Hanoi Walking Tour and First Impressions of Vietnam
I was asked to share my impressions of Vietnam, so I will try to do it. Of course, a day in Hanoi is too little to draw any conclusions, especially northern Vietnam, they say, is quite different from the southern one and you need to visit both. However, Hanoi is, after all, a capital, that is, an indicative city, and you can understand something for yourself in any case, especially if you have already been to Southeast Asia more than once..
I must say right away that this time I did not want to travel anywhere, there were too many work to do, plus we had just moved to Hua Hin and had not yet had time to really settle down, but I had to go, since the visa had expired and I needed a new stamp.
The content of the article
Hanoi walks
Since I was not very inclined to travel, I decided to stay in Vietnam for just a day, take a look at the city and return to Thailand as soon as possible. Looking ahead, I want to say that someday it will be necessary to come, at least for a couple of weeks, to take a leisurely ride around the country. Liked.
But I did not like it in terms of life, that is, there was no desire to live / enjoy the desire, but yes to travel. I immediately remembered my first trip to Asia and my feelings of the unusualness of what I saw. No, Vietnam is not strikingly different from the same Thailand (Southeast Asia after all), but it is very different. Bustle of bikes on the road, quite a lot of people, architecture of low 3-5-storey buildings, but extremely narrow, the absence of skyscrapers and generally low buildings in general. For some reason, Hanoi reminded me of China more than Thailand. By China I mean Hainan Island, because this is the only place I've been in China, they say mainland China is completely different. It seems that the described partly fits Bangkok, but you need to come to Hanoi and see that this is not so.
Bikes and traffic in the city
Probably the first thing that catches your eye is the number of bikes on the road, there are many times more cars. It seems like there is some kind of tax on motor vehicles, so not everyone can afford it. And bikes ride there with the slightest observance of the rules of the road, that is, on the opposite lane, on the red, and most importantly, do not let pedestrians pass. Generally! They don't even slow down, but instead go around. The question is, why did they draw a zebra on the road? You need to cross the road slowly and confidently, go straight through this endless stream of bikes and cars. This task can be daunting, but I got used to it pretty quickly. And in the same way, everything that is possible is transported on a bike, and even dogs are walked..
A rampant stream of bikes on a Hanoi street
If there is no traffic light at the intersection, then complete chaos is going on.
Repeatedly met such electric mopeds
Walking the dog on a bike
Street cafes
The second thing that surprises is the small street cafes. Surprise how they look. They are several toy chairs and stools on the sidewalk, and often without tables. Precisely small, I would say for children, maybe because this kind of furniture is the cheapest? And the food seller generally sits almost on the floor near a stone pot with coals, where he warms up food and cooks «on the knee». Moreover, there may be a garbage dump nearby, a bike workshop, but this does not bother anyone. A dubious pleasure, so I did not eat in these, I chose more civilian cafes. In my case, it is still difficult that I will not eat everything, but such small cafes, no menu, no choice. In general, I noticed that all the food is mainly meat, and I need seafood.
Street cafe in Vietnam, Haina
More trash cafe, Hainoy
Portable kitchen, almost Makashin
Civil cafe near Lake of the Returned Sword
But lovers of coffee and sandwiches (baguettes) in Vietnam should like it, you can buy them at every corner, which I did. True, I don't understand coffee at all, I don't know what it (is it?) Should be, some kind of viscous and bitter, if you take it without concentrated milk, that is, condensed milk. By the way, while walking, I did not see a single supermarket..
Baguette sandwiches in Hanoi from VND 20,000
Coffee and ice cream in a pleasant coffee shop
Architecture
As I said, Hanoi is a low city. While we were driving through it on a minibus to the airport, I counted literally several high-rise buildings. The rest are 3-5-storey buildings close to each other, with various enclosures, poking around where possible and where not. In the center of Hanoi, there are quite unusual and interesting houses, however, often in a depressing state, shabby, covered with gray mold and with an old roof, I walked around and looked at them all day. Also in the center there is a French quarter with neat buildings, and, by the way, there is also a Catholic cathedral in the center, an analogue of Notre Dame de Paris. Closer to the outskirts, the buildings are newer, but at the same time more impersonal or something, such ordinary business houses (townhouses), all the same.
Streets of Hinoy
The wires go to the ground in such casings
How everything is stuck in Hanoi!
With wires the same trouble as in Thailand
Beautiful tree, part of a street wall
Peninsula with the Temple of the Turtle
Inside the Turtle Temple
To keep the walls from falling
The most beautiful and civilized paths near the lake
Some streets in Vietnam are very narrow
Here's another one, the center of Hanoi
Russian vodka got here too
Playground in Hanoi is just a playground
The buildings in the French Quarter are new and pretty
Cathedral of Saint Joseph, local Notre Dame de Paris
Development on the outskirts and in the region, photo from Hainoi airport
Just a street in Hanoi
House numbers are sometimes duplicated on trees
Street in the center of Hanoi, where a train passes several times a day
Where are the communists without Lenin
Ho Chi Minh City Mausoleum in Hanoi
Turtle Tower on Sword Lake
Sidewalks
There are sidewalks in Hanoi only on large streets, but the problem is the same as in other countries of Southeast Asia - they are all lined with bikes and cafes. Only at night are the sidewalks empty (everything is removed inside the houses) and the streets look surprisingly spacious. Also in the evening in Hainoye it gets very dirty, especially where there was a brisk trade: bags, bottles, papers and slops. Sometimes he went straight through mountains of garbage and even got himself into dog shit. To be honest, in the evening I wanted to change my sandals to sneakers so that I wouldn't get anywhere with my bare feet..
Street in Hanoi by day
The same street in the evening
Most streets require traffic
Late evening, the epicenter of the mud
Weather
When I had a choice to fly to Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City, I decided to fly all the same to Hanoi. In addition to the lower airfare, the weather was also the reason. After a few months of staying in Tai, I was already tired of the heat, and in the capital of Vietnam, only 20-23 degrees was expected (15 at night). Despite the cloudy weather and drizzling rain, it was great to walk in pants and a sweatshirt for a change, without hiding from the scorching sun under the streams of air conditioners. Probably, if I had chosen the climate, I would have chosen the same as in the north of Vietnam, when there are also cooler months. At one time, this was exactly what I liked Hainan, everything looks like there.
Internet
I stayed at the Urban Alley Hotel (my hotel review) not far from the Lake of the Returned Sword and from the tourist area, it was about 10 minutes to walk to them. But it may well be that for the first time it was worth living in the very tour quarter. So I was amazed that the Internet in an inexpensive hotel was better than in all the apartments / houses where we lived in Thailand. Yes, what to say about the hotel, in cafes, coffee shops, the Internet was faster. It seems like a neighboring country, just as the wires are all tangled on the poles, and the Internet is faster and more symmetrical. Why?
Tour quarter and trade
The tourist quarter consists of several streets filled with merchants of various stripes. They sell scarves and pants with patterns, silver and gold, various wooden souvenirs, all sorts of coasters for cups, hiking clothes and backpacks, sim cards and telephones, and a bunch of other stuff. Cycle rickshaws plyed through the streets and beckoned for a ride, the bread-ball traders constantly offered me to try one for free, the annoying shoe shiners persisted in cleaning my sandals. If you don't like the crowd, then you shouldn't be here. But I was pleased to plunge into the atmosphere of a tourist mecca for a while..
Hanoi quarter tour, streets filled with merchants
Balls of flour, I don't know what they are called
Cycle rickshaws in Hanoi
Vietnamese dongs are plastic and contain many zeros
People
People seemed about the same benevolent as in Thailand, but they smile much less, which may be more familiar to a Russian. I can’t say more, as I’ve been too short. In general, I felt safe, if we talk about walking around the back streets with a camera in the dark, no one paid attention to me.
I really didn’t like the need to bargain. Well, I don’t like this business, but here you have to do it, even if you want to go to a public toilet, the prices are increased for everything, you have to be on the alert and know the prices. For example, a toilet in the center costs 2000-3000 dongs, but they wanted to pay 5000 dongs from me in one place. It's a trifle, but unpleasant, considering that this toilet was so seedy that it probably cost 1000 VND at all. It's good that many cafes have menus and prices are fixed..
Manicure in Hanoi
I liked the frame very much
I don’t know locals or not, but the clothes are unusual
Many photo shoots are held near Lake of the Returned Sword
Quite a typical picture, it's uncomfortable to sit like that
There are enough foreigners, including those who live here permanently
Such a sad look ...
P.S. I do not pretend in the least to know Viet Nam and I may be wrong about something, so I will be glad to see your additions and comments. I know that many have already been there for a long time, wintered.