Hanoi Local Customs

I have been drinking Vietnamese ice coffee in the US for about 25 years now so I was happy to finally get to have some on their local soil. These places vary quite a bit in style and price but the most local ones offer up the typical plastic tables and chairs that inexpensive restaurants do. If you see one like Café Bon Bon, crammed full of locals, stop in. It’s bound to be good.

Vietnamese ice coffee is a vestige of French Colonial habits though with a decided Southeast Asian flair. It is a roast bitter dark coffee that is mixed with sweetened condensed milk that not only sweetens the brew but also makes it creamy. It comes to the table in a little drip kettle that brews right there and you then pour the contents over ice in a tall glass. It is a tasty dessert and a nice pick you up in the afternoon if hot from all the sightseeing. You should be able to get one for 5,000 d (30 cents).

There are many traditional foods associated with TET as well and the most popular perhaps is banh chung. This is glutinous or sticky rice layered around some very fatty pork and bean paste and wrapped in a banana leaf. You’ll definitely be offered some to try but it is an acquired taste so take a small bite to see if you like it. No matter what, say you do….lol. This orange sticky rice pictured was another festival favorite as people bought them at the market to bring home. I grabbed one too and brought it home to Doreen, who lay sick in bed with a very upset stomach. The simple food was just the medicine for her. I liked it too as it was lightly sweet with sesame seeds for added flavor.

Tet Nguyen Dan literally means the festival of the first day and abbreviated as TET, it is the biggest holiday of the Vietnamese year. They describe it as combination of New Years, Christmas, and every person’s birthday and though it only lasts a few days, many take off a whole week to celebrate. Much like Western Christmas time, the Vietnamese adorn their homes with trees but not the kind we know. They use colorful kumquat trees that are quite expensive by local standards (around $20). Leading up the beginning of the festival, you will see countless people lugging the trees on the backs of bicycles and motorbikes too. It is quite a spectacle and well worth timing your stay in Hanoi around it. It falls between the 19th of January and the 20th of February, but get there early to secure a room and see the preseason festivities!

You never get to the counter if you line up.

It was in Hanoi train station. I was lining up to change money in front the counter. The locals who came after me just squeeze in front me as if they should do so. Well this is expected.

But foreighners seem to imbibe this culture as well. Two foreighner skipped the whole queue(they are tall) and get their service.

So you may be grossed out of how these people eat! Food on the floor, using the same chopsticks to pass you food, cleaning the cups with old tea. Yuck! Well, at least there's one piece of etiquette here. When you're passing food to someone else, flip your chopsticks around so you're passing it with the back of your chopsticks. That way, you don't spread...... 'cooties'. It's not very common but it should be!

Vietnamese people are very tough at bargaining, a lot more than chinese people for instance.
If you happen to buy souvenirs and stuff, here are a couple of advice:
1/ learn a bit of vietnamese, not much but a little and especially the figures, greeting expressions.
They will smile and the atmosphere will be lighter.
2/ Always use humour, don' t get annoyed.
3/ Go late in the evening, they will have had a good day already, they'll be tired and if you insist a little the prices will go down as far as 50-60%
Be wide awake yourself. take a nap in the afternoon!!!! a little trired and you yield easily, they know it !!
3/ Pretend (if it is not true) that you've been there several times and yes you know this is way too much.
4/ If you are not desparate for buying an item and you see you can't lower the price significantly, then, drop it, and go away. they may run after you.
In a nut shell,: always look as if you have all your wits under control, always try to appear that you dominate the situation.
But don't forget, Vietnamese people are tough but fun to bargain with if you know how to keep your temper.
Never forget this is a game.

I am not 100% sure that I have got the right name for the fruit in my picture below, but hopefully someone will tell me if I'm wrong!!!
The sapodilla is a species introduced to Vietnam, it is widely planted in the north, first being grown in Xuan Dinh, Tu Liem district, Hanoi.
The fruit is egg-shaped and weighs 10-200g.
There is a reddish skin to peel off the fruit.
The brown and yellow pulp that encloses its flat, shiny-black seeds is very sweet, juicy and full of flavour.
There are 2 popular species of sapodilla grown in Vietnam: orange pulp and white-yellow pulp sapodilla.

One of the most popular tourist attractions in Hanoi are the Water Puppets performances on Lake. The people who manipulate the puppets stand in waist-deep water. See the website for a good description.
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The water pupper theatre in the picture is at the Ethnology Museum near Hanoi.