Hanoi is a very old place. It has been inhabited since 3000BC and the city just celebrated it’s 1000th year of existence in 2010.
The Old Quarter is the original part of Hanoi. It rides up against the Red River and contains the locally famous “36 streets”. It used to be that each street was known for selling one kind of product like Fabric Street or Shoes Street. But over the years this has become less so and now all manner of shops line the streets of the Old Quarter.
To say it’s congested is an understatement. Here’s a typical street in the Old Quarter.
You have people walking, cars driving, cyclos motoring, bicycles cycling, vendors pushing carts, and there appears to be absolutely no order to it. It’s just mass chaos at every intersection.
Of course to get anywhere as a pedestrian you must cross a street. Here’s what that can look like.
At first rather intimidating and then you realize you just have to go. So you step off the curb and hope for the best. And miraculously you’re not killed! So then you try it again at the next corner and again you’re not killed! And before you know it you’re a pro at crossing the street and realize there’s nothing to it! It still takes a little courage to step off the curb and into traffic but once you do it’s not so difficult.
Once you master that you can start to see all the wondrous things happening around you. Some of those are caught below.
They smelled like limes.
And at every turn the people were wonderful. These three were out and about looking very festive. After I asked if I could take their picture, and did, they asked if they could take their picture with us. And we did. They were just as interested in us as we were them.
Hanoi is really growing on us – it’s hard for it not to with interactions like this throughout the day.
