Hanoi and around
By turns exotic, squalid, gauche and hip, the high-octane Vietnamese capital of Hanoi provides a full-scale assault on the senses. Its crumbly, lemon-hued colonial architecture is a feast for the eyes: swarms of buzzing motorbikes invade the ear, while the delicate scents and tastes of delicious street food can be found all across a city that - unlike so many of its regional contemporaries - is managing to modernize with a degree of grace. Despite its political and historical importance, as well as the incessant noise drummed up by a population of over six million, Hanoi exudes a more intimate, urbane appeal than Ho Chi Minh City.
At its centre lies a tree-fringed lake and shaded avenues of classy French villas dressed up in jaded stucco, but the rest of Hanoi is bursting at the seams and nowhere is this more evident than in the teeming traffic and the vibrant, intoxicating tangle of streets known as the Old Quarter, the city’s commercial heart since the fifteenth century. Delving back even further, a handful of Hanoi’s more than six hundred temples and pagodas hail from the original, eleventh-century city, most notably the Temple ofLiterature, which encompasses both Vietnam’s foremost Confucian sanctuary and its first university. Many visitors, however, are drawn to Hanoi by more recent events, seeking explanations among the exhibits of the Military History Museum and in Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum for the extraordinary Vietnamese tenacity displayed during the wars of the twentieth century.
Modern Hanoi has an increasingly confident, “can do” air about it and a buzz that is even beginning to rival Ho Chi Minh City. There’s more money about nowadays and the wealthier Hanoians are prepared to flaunt it in the ever-more sophisticated restaurants, cafes and designer boutiques that have exploded all over the city. Hanoi now boasts glitzy, multistorey shopping malls and wine warehouses; beauty parlours are the latest fad and some seriously expensive cars cruise the streets. Almost everyone else zips around on motorbikes rather than the deeply untrendy bicycle. The authorities are trying — with mixed success — to temper the anarchy with laws to curb traffic and regulate unsympathetic building projects in the Old Quarter, coupled with an ambitious twenty-year development plan that aims to ease congestion by creating satellite towns. Nevertheless, the city centre has not completely lost its old-world charm nor its distinctive character.
Hanoi, somewhat unjustly, remains less popular than Ho Chi Minh City as a Jumpmg-ofF point for touring Vietnam, with many making the journey from south to north. Nevertheless, it provides a convenient base for excursions to Ha Long Bay, and to Sa Pa and the northern mountains, where you’ll be able to get away from the tourist hordes and sample life in rural Vietnam Chapters Seven and Eight respectively). There are also a few attractions much closer at hand, predominandy religious foundations such as the Perfume Pagoda, with its spectacular setting among limestone hills, and the spiralshaped citadel of Co Loa, just north of today’s capital. The Red River Delta’s fertile alluvial soil supports one of the highest rural population densities in Southeast Asia, living in bamboo-screened villages dotted among the paddy fields. Some of these communities have been plying the same trade for generations, such as ceramics, carpentry or snake-breeding. While the more successful craft villages are becoming commercialized, it’s possible, with a bit of effort, to get well off the beaten track to where Confucianism still holds sway.
The best time to visit Hanoi is during the three months from October to December, when you’ll find warm, sunny days and levels of humidity below the norm of eighty percent, though it can be chilly at night. From January to March, cold winds from China combine with high humidity to give a fine mist which often hangs in the air for days. March and April usually bring better weather, before the extreme summer heat arrives in late April, accompanied by monsoon storms which peak in August and can last until early October, causing serious flooding throughout the delta.
The majority of Hanoi's budget accommodation is within walking distance of Hoan Kiem Lake.
Unlike Ho Chi Minh Citys (HCMC) Pham Ngu Lao district, where the cheapies are lined up...
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Hanoi
Travellers' Advisor
- Best time to visit Vietnam
- Cost of daily items & tipping
- Tips and advice to help you stay safe during your trip
- Business travellers
- Vietnamese money and currency
- Medical & health information
- 20 biggest travel mistakes
- Customs and immigration
- Motorbike hire
- Taxis
- Travelling by bus or coach
- Public Train in Vietnam
- Domestic Flights Vietnam
- Cheap Flights to Vietnam
- Taste fried Vietnamese spring rolls-Top things to do in Vietnam
- Sapa Homestay-Top things to do in Vietnam
- Hanoi City Tour-Top things to do in Vietnam
- Drink like a local-Top things to do in Vietnam
- Halong Bay in the ricefields-Top things to do in Vietnam
- Climb Fansipan Mountain-Top things to do in Vietnam
- Cruise Halong Bay-Top things to do in Vietnam
- Vietnam Government
- Vietnam Religion & Lifestyle
- Origins of the Vietnamese Language
- Vietnam History
- Vietnam travel safety - How is safety to travel to Vietnam
- Best time to travel to Indochina
- Gay and Lesbian Travel Tips
- Three steps to avoid fraud when booking travel online for your Vietnam holiday
- Best time to travel to Vietnam and Cambodia
World Heritage in Vietnam
- Son Doong Cave History
- Structure of Son Doong Cave
- Son Dong Cave
- Stone Stele Records of Royal Examinations of the LE and MAC Dynasties
- Buddhist Sutra Woodblocks of Truc Lam Zen
- Art of Don Ca Tai Tu Music and Song in Southern Vietnam
- The Space of Gong Culture in Central Highlands of Vietnam
- Nha Nhac - Vietnamese Court Music
- Ca Tru Singing
- Quan Ho Bac Ninh Folk Songs
- Xoan Singing
- Worship of Hung Kings in Phu Tho
- Giong Festivals at Phu Dong & Soc Temples
- My Son Sanctuary
- Hoi An Ancient Town
- Complex of Hue Monuments
- The Citadel of the Ho Dynasty
- The Central Sector of Imperial Citadel of Thang Long - Ha Noi
- Dong Van Karst Plateau
- Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park
- Halong Bay - World Natural Heritage
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