Travel to Vietnam: Post-Colonial Hanoi

Glimpses of the contemporary city.

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The river runs as ever.

Riverside temple.

The boundary between streambank and city is as sharp as can be.

Busy, busy.

One of the striking things about the city is the narrowness of building frontages.

Narrower still.

Narrow and high.

Stylistic juxtaposition on a high-rent street.

The language of allure is no longer French.

Blonde models, suggesting that people want to be what they are not.

High rise offices.

Apartments in the Vincom City Towers.

Shopping center in the Vincom City Towers.

Outside, on the streets.

Heading to the suburbs.

Could be many places.

Wake up and wonder where you are.

Here, on Tran Duy Hun, we've come to a Bangkok-owned hypermart. The inflated tube says, "Honoring the Beauty of Vietnam."

Busy, busy.

The triumph of French civilization after all.

America in hot pursuit.

Sideshow.

The poor, neglected Cho Buoi, or Buoi Market, a leftover from Socialist days.

Dead, dead, dead.

Meanwhile, new construction relies heavily on imported icons, adapted without much respect for their customary proportions.

Grandeur on the loose: the entrance to Ciputra Hanoi International City.

Inside, high rises loom over a corruption of even a Las Vegas version of Europe.

"Very expensive," a passerby says in tones of praise.

Meanwhile, the crowds continue to gather at Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum, built in 1975 and already from another world.