Monday, October 19, 2009

Long Bien Arts Festival

Next year, Hanoi will be 1,000 years old. Last weekend, the city kicked off a year of celebration at the 999 year anniversary. At the Long Bien Bridge arts festival, the art was not very prolific, but pedestrians were able to take a leisurely stroll without the noise and dust kicked up by the thousands of motorbikes that cross the bridge each day.

The bridge crosses the Red River. In several spots, there are islands in the middle of the river and every inch of these islands is covered with cultivation, flowers, corn, bananas and other unidentified vegetation.

On the sand bars along the river, you could see camps. Boats dotted the river along these encampments and some of the buildings of the neighborhood of Tay Ho look like they are about to slide down the embankment.


Caligraphy by a very finely attired, white-haired man. On the spot art.



Back in the day...


Today, anytime you take the train to go north of Hanoi, you will pass over the Long Bien Bridge. The long leisurly walk we took, gave us a nice perspective on the river and the city beyond its banks. Unfortunately, it also gave us an upclose look at the iron structure that has survived over 60 years of rusting and various wars. Apparently, this doesn't keep it from holding up this train.




1 comment:

Fergus said...

Yea, a post on the blog! I had not given up hope entirely, but I had put it into a corner in the spare room...