There is nothing like a morning in Asia. The streets are full and buzzing and from very early in the morning people are out on the streets, parks and sidewalks to exercise. In a typical morning you can see everything from a dancing class, aerobics class, badminton to a weight lifting class. When I am in Hanoi, many mornings I get up early and get out on my bike to ride around the city. I have to start out between 5 to 5:15 am in order to have any hope to beat the morning traffic. I follow a route where I will circle around West Lake, go by a smaller lake called Tay Ho, then go to the downtown area near the main lake there called Hoan Kiem Lake, past Lenin Park and then on to my home. One morning I took my camera with me and took photos to show you about some morning exercise in Vietnam. I hope you will enjoy this photo blog as you follow along with me to see a typical day or morning exercise in Asia.
Morning Exercise, a Photo Blog.
5:20 am – West Lake, This couple had their own tape player and the wife was leading aerobics while her husband was following along.
5:30 am – West Lake, This is a group of women with one man looking on. Probably they are engaged in some kind of stretching exercise, prior to a walk near the lake, but I can’t be sure.
5:45 am – West Lake and Tay Ho Lake Area – There is always a group of people here each morning exercising and stretching. If you stay at this area long enough you can find some very interesting stretching moves going on.
5:50 am West Lake and Tay Ho Area – Every morning these women have a street aerobics and dance class. This morning a foreign woman and man were running by and she stopped to try to teach them some correct moves for aerobics. I do not think the women were too happy as they you can see from the second photo they continued to do what they do each morning which is basically to wave their arms and shake their hips to the beat of the music.
6:15 am – Hoan Kiem Lake, Asia would not be complete without a morning Tai Chi Class. There are Tai Chi classes going on all over town and anyone can join in, even if you just got off your motorbike and still have on your helmet as this man did. Don’t be shy, if you want to join in, then join in!
6:20 am – Hoan Kiem Lake, Every morning rain or shine these guys have set up a portable weight room on the sidewalk. This morning as I stopped to take their photo they asked me to join them, I told them maybe sometime in the future!
6:30 am – Lenin’s Park, Morning Exercise would not be complete without a Badminton Tournament. There are badminton games going on all around the city. As you can see they even have the sidewalks painted and nets set up. Old and young alike participate and play badminton.
6:32 am - Lenin’s Park, All kinds of exercise is going on in Hanoi in the morning. Everything from Football (Soccer Games) to just morning stretching exercises.
Anyone who travels to Asia needs to take the time to get up early in the morning and go to a local park to see what is going on there. Otherwise you will miss this very important and exciting part of life in Asia.