Went to the Dong Xuan market in the morning, which was reminiscent of the old Chinatown market. Final bowl of rice vermicelli (14kd) on the sidewalk. Quick stop at PhoCo Café (2 Hang Dong) for Ha Noi’s weakest coffee and tiniest toilet. Bought a kilo of the teeny-tiny tangerines (20kd) to bring home and then it was back to the hotel to pack up to catch the 1.30 pm flight home.
I remember Ha Noi from a trip four years ago as a laidback and idyllic town. That’s no longer true. While it doesn’t quite feel like a city given the lack of tall buildings, the energy surging through the place was palpable. The streets thronged with motorbikes and the air was filled with ceaseless cacophonous klaxoning and pungent exhaust which residents battled against with face-masks. Wafting among the wooziness-inducing fumes were the tempting smells of food hawked by street peddlers. Life spilled onto the sidewalks as people ate, drank and gossiped on the little plastic stoops. Women (it was almost always women) sold anything that could be carried in woven baskets and balanced on a pole slung over the shoulders. We walked a lot in Ha Noi and I loved the fact that every different street promised something new in sights and smells. Even walking on different sides of the same street threw up something new. As long as crossing it didn't result in any bodily harm. It took a little getting used to, but the trick to navigating oncoming traffic was to move slowly and maintain eye contact, and let them manoeuvre around you. Or as P put it, just channel your inner third-world being.
This could definitely be a place to visit again. But next time, with a face-mask.