We’re on our way to Hanoi’s Old Quarter. It’s just about the only part of Hanoi that we’ve seen, but it’s so enchanting, it seems to be pulling us back for one last visit.
The Old Quarter was established about a thousand years ago. Urban development here followed along the same lines as it did in Europe. A wall was built around the city to keep out bad guys. Inside, streets were dedicated to particular trades or guilds.
The 36 Streets
They did the same thing in Europe. Walking around Paris, France, you might come across a street named, “Rue de la Bûcherie,” so named because in medieval times, this is where logs, (bûches), were unloaded from boats and brought into town. Neat. You won’t see any bûches there today, though.
But if you walk down, say, “Hàng Gai (Silk) Street“ in the Old Quarter right now, you’re going to be surrounded by silk shops, boutiques, and fabric shops. Or if you want to buy a shiny bauble, just walk down Hàng Bac (Jewelry) Street.” It’s wall-to-wall jewelers. Just like it was who-knows-how-many years ago.
There were 36 of these guild streets in the Old Quarter. (But I guess back then, it was the “New Quarter,” eh?) Even though there are more streets than that now, sometimes you still see the Old Quarter referred to as “The 36 Streets.”
Walking around the Old Quarter feels like you’re walking through history. But at the same time, it’s all happening now. I didn’t check, but there might be a “Cell Phone Street” or a “Flat Panel HDTV Street” that we missed.
(Old Quarter Travel has a nice photo-article called “Hanoi’s Old Quarter Now and Then,” that’s worth checking out).
Shopping
We walked around and shopped for a while. Lots of shops are unlike anything we’d seen before. Someone inside usually spoke at least some english. Whether they did or not, everyone was extremely nice.
We went in one shop that specialized in small accessory bags. The walls were covered with what must have been hundreds of them. Most looked like traditional designs, but there were some modern-looking ones, too.
We picked out one of the modern ones to buy. It turned out that the person who designed the bag was in the shop at the time. She was excited that we selected one of her designs out of the hundreds of others we could have picked. We started talking and she told us how she does her designs and gets the bags made and distributed into shops. A young entrepreneur in a Communist country. Interesting.
Phở — Phinally!
When it was time for lunch, we wanted phở. We’ve had a lot of great Vietnamese food lately, but we haven’t had phở since we arrived in Hanoi. We managed to find a place that had been recommended to us. It was supposed to be a local favorite.
When we got there, the place looked like it was packed, but there were a couple of tables available. We grabbed one and ordered our phở. We were in a room that held maybe fifty people – way bigger than the little “street food” stops we’d made on our foodie tour — but the atmosphere was still no-frills. It was clean and neat, but you got the feeling that it was all about the phở, and not anything else.
When the phở arrived, we could see why. It was awesome. So good. Oh, man.
After lunch, we walked around some more, mostly just taking in the sights of the Old Quarter. But there was still one thing we wanted to do before we said good-bye to Hanoi. (Well, two out of the four of us wanted to, anyway). We wanted to try the famous fresh-brewed beer known as bia hơi.
Bia Hơi
There’s an intersection in the Old Quarter where two busy bia hơi places pack ’em in day and night. We picked one and were seated inside. We were inside, but it was an open-air place with no exterior walls. That was good, because they were really busy.
We ordered four beers and waited. In a couple of minutes, four glasses of ice-cold beer arrived. It tasted fresh, like it was just brewed on the premises, which it was. It was light, but with a really nice, easy-drinking taste. On a hot Hanoi day, a person could drink a lot of this stuff. And it’s incredibly cheap. I think it was in the ballpark of fifty cents a glass. Maybe less.
We ordered another round. There was only one thing going on in this place: beer drinking. It looked like the Hanoi version of Octoberfest in Munich. There were little blue plastic chairs instead of long wooden benches, the “mugs” were plastic glasses instead of 2-pound beer steins, and there was no oom-pah-pah band. But it was still all about the beer.
We made one more stop that day — for Vietnamese iced coffees at an outdoor table at the edge Hoan Kiem Lake. (We were at Thủy Tạ Cafe). The Vietnamese love coffee. That’s no surprise, since Vietnam is the second biggest coffee producer in the world, after Brazil. Anyway, Vietnamese iced coffee is a real treat.
Hoan Kiem Lake is nestled in the middle of the Old Quarter. Not far from where we’re sitting, a bright red bridge leads from the lakeside to Jade Island. There’s an 18th-century temple there called the Temple of the Jade Mountain. It’s a beautiful setting.
To be continued…
