Hanoi is a much quieter city than Ho Chi Minh City, but there is still tons of traffic. That's one of the things that strikes you first when you take a tour around the city. The streets are filled with people, cars, motorbikes, noise, street stalls, women unloading food, and more. It's a beautiful city where I wouldn't hesitate to live, especially when you take Vietnamese hospitality into account.
Daily life in Hanoi never stops. Hanoi was the first place I visited in Vietnam and I absolutely fell in love with it. We arrived at our hotel at 6am and decided to go have a walk around. The city was waking up and the people came out to buy bread (a relic of French colonialism...fresh-baked baguettes!) and fruit and head off to work on their bikes. The workers ate their pho (soup with noodles, vegetables, and meat) and the humidity and heat grew by the second.
Hanoi is a friendly city...local vendors will eagerly offer you a lychee to try if they see you looking with curiosity. Many of the streets and colonial buildings are in bad shape but they still give the city a romantic aura. It's a merchant city as well so you'll find shops all over and the oldest neighborhoods in the city are still divided by guilds.
The truth is that if you are not used to the chaos, it can be quite overwhelming. I suggest casually exploring the streets, visiting temples, watching people go about their daily lives, strolling leisurely around the lake and soaking it all in.
As many travelers have said before me, Hanoi is an intense city...cars, motorcycles, bicycles, carts, and thousands of people milling around. It’s natural that you'll be a bit daunted when you head out. The sidewalks are crowded with food stalls, vendors, and people, all of which makes nearly impossible to walk.
As you head down the street, you need to have eyes in the back of your head.
After 40km of biking in Thai Binh, we stopped at a local house to rest and eat. We all got cokes and sprites as a reward but 2 cokes were missing. The host goes to the neighbor and ask for it. During the lunch, the neighbor comes back and takes a pig and goes. Nobody noticed, so i tell the host and he answers : I borrowed 2 cokes, he borrow something...
