During 4 days we let ourselves sink into the vibrant live in the old town of Hanoi. We strolled through the narrow roads and lanes, through which there is a neverending flow of Motorbikes with few cars and trucks. You learn quickly how easy it is though to cross the roads: just cross from one side to the other in a slow and steady pace, the traffic will flow around you. At first all the streets look the same with rows of narrow townhouses on both sides. The groundfloor normally is a shop, open to the street. There are footpaths too, however not for pedestrians, the space is used for the display of the goods of the stors, for people to sit and drink or eat, as parking for the motorbikes, to reapair something… There is always a lot happening everywhere, also a lot of noise and smoke. The shopkeepers are not constantly trying to get you into there store to sell something to you though. Only the ones walking around selling souvenirs or special food and the owner of the cyclos always hassel.
Shopping itself is very easy. If you for example are looking for sandals you can just go into the shoestreet, where you will find shoeshop after shoeshop from the beginning to the end and you can see all there is to offer. Like this you also find a clothsstreet, a lockstreet, a cookwarestreet, a pharmacystreet… and everywhere in between you find cafés, restaurants, streetkitchens and Hotels.
We were two tourist among many in Hanoi. Accordingly it is easy to get around with English. Also the variety of food was great and of course the prices were high. As just arrived one has no clue what normal prices are. What can be bought with 100’000 Vietnamese Dong? Prices jump up and down leaving a constant feeling to have been cheated.
We didn’t explicatly look for the sightseeing hotspots and historical sights, just at what we found on our extended walks by luck. We were more interested in feeling a bit of the puls of the vietnamese capital. We also tried to get into contact with some travelers to get information about the preferred route north. But besides a motorbiker and a cyclist, who both had taken different directions, we met noone staying long enough to visit more than the few topdestinations. On our map the North of Vietnam look rather scarcely populated and information about accommodation was not easy to find. Therefore we had another good search in the internet. Afterward we could decide on a route and felt ready to hit the road. We were also looking forward to fresh air and leave the hectic of the city.
