Hanoi traffic cop.
We just returned from a wild and fascinating trip to Vietnam. During our 10-day stay we went shopping, scuba diving, hiking and beach camping. We also got to share time with friends in Hanoi and met a friend from home in Hoi An. We flew in to Hanoi, where we stayed for three nights at the Golden Sun Lakeview Hotel, about a block away from Hoan Kiem Lake, in the heart of Hanoi’s old town center. We spent a few days in Hanoi before flying south to Da Nang and traveling by car half-an-hour south to beautiful city of Hoi An. A note to travelers: this is the busiest time of year to travel within Vietnam. Vietnamese travel all over the country to enjoy some time off during the week prior, and flights can be tricky to arrange. Stay flexible with dates and relax. It’s still cheap and easy to get around. And if you do get stuck there’s plenty to tantalize all five senses. Let’s start with two.
Sight & Hearing
Scooters are everywhere in Vietnam.
Hanoi traffic hits you with a full frontal assault on the eyes and ears; it is a truly bewildering experience. Cars, cabs, bicycles and scooters fly from every direction into one another, yet somehow avoid near constant collisions. It’s like blood cells pulsing through an artery the way the massive swarms of honking scooter traffic squeezed down the clogged boulevards of Hanoi. There is an art to crossing Hanoi’s busy streets. If you wait for traffic to stop in order to cross the street you won’t get anywhere. Look both ways for a light break then slowly walk into traffic, being careful not to dart around like a Frogger game, or to suddenly stop like a deer caught in headlights. The scooters will go around you, believe it or not. You would think that with such dodgy traffic road-rage would be an issue, but people simply honk and go around you heading off on whatever errands they are tasked with.
Deepfreeze on a scooter.
Scooter traffic in Asia is quite a sight. It is not unusual to see entire families sharing the seats of a two-stroke moped. Every type of payload imaginable is conveyed on these tiny steeds. It’s not uncommon to see entire construction crews hauling material like concrete mixers and loads of block. In Hoi An, for example, there are fewer trucks in the old town, so almost everything is carried by scooter. Workers in flip-flops would balance heavy loads and weave through traffic with such dexterity it would make bike messengers jealous. There are traffic lights on major intersections, but it’s best to stay vigilant but relaxed when crossing the streets.
Hang Bong Street.
In Hanoi the constant cacophony that bleats from the shrill horns of the scooters lasts from dawn to dusk, and late into the night. It adds little to the romantic feeling that Hanoi has on display. The streets of the neighborhood we stayed in were lined with decaying French facades festooned with red banners, which hang in from nearly every tree and lamppost in advance of Victory Day (also called Reunification day and Liberation Day) on April 30, commemorating the North Vietnamese takeover of Saigon in 1975. A note to travelers: this is the busiest time of year to travel within Vietnam.
Hoan Kiem District.
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