Hanoi: first impressions

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Our first time journey to South-East Asia began in Hanoi, Vietnam's capital and second largest city. Well, to be specifically, at its airport which is located about 30 minutes away from the city center. The ride to the hotel was prearranged and the taxi was waiting when we arrived. To be honest, we expected to see palm trees already along the road and I had my camera ready to shoot our first holiday pics. Instead, there was a concrete wall, build on both sides of the road. We had to stair at it for quite a while until we were finally able to see some of the country side before getting into the city.

From Hanoi airport to the city

Our hotel was booked in the known old quarter of the 36 streets, where each street has its specific type of product that is being sold their. Shoes street, metal and repair street, seafood street, knitted clothes street, etc, everything is available practically 24 hours a day. Our street turned out to be the spices and herbs street and the rich smell of tasty Asian spices, that was all over us the moment we got out of the cab, will probably stay with us forever, as our first true memory of Hanoi. And turned out to be quite useful later on. It really helped us later in the evening when we were coming back after a walk and were not sure where to go... The smell of spices unmistakably brought us to the right place.

Tasty smell of spices and herbs

In an attempt to fight the jet lag, we decided to walk it off until the evening by hitting the streets of Hanoi. The plan was to leave all the places of interest for the next day and to just explore the city itself.

Maximizing the usage of space on the streets

The first and obvious fact was that you simply can't escape the amount of motorbikes in the city, they are absolutely everywhere, present in all shapes and sizes, some - old handmade monsters, some very new and modern.    

Sea of motorbikes on the streets of Hanoi

I can only imagine what would have been, if all those people would be using cars instead... One eternal traffic jam!

Once outside, you are confronted with the fact that there are no free walking sideways along the streets of the old quarter, as they either serve as parking space for the motorbikes...

...or as a stall for all kind of stuff.

For all the goods available, the sidewalks are not enough, the goods are moved around on bicycles...

or simply carry them around on the shoulders.

It seems that the whole life of an average Vietnamese happens on the sidewalk, including eating,

shaving and cutting hair...

or just sitting around watching the others passing by.

Constant cooking and non-stop consumption of food all around made us realize that we were hungry too and looking for a place to eat became a must. The rule of "eating where the locals eat" (as the food is usually much more tasty and not overpriced) have worked for us in the past and we finally settled for a small sidewalk cafe. Actually it was a part of sidewalk used as a cafe, but who cares :-))

After some menu studying and discussion on what to choose (no English was used in the process, and hands proved to be a much more efficient way of communication), we got our very first boul of famous Vietnamese Pho Bo, soup/noodles with beef and herbs...

...and fried noodles.

Everything ordered was deliciously tasty, which proved again that following the locals is the best way to chose where to eat in an unfamiliar city.

Despite the fact that Hanoi is overcrowded, chaotic and noisy, it's a really a great city to be in. A city where you start to feel at home just after first couple of hours of being in it. For us, those couple of hours where more than enough to stop jumping from every motorbike passing by and to maneuver between the various obstacles as true locals. 

Once we stopped worrying about the traffic and us being run over, we could actually look around. The buildings in Hanoi are a true mixture of styles. There are ones that where build under the French, but they are hardly recognizable now, as many are covered with additional builds and/or hidden under the bunch of cables and other junk hanging all over the place.

The others are more contemporary, but covering them in junk as well is probably something that Vietnamese do regardless. 

Also, most of the houses in Hanoi are very very narrow, making the buildings in Amsterdam look like wide palaces :-))

Even the train railway passage is probably the narrowest one I've ever seen (for those who thought it was for the tram, it's not! It's really funny, that nobody even thought of making some kind of a fence for it.

And why would they, if locals don't mind using it as a comfy place to sit and enjoy the afternoon.

The streets are not much different from the buildings when it comes to being narrow.

The evenings in Hanoi is just as busy as afternoons. All the sidewalks/shops and sidewalks/cafe's are open till very late and the people just continue to stay on the streets.

We decided to finish up the evening at a place that was highly recommended on TripAdviser and is called Quan An Ngon. 

Before the trip, we put together the "must try local specialties" list and were determined to cross off some of its items the same night. Considering the cheapness of food in Vietnam, even in a higher standard restaurant, we got to taste quite a lot. My personal favorite - spring-rolls that you make yourself with different stuffing and sauces.

After our substantial dinner, coming back to the hotel straight away seemed like a good choice as we had a lot of sleeping to do after 17 hours of flying and 6 hours of walking the streets.