Tuesday in Hanoi it's 66F .  Googled how cold does Hanoi get, on average 15C (59F) during winter although it's got as cold as 10C (50F).

[Iahawk]

wow, you guys just sent me on a 2 hour search down the rabbit hole...mentioning the temp in Hanoi got me thinking about Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) and the US Embassy there made 'famous' during the '68 TET offensive. A lot of internet reading later...tells me that the Embassy building was new for '68 and obviously abandoned in April of '75..it later became the headquarters for the State run Vietnamese National Petroleum company...then was left abandoned for years.

When diplomatic ties were reestablished in '95 the Embassy and land were given back to the US and the decision was made to condemn the building and demolish it, which happened in '98. A new Consulate (Embassy was now in Hanoi) was built on the site near the original embassy but the original perimeter wall and the iconic round stone planters (site of VC shooters and deaths) are still there. The site of the old embassy buildings are now park space next to the new consulate. Interesting reading about the last days before the fall of South Vietnam...

[Iahawk]

3 follow up pics...US Embassy in '68 after TET, Embassy prior to demolition in '98 and a (somewhat recent) picture of the consulate grounds..

[CROSSBOLT]

Y'all need to jump over to advrider.com and check out ride reports of Vietnam. Guys ride the length of the country and take stunning pictures, enjoy great hospitality and amazingly good food.

[Stig / Major Tom]

Y'all need to jump over to advrider.com and check out ride reports of Vietnam. Guys ride the length of the country and take stunning pictures, enjoy great hospitality and amazingly good food.

Well, then there's the Top Gear boys riding the length of the country on their PTW's.



Once they got kitted with proper safety gear.....off they went.





Stig

[Neil955i]

Right now 6am Tuesday in Hanoi it's 66F .  Googled how cold does Hanoi get, on average 15C (59F) during winter although it's got as cold as 10C (50F).

Sounds like perfect scootering temperatures.  But then there's the rain...

[Neil955i]

Well, then there's the Top Gear boys riding the length of the country on their PTW's.

Once they got kitted with proper safety gear.....off they went.

Stig

You really are a bit of an Anglophile aren't you Tom?
 

[Stig / Major Tom]

wow, you guys just sent me on a 2 hour search down the rabbit hole...mentioning the temp in Hanoi got me thinking about Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) and the US Embassy there made 'famous' during the '68 TET offensive. A lot of internet reading later...tells me that the Embassy building was new for '68 and obviously abandoned in April of '75..it later became the headquarters for the State run Vietnamese National Petroleum company...then was left abandoned for years.

When diplomatic ties were reestablished in '95 the Embassy and land were given back to the US and the decision was made to condemn the building and demolish it, which happened in '98. A new Consulate (Embassy was now in Hanoi) was built on the site near the original embassy but the original perimeter wall and the iconic round stone planters (site of VC shooters and deaths) are still there. The site of the old embassy buildings are now park space next to the new consulate. Interesting reading about the last days before the fall of South Vietnam...

There are probably several sites like this - but I've used this one. After more than 50 years, of course - other than the vistas & terrain - there is very little which is familiar here for most of us. Camps, fire-bases, rear areas - and I think even the evac hospital which we flew to is long gone....the building materials re-purposed. (they made houses out of flattened pop and beer cans - so lumber and roofing is a great find!)
https://namwartravel.com

No one asked - after reading every book on the 959.704 library shelf over the past 40 yrs - my 'best books' were:
Dispatches, Michael Herr.
The 13th Valley by John M. Del Vecchio (found in "fiction")
We Were Soldiers, Moore & Galloway (Each year, the Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps selects one book that he believes is both relevant and timeless for reading by all Marines. The Commandant's choice for 1993 was We Were Soldiers Once... and Young.)
Going After Cacciato, Tim O'Brien (soldier goes AWOL from Vietnam and walks to France. fiction)

And too many others.
Rabbit hole indeed....

Stig

for a sample of Michael Herr's writing....https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/8018-dispatches

[Stig / Major Tom]

You really are a bit of an Anglophile aren't you Tom?
 

Yeah. I love fishing!

Stig

[Neil955i]

ha ha!

[Ruffus]

Well Gentleman,
I cannot serve with Hanoi but with our City of Grado in northern Italy, and a glimpse at spring.
Pics were taken this afternoon at temperatures of 14°C.
"Other mothers have pretty daughters too", came in my mind when l saw this GILERA 800 and this YAMAHA 500 parked close to our city harbour.

[Ruffus]

Just two more pics...