Hanoi: City of Life and Chaos

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Hanoi: A Heartbeat of Life and Chaos

Arrival in the Capital of Vietnam

As our plane landed last night at the Hanoi International Airport, Kel and I had no idea what to expect. Having been through two South East Asian countries and at least two major cities, I felt that I had a pretty good grasp on what a city in this part of the world was like but I decided, as I usually do, to reserve my judgment for later.

The airport is a pretty good distance from town so our taxi ride took us about a half an hour. We were amazed by the number of cars on the road and then realized that it was Saturday night and that everyone from the ‘burbs was heading to town for Saturday night fun. This led to absolute craziness on the roads. I have tried to describe the craziness that Asia has to offer in major cities but nothing prepared me for Hanoi.

First, the highways: The highway from the airport is a modern road with two lanes heading in each direction. Imagine any similar road in the US and you’ll get the idea. Now we get into the differences. The right lane is dominated by mopeds and motor scooters. These scooters are flying around like Formula One race cars doing speeds that can’t be safe and to make matters worse, no one in Vietnam seems to wear helmets. Some scooters have up to four people squeezed on them, including children, held on only by their parents arms. Now it get more interesting… Add to this big trucks and cars flying at 60-80 miles per hour with the scooters dodging between them. Not enough for you? Now it gets really interesting!! When people want to cross the highway, there are no stop lights. Imagine the standard gap in the highway (no median just a guard rail) that only “authorized vehicles” can use to do U turns in the US: these gaps are being used by bikes, mopeds, cars, etc. to turn across the highway.

One minute you are flying along doing 60mph and the next the cab driver slams on brakes as some fool has decided to cross the road or do a U-turn. Absolute chaos ensues as cars and bikes come to a halt and people start honking horns. As you sit and wait for things to straighten out you notice that many motor scooter/moped drivers just charge through at full speed anyway. Its amazing that no one dies…which I’m sure they do, but we were lucky to not see any thing bad happen.

Now the normal roadways: As we approached the Old Quarter, where our hotel was, we got off the highway. What seemed like chaos moments before on the highway suddenly became a walk in the park. In town there are thousands of motor bikes/mopeds everywhere. None of these flying death machines seem to heed traffic laws at all. Lines on the pavement and traffic lights (which are few and far between) are merely suggestions which seem to have been created as a joke to make Vietnamese drivers laugh. At times you can find your self in the middle of and intersection at a dead stop because bikers are completely surrounding you heading in every possible direction at once. Its dizzying and only made us glad that we were not driving.

Surprisingly it seems like this is normal life for the average Hanoi resident. It speaks volumes about this city and about the culture in general. As you spend time analyzing the situation you notice that no one ever gets angry. The lack of anger is a uniquely Asian phenomenon. While in the US similar situations could, and probably would, lead to road rage and violence, here they lead to calm faces, some honking and sometimes smiles. To get angry here is to lose face not just for the person who gets angry but for everyone around them. This keeps things incredibly calm despite the chaos, traffic jams, and constant honking of horns.

As you get used to what seems chaos you start picking out some sort of traffic…we won’t use law here…we’ll use philosophy. People move, for the most part, deliberately, slowly and precisely and are very aware of their surroundings. As it becomes background for you, the foreigner, you feel the traffic around you as a supreme life force that is the life blood of this unique city. It just feels alive and awesome.

Dinner and Night Market

After checking into the Golden Sun Hotel, we headed out for some dinner since it was already past 8pm. The hotel recommended a restaurant close by so we hoofed it up the street to satiate our hunger.

The first obstacle one must overcome in this city is how to cross the traffic marred streets with no traffic lights or cross walks. This is a pretty scary task that every tourist must learn to deal with and become comfortable with doing. The basic methodology is just to step out and walk slowly and alertly. No matter where you are or where you are heading it is perfectly acceptable to cross the road, or even an intersection diagonally. One just steps off the curb and slowly moves through the crowd of cars and mopeds that swirl around you. The motorists pay attention to you and will do their best to avoid you if you do your best to avoid them. Sometimes you have to stop quickly as someone shoots in front of you but for the most part you just walk slowly and they dodge you. Sounds fun huh? I wouldn’t recommend this at home but here…it works.

After crossing a few hairy intersections we got to our restaurant and ascended to the fifth floor of a building situated at the intersection of 5 roads. Our seat at the edge of the balcony gave us a phenomenal view of the chaos below which allowed us to learn by watching other people accomplish the nightmare of road crossing.

On one side of the intersection a stage had been set up for what appeared to be Vietnamese Idol complete with a judges table. This was set far out in the street making the normally crazy traffic even crazier as people had to dodge the stage to get down the street. Also, realize that five roads come together here making this a wild intersection to begin with.

No matter what we did or ate we couldn’t take our eyes off the mesmerizing events unfolding in the intersection below. Sometimes the traffic would back up, other times it would flow fine but inevitably it kept going. It was like having a dinner time show. So much fun to watch!!

After dinner we headed through this same intersection to a street night market. Stalls lined the center of the street and shops on both sides, as far as the eye could see there were people body to body looking at all the stuff.

As a foreigner, one of the first things you notice is that you are almost a head taller than anyone around you and that there are almost no foreigners. This is the touristy area, but even here that aren’t that many tourists. Laos was full of tourists but Vietnam seems to be a little less traveled, or at least Hanoi.

After bearing the claustrophobia for about an hour we headed back to the hotel. It was not a fast process to head the four blocks back to the little side street that we called home, but it was exhilarating. Wow, what a place!

The Old Quarter

Today we booked some tours for the surrounding countryside for the next few days which meant that today was our one real day to see the city. We used our trusty guidebook and headed off for a walk around the Old Quarter to see what Hanoi had to offer.

We started in the center of the old quarter at Hoan Kiem Lake where we viewed the Ngoc Som Temple which is on an island in the middle of the lake. After perusing the island and taking a picture of the war memorial for soldiers who died in the French and American wars for Vietnamese independence (interesting huh?) we headed into the markets in the Old Quarter.

As we stopped to look at the book to get our bearings ,two ladies with baskets of bananas ran up and started putting their baskets on Kel’s shoulders and a hat on her head so I could take a picture. Seemed nice enough until they then forcefully did the same with me. As we thought we were done they demanded money before letting me go. After paying the exorbitant 3 dollar fee we stalked off with a new respect for fruit vendors and their scams.

We spent the next three hours walking the area (dodging fruit sellers…namely banana sellers) staring at the spectacle before us. Each area of the old quarter specializes in its own good. There are toy areas, shoe areas, metal work areas, areas that specialize in gifts and areas that specialize in Tet New Year decorations (the Tet festival is in full swing right now and lasts a two week period which culminates on the 18th of February which is right in the middle of our stay in Vietnam.).

Vietnamese people are renowned for their almost capitalistic view of commerce. As you walk through the streets you are constantly asked questions and have people trying to sell you things. One minute a cab driver will pester you and the next a traveling book salesman will follow you for a half a block trying to get you to buy his bootleg copies of Lonely Planet Guides. Between the constant sales pitches and dodging of motor vehicles, the trip through the market is a long one and mentally taxing.

This town is a wonder and the market is a great place to view it. The Old Quarter is full of interesting sights and sounds as well as persistent salespeople, honking horns, motorbikes and food of every type imaginable. This is probably the closest one can get to an old world market extravaganza. I would recommend it to anyone who comes to this part of the world but would advise that you be prepared for the craziness as it could overwhelm some.

After four hours, Kel and I were pooped and headed back to the hotel for a rest. It sounds crazy to think that four hours was all we could give to Hanoi, but it was one of the wildest four hours of my life and a time I will never forget.

Hope you are all well back home! Tomorrow we are off to Tam Coc which is supposed to be beautiful country outside of Hanoi. Wish us well!

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Photos

Crazy Street Scene
This is just a taste of the craziness from the streets...

Crazy Street Scene
I don't know if you can tell but this is a long line of pedi-cabs with a tour group of white people, one per cab. It felt a little imperialistic watching them travel through the market.

Kel Banana Seller
Right before we realized we had been scammed...I guess its not so bad since it was only 2.50