Posted August 6
Hanoi
Situated between the Da (Black) River to the west and the Song Cai (Literal translation is “Main” but western geography calls it the Red River) River to the north and east, the translation of Hanoi is “Between Rivers.” The land has been populated since at least the first century CE, and has been politically important in the lives of those in the Vietnam Era since around the third century CE. It has been the capital of all or part of Vietnam in five separate iterations: Au Lac, Dai Viet, French Indochina, Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and now the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Modern day Hanoi is a sprawling metropolis of about 8.5 million residents. It feels that big and maybe even bigger. While not the most dense urban area I’ve ever visited, the constant noise, unregulated traffic, and perpetual motion of the city makes it seem much more dense than it really is.
Finding a way to cut through all that visual and aural clutter isn’t easy. There’s an extremely compartmentalized tourist area, focused on the Old Quarter and the French Quarter (two separate, adjacent neighborhoods). This is where the night market, Train Street, Beer Street, and the thousands of shops selling kitschy knick-knacks are located.
Beyond that, there’s a few important museums and the regular infrastructure of a national capital. There are some parks, generally situated by a lake or other geographic feature. Other than that, this is a working city and not too worried about putting on a show for tourists.
If you want a tourist show, I think the typical Hanoian would tell you to go to Ha Long or Ha Giang. They’re a little too busy trying to do business and get through the crowds of both locals and tourists.
I found the best way to approach wedging myself into Hanoi was through walking. In my four days there, I walked at least six miles and as many as ten miles per day.
I saw markets, temples, parks, and people I wouldn’t have seen in any other way. I was invited to join some elderly men in a board game that I couldn’t comprehend or even remotely understand. Getting the instructions in Vietnamese didn’t really help me for some reason.
I saw and tasted food that was definitely not part of the normal Pho and Banh Mi circuit.
Overall, the experience was a good one, but I think I’d tell others that unless you’re willing to work for it, Hanoi is a surface level experience rather than a deep-dive.
