[Vietnam] Chapter XXXIII: In which Hanoi shows itself

Hanoi's Old Quarter --- which is essentially the only part of this huge city that we have seen from the time our flight from Dong Hoi (VDH) to Hanoi (HAN) had landed to the time we took the bus to Ninh Binh two and half days later --- takes all the vices of a modern city --- crowding, noise, pollution, litter, and especially traffic --- and packs them together into a neat charming little parcel.

According to the internet --- a most reliable source on such matters --- there are 57 trillion gazillion scooters and motorcycles in Hanoi's

Old Quarter. Based on our observations, at any given point in time, half of these are parked in orderly interminable rows on the sidewalks, filling them so densely that pedestrians are forced to walk on the road. The other half are constantly plying their way in all directions, weaving and swerving around and among and between the more or less oblivious pedestrians, filling the air with incessant honks and exhaust fumes. By sheer coincidence, lining the sidewalks are also 57 trillion gazillion little shops, most only one to three doors wide, to allow more businesses street access, but extending lengthwise deep into the long tall narrow buildings behind, where their owners, more often than not, also live. These small shops sell everything imaginable under the sun, from notebooks to bamboo furniture, from nuts and bolts to not so modern fashion, from leather belts to Christmas decorations, their merchandise often spilling onto whatever little space there might still be left on the pavement. But a very sizeable portion of these places are eateries --- some bona fide restaurants, but most rudimentary stalls with a limited menu --- only soup (pho) or only sandwiches (banh mi) or only desserts (che) --- offering cheap food to everyone around --- locals and tourists, shop owners and passers by, and of course motorcyclists, who sometimes buy and eat their grub while still seated on their motorbike. Those without a motorcycle to sit on are invited to crouch on tiny kindergarten stools --- usually red or blue --- spread on the already-full pavement in front of the stall, while they quickly eat their meal. For those more interested in produce than in ready-made food, there are 57 trillion gazillion ladies walking the streets with baskets of fruits or vegetables or fish, either balanced on their shoulders or straddling their bicycles, ready to serve any passing customer. And between the sidewalk and the road, along the gutters, there are slowly growing piles of refuse --- from bus tickets to banana peels, from plastic cups to plain dirt, from fallen leaves to used diapers, heedlessly discarded there by anyone and everyone (except Western tourists), presumably to be collected in the wee hours of the night by industrious garbage men and women, to allow for more garbage to accumulate on the morrow, but until then wafting their odour --- sometimes unnoticeable, sometimes not --- for everybody's enjoyment. Those same gutters are at times also where local merchants can be seen burning fake banknotes and other bits of colourful paper, apparently as an offering to the gods (and as a way of adding choking smoke to the already dense city air). And to add a final touch to the composition, as one walks the streets one cannot but notice that half the aforementioned businesses also have hanging somewhere on their premises, sometimes up front, sometimes behind, a small or smaller cage, with a small or smaller songbird in it, a very popular "hobby" in Vietnam.

And the entire busy description above --- scooters, bicycles, pedestrians, shops, eateries, pedlars, cages, birds, garbage, honks, fumes, odours, and all --- is true at 11 pm. During the day, it is indescribably busier, but still as charming.

Accommodations:
- Hanoi Little Town Hotel, Hanoi (3 nights; not too good, except for the breakfast)

Photo captions: (a-cc) Hanoi's Old Quarter