 | Hanoi Walking arround Reviews | Tips 1 - 10 of 65 |  |
 | |  |  | Walking arround: Drinking Crappy Coffee in Hanoi | Tip Rating:   |  |  | |  |
If you're thinking I advocate drinking bad coffee, I'm not. If I were , the title would be "Drinking coffee in Seoul". Yes, I am not apologectic about it , coffee there sucks big time. Only tea is good over there. The purist in me says that instant coffee taste like acrid dishwater. Same goes for the watered-down coffees found in fancy joints branded with mermaids. Back to where I was saying, you have to try Cafe cut chon (It literally translates to Fox Dung Coffee ) when you're in Hanoi. It's simply the best coffee in the world and if you need to know it's Arabica coffee beans that has been eaten, digested and regurgitated from the palm civet cat. Yes, it is crap from a civet cat. But what wonderful crap! The digestive juices from the weasel makes the coffee stronger, smoother and more heady. Once you try this, it's unlikely you'll try anything else, including mermaid-branded coffee. Where to buy it: It's difficult to buy the real deal, many tourists end up purchasing synthectic Cafe Cut Chon from the ubiquitious Trung Nguyen coffee shops. I bought mine from Cafe Mai ( see the address below). Taste Review : Taste a lot like gd ol' Saigonese Coffee, only stronger and better. Strong accent of mocha with a strong earthy , acidic taste. Leave a Comment Address: 96 Le Van Huu, Hai Ba Trung Dist, Hanoi
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| | | | Walking arround: Pho Hang Bong - Cotton street | Tip Rating: | | | | |
No, Hanoi doesn't have marvellous monuments to look at. The charming of Hanoi is it's peaceful atmotphere, cool air in the early morning, smilling and friednly people, graceful french-time houses with green windows, lively scenary along small streets,... so the pleasant fun is just walking around. Being an oriental country (and communist now), the red is popular, always appears in the wedding, national festival, sport events,.... Here is an evidence, a treet called "Hang Dao" means "Red Street". This street is used to trade cloths, which were mostly in red colour, starts from Hoan Kiem Lake and links to "Hang Bong", which means "Street of cotton" and Hang Bong is link to "Tho Nhuom", which means "Street of dyers". So imagine these streets are like a chain of textile work in the past and now could be considered as "Silk road" in Hanoi, where most of silk shops located. This reflects the specialization of imigrations from traditional villages to Hanoi. While Hanoi was a "lady in red" on the National day, this woman seems to be uneventful because all her life is belong to this "Red Flag" shop. Leave a Comment Address: Old Quarter
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| | | | Walking arround: The Old Quarter | Tip Rating: | | | | |
The Old Quarter (Pho Phuong) is an ancient merchant quarter of Hanoi city developed during the 13th century. There is a total of 36 streets and each is named according to the merchandise on offer. For example, Hang Buom Street means "sails merchandise street" and Hang Giay Street means "paper merchandise street". This entire area is located at the northern portion of Ho Hoan Kiem (Lake of Restored Sword) and is an interesting maze of small streets and old traditional buildings with temples, markets dispersed among them. There are also lots of shops here selling a variety of stuff ranging from clothings, shoes, souvenirs, groceries, food, drinks etc etc. The traffic is chaotic with lots of motorcycles, bicycles, cyclos, cars etc and you need to know how to cross the road properly (see warning section of this VT page). The important thing when exploring the Old Quarter is to bring a good map along as you will get lost, but not to worry because this is one place which you will always remember. More photos of the Old Quarter are at the travelogue section of this VT page, and I will introduce the various attractions at the Old Quarter at the later tips of this page. Leave a Comment
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| | | | Walking arround: Old Hanoi streets | Tip Rating:  | | | | |
Old of Hanoi is divided in “corporations” or guilds, each corporation being located in one or few streets; historically there are 36 corporations, most of which disappeared and were replaced by more modern “corporations”; there are still streets with mainly stone carvers, smiths (motor bike repairs nowadays), butchers, groceries, tailors, etc. There are 36 streets, named after the corporations, silk street (Hang Tô), sugar street (Phô Hang Duong), fake money for offering (Hang Ma) street, etc. I do not read Vietnamese, so I did not know what the names meant, but after some time you have an idea, in which corporation you are walking. Here on the pictures are stone carvers, pharmacy and medicine supply shops making an exhibition at night, portion of street with only flower shops, stone carvers street, and a pottery shop; this last one is not located in the old city, but there are several shops in a very close area at the crossing of Lac Long Quan and Hoang Ha Tham avenues.
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| | | | Walking arround: A feast for the senses | Tip Rating: | | | | |
Walking around in Hanoi is a real feast for the senses. The smells of the food of the street vendors, the toot and ringsof the traffic, the sights, colour and movement. Oneof our favourite activities was watching the things being transported on bikes and motor bikes. We saw all the usual things in the way of shopping: sacks of rice, fruit and vegetables, poultry, but the feather duster sellers who stopped as a group for a mid morning street snack and the man with 20 or 30 bags of goldfish were among our favourites. On motor bikes were a refrigerator, not just a small bar fridge, and a huge television set complete with aerial. Another thing that struck us was the number of flower sellers on the streets and with stalls. The rose buds were individually wrapped in paper to protect them and slow their opening. But there were also many other varieties for sale. Market stalls are always colourful and interesting as the fruit and vegetables are a mix of familiar and strange but the frogs in buckets with their legs tied were amongst the more unusual sights. And of course the people: old, young, children, traditionally and modern dressed, with school children in their blue skirts/shorts/pants and white shirts and often a red scarf. Very few beggars and we only saw one obvious addict. I had fun when I stopped to look at some photos I had had processed and the people sitting nearby came to have a look: much fun with english, french and mime - and more photo opportunities. We always felt safe and perhaps our age helped as everywhere we were treated with the utmost courtesy, or perhaps this is just typical of the people. Leave a Comment Address: City streets
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on March 2, 2005
Hanoi
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