"There is nothing subtle about Ha Noi. It is a complete sensory experience--overwhelming sounds, sights, and smells. First and foremost is the traffic, unlike anything seen or heard before: Motor scooters zigging and zagging in apparent chaos; the occasional car weaving in and out; and the lumbering bus clearing through all. A bit unsettling is the fact that everyone uses their horn to signal presence. It's as if there was a consensus to dispose with rear view mirrors and over-the-shoulder-checks before changing 'lanes.' For a Westerner used to vehicular order, this was a challenge to say the least. But it quickly became apparent that there actually was a set of rules that everyone seemed to be following, and one could indeed adapt and survive. For the pedestrian trying to cross the road, this meant disposing with the time honored practice of looking both ways, and only walking when clear in all directions. Instead, one simply walks....right through it all, and like the water around a stone in a chaotic rapid, everyone moves around you and the system actually works. One must have the courage to take the plunge through the traffic in a deliberate and predictable manner, or risk a true collision if one hesitates, causing confusion among oncoming traffic. A great confidence builder for first-time tourists is the firm hand-hold of our experienced daughter, Anna, guiding her parents through the chaos. If you want to see Ha Noi, you have no choice than to adapt to these unaccustomed rules.
"Ha Noi is a maze of streets and I never did figure any of it out. I had brought my running gear thinking I would explore the city on foot during early morning runs. Nothing doing. I know I would have been lost within a half mile of our hotel. Once you venture off the main roads, especially in the so-called 'Old Quarter,' the roads go every which way. It is on these smaller roads where one really experiences Ha Noi. There are people everywhere and most of them seem to be taking in a meal or a cup of tea or a warm beer. As one walks through these narrow roads, the sensory experiences becomes mostly one of diverse smells, primarily of various cooked foods.
"There was one particular smell that I couldn't quite put an identity to until about mid-week, and it turned out to be the burning of their coal stoves used to fire nearly all street-side dishes. Everyone seemed to have a specialty--One restaurant would serve 'Phở,' a type of stew/soup very famous in Ha Noi; another would serve up pork; still another might specialize in fish dishes. Customers would sit around a tiny plastic table with tiny chairs, almost play-like in appearance, and take their meal. It seemed that meals were served at all hours of the day, from early morning to late at night, and there were always peddlers walking around with fresh produce to supply their customers.
"This was one of the enduring
visions of Ha Noi--the stooped woman (always a woman) bearing a heavy load over her shoulder: two dangling baskets balanced at either end of a bamboo strut supported by first a left, than a right shoulder. Where do this woman come from and how long and far have they walked bearing these burdens? While Ha Noi appears to be on the cusp of becoming a modern city with all the trappings that Westerners seem to expect (five star hotels, posh restaurants), these woman seem to be guardians of the old ways, and are just one element of the great charm that one feels in Ha Noi."While on a trip to Hạ Long Bay, Dad asked our tour guide, "I wonder how many caves haven't been discovered yet?" The reply: "21."
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