Hanoi Old Quarter

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Where I stayed

Hanoi Backpackers Hostel

Flag of Vietnam Hanoi, Ha Ná»™i, Vietnam
Thursday, November 3, 2011

We arrived in Hanoi on Thursday and had rooms booked in the Old Quarter. For the first day or two this area was totally overwhelming. The streets are narrow and full of traffic, mostly scooters but also small cars. Until we learned how to cross the street and how to walk along the streets, moving around was mentally exhausting. There were also lots of new sights and sounds to get used to. The quarter is lined with hundreds of open shops. Near the hostel on Ma May, all these shops seemed to be tourist-oriented. Later we found other areas in the quarter that seemed to be more oriented towards the residents.

During the day the outer sidewalks are lined with parked scooters (commuters?) and the inner sidewalks have small food and drink stands where customers can perch on low plastic stools and eat or drink. In the morning people buy their breakfast from these stands. There are also larger street food restaurants taking up more sidewalk space with low tables and stools

Fruit Sellers

. Walking along here requires walking in the street and joining the scooter and car traffic, or sometimes going along the sidewalk and going around people sitting outside their shops.

The buildings are narrow due to some old taxing scheme and range from 3 to 6 stories high. Most of them are French colonial style architecture with balconies on each floor. Some lower, ancient Vietnamese-style buildings remain here and there. The blocks are fairly big and I suspect that between the streets there are courtyards and gardens, more living quarters, craft and food preparation areas, warehouses and who knows what else. There are narrow, dark hallways between the buildings leading into these mid-block areas, but I haven't found any good windows for peering into one of them.

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