Hanoi of A Thousand Years - Carol Howland

For the past ten years, seasoned travel writer Carol Howland has been drawn back to Vietnam again and again. This time she delves into the stories of Hanoi's old streets as she wanders through the city's turbulent and convoluted history over the past millennium --

• Exploring the tube houses of the Old Town of Thirty-Six Streets

• Discovering the identities of those mysterious statues in Hanoi's pagodas, temples and community houses

• Strolling past the architectural legacy left by the French

• Retracing the steps of Vietnam's paternal figure, Ho Chi Minh

• Examining the process by which a man became a mandarin in feudal times

• Tasting the special dishes for which Hanoi is rightly famous

• Finding out about Vietnam's unique folk art, water puppetry 

• Attending performances of Vietnam's traditional opera (tuong) and folk opera (cheo)

• Laughing her head off at Vietnam's more recent theatrical form, cai luong

• Taking a hard look at the dramatic changes that have taken place in the city over the past decade