Hanoi Hustle

Hanoi Hustle 

Remember the old school Atari and the game frogger? We stood on the corner of a street in the bustling alley like maze of Hanoi's old quarter, feeling much like that green digital frog and wondering how the heck we were supposed to cross a street with no lights and no break in the swarms of motor bikes the rule the road. How does it work? Well it's a lot like frogger except instead of getting squished, the bikes weave around you. That doesn't change the fact that we felt like every street crossing was worthy of a gold medal.

Motor bikes aside, the old quarter is fascinating - bamboo, locks, traditional medicine, toys, flip flops, trinkets, kitchen sinks, flowers, jewelry - you name it - every street had something it was known for selling. Mixed in were delicious street food vendors that each specialized in one fabulous thing (pho, mixed noodles, pork buns, hot pot, sugar cane juice, jelly shakes etc). The little fried donut balls would put Dunkin donuts and Krispy Kreme out of business in no time. At night we drank copious amounts of bia Hoi, a cheap beer (20 cents a glass) popular with locals and tourists alike. To escape the hustle, we enjoyed two lovely city lakes, water puppets and a few museums. We made friends with the owner of our hotel/homestay, talking Buddhism while drinking beers and listening to Vivaldi on his old phonograph. The place was the queen garden hotel and we dug it. We met up with some fellow travelers we'd run into a few other places for beers and shared meals. Though Hanoi has its hustle (and fair share of scams, which we were warned of ahead of time) there's a vibrant fun to its fast pace urbanity. Elisa Was happy when on our last city day we walked to a large lake and escaped the mayhem. Happier still when we left the "big city" for gorgeous natural scenery in both Halong Bay and Sapa.