Hanoi Vietnam

Hanoi or Han oi, is located in the northern region of Vietnam, within the bend of the Red River. Settlement dates back over a thousand years and as Vietnam’s capital for most of those thousand years, the city has endured invasions,occupations, restorations and of course name changes.The stately and grand French colonial buildings, like the Opera house of the Old French Quarter, are within walking distance to the narrow streets of the six hundred year Old Quarter. 

Hanoi Opera House

This area’s charm and timelessness soon captivate you.This is where we first arrived and stayed, oblivious to the surrounding and growing, modern metropolitan area with soaring skyscrapers that are barely mentioned in tourist guides.Hanoi has no rapid transit, which explains the many motorbikes that are everywhere, carrying anything imaginable.

The 36+ streets of the Old Quarter buzz with activity during the day of a commercial district with uniqueness, as each street specialises in a particular product. For example there’s Hang Tre, the bamboo street as “hang “means merchandise and the second word refers to the product. Visit Hang Buom St. for candies, Hang Non for musical instruments, Hang Huong for incense, Hang Khoai for kitchen utensils, Hang Ma for votive papers, lanterns, paper, tinsel, Hang Ruoi for artificial flowers, etc.

 Despite the challenge to manoeuvre, we loved walking around these fascinating streets as life is lived here! Toddlers to elders, live chickens to those steaming in stovepots, people slurping noodles, spitting sunflower seeds from their small plastic seats and horns tooting, all while you weave your way along between motorbikes clogging the street  and those parked on the sidewalk. When it all becomes to much, we walked over to the lovely Hoan Kiem Lake, in the heart of the city and strolled the boulevards for a sense of tranquillity and nature. The Den Ngoc Temple or Jade Mountain temple is just across the picturesque red wooden bridge, a scenic setting and quite the contrast to Old Quarter bee hive of activity.

We viewed the Hoa Lo Prison, built by the French in the 1890’s to house Vietnamese political prisoners. This tour was thought provoking and a sorrowful glimpse into lives of Vietnamese  revolutionaries. Here they were confined in overcrowded, dark and inhumane conditions and tortured and executed. You can still see a relic French guillotine.This same prison was later known as the “Hanoi Hilton” by the American prisoner of war pilots from the Vietnam War. The account of the imprisonment of the American pilots was a sanitized version, as the victors of a war embellished their fair treatment.

An excellent museum, well worth the visit was the Vietnamese Women’s Museum. Five floors of exhibits highlight the role of Vietnamese woman throughout history, focusing on traditional family life and the tasks such as growing food to their participation during wars. Memories and tales of wartime heroines was most poignant.

A woman in a conical hat, riding a bicycle is an iconic image of Vietnam and in Hanoi another such image are the woman street vendors who balance twin baskets “quang ganh” suspended on bamboo poles.These peasant peddlers  have been an integral part of Hanoi’s street life for centuries. From my visit to the Women’s Museum, where I viewed a video presentation of interviews with street vendors, I learned how hard life was for them. Arising early, riding daily into the city to work long hours for meagre pay, just to support their families and now the People’s Committee of Hanoi is attempting to ban mobile vendors.They are considered a menace while I found them so admirable and charming!