Hanoi 24 Hours

Post:Bao Chi- Image:Multiple authors

6 AM

Breakfast was pho at Bat Dan. This famous pho restaurant, already featured in books, was packed with customers early in the morning. If you were quick, you'd find a seat and wait for your companions to queue up to buy pho. Although Hanoi's breakfast menu is diverse with over 20 different dishes, including various types of sticky rice, more than five kinds of vermicelli, not to mention rice rolls and bread, pho remains the top choice and the most popular. A bowl of pho with its sweet, hot broth, white noodles, reddish-pink beef, and a sprinkle of green onions – everyone loves it, and it's become a world-renowned brand.

7 AM

After finishing your bowl of pho, don't rush; stop by a small roadside café for a rich, dark coffee. Café Nhĩ on Hàng Cá street is already full, with no parking available. Café Năng, Café Giản, and Café Thái overlook the street with their simple wooden tables and chairs. Iced black coffee and iced brown coffee are the two most popular morning drinks. A cup of coffee, a newspaper, or a friend sitting beside you before your morning work shift. Hanoians don't like sitting in fancy cafes with elaborate tables and chairs to drink coffee; those places are reserved for fruit juices or smoothies. If you want to enjoy a rich, strong coffee, visit a café with rickety tables and chairs—you're sure to find a delicious cup.

8 AM

Now it's time for a stroll around Hanoi. We took a walk around Ho Guom Lake in the cool, pleasant autumn air. The sky was a brilliant blue and the sun was gentle. Couples were already there taking wedding photos. The area around Ho Guom Lake, Hang Bai Street, Dinh Le Street, past the Grand Opera House, the Hilton Hotel, the University of Hanoi, and the Metropole Hotel had become beautiful locations for wedding photos.

Stop by Trang Tien ice cream shop and try their delicious ice cream cones. Alternatively, take some time to visit The Huc Bridge and Ngoc Son Temple. Along with the entrance fee to these two places, you can also visit the Temple of Literature – National University. Visiting both of these sites might take over two hours. On the way, you can visit the Thang Long Imperial Citadel on Hoang Dieu Street. This street also has a special location: the house of General Vo Nguyen Giap.

12 noon

Deciding what to eat for lunch is a real dilemma for me. Everything looks so tempting and delicious. Whether it's vermicelli with tofu and shrimp paste from Phat Loc alley, vermicelli with grilled pork patties from Hang Manh street, La Vong fish cakes, vermicelli with pork tongue from Ngo Si Lien market, steak sandwiches, or anything else… I want to try it all. After a while of deliberation, I decided on vermicelli with tofu and shrimp paste, a dish that seems to only taste good when eaten in Hanoi. Vermicelli with tofu, rice patties, boiled pork, and fried spring rolls – one serving is enough to keep me full until afternoon.

1 PM

It was midday, with gentle sunshine. Now was the time to explore the 36 streets of Hanoi, and the best way to do that was on foot. Walking through these grid-like streets, it's easy to get lost if you're not careful. Long streets connect to streets, alleys lead to alleys, and houses are crammed together. Walking through the streets is the only way to truly experience the life of Hanoians. Each street sells a different type of goods, in tiny shops. Here, you can still find very old trades like sidewalk barbers, long hair sellers, ao dai tailors, seal makers, watch repairers, portrait painters… – trades that are gradually disappearing over time. While strolling through the streets, you could stop at Luong Van Can for a refreshing cup of black bean sweet soup or have a glass of iced tea in a small alley.

I stopped by Bach Ma Temple, one of Hanoi's four guardian temples, at the beginning of Hang Buom Street. I wandered around on foot to O Quan Chuong Gate, got lost in the bustling alleys of Dong Xuan Market, and then made my way to Hang Duong Street to buy some candied plums as souvenirs. The rice flakes, wrapped in lotus leaves, were also carefully packaged. After a short stroll through the streets, I returned home laden with gifts.

5 PM

The Thang Long Puppet Theatre's performance is about to begin. Each show lasts just over an hour but is very enjoyable. Most of the audience consists of tourists on organized tours, with the rest being children. Stories like the betel nut and areca nut legend, the starfruit offering with gold, and many others are performed using puppets on water. It's not time-consuming but very entertaining.

6 PM

Now is the time for the casual beer at the corner of Ta Hien Street, packed with young people who come here to drink beer and chat after work. Cold beers, a few handfuls of nem phuong (a type of Vietnamese sausage), french fries, grilled nem chua (fermented pork sausage)... the bustling Western-style street is lively and crowded. It's also the time for the night market to open. The market is open from 6 PM to 11 PM on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights along Hang Dao and Hang Duong streets, from the lakefront all the way to Dong Xuan Market.

9 PM

Wandering through streets fragrant with magnolia and milk flower scents, we stopped at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Many Hanoians choose this place for evening walks with their families, and there's another activity I only learned about today: the flag-lowering ceremony at 9 PM every night. People walking or passing by at this time all stop and stand respectfully during the ceremony that takes place every evening.

10 PM

Iced tea and late-night snacks. Simple nightlife. Find a tea shop with a beautiful view of Ho Guom Lake, enjoy a fragrant cup of tea with sunflower seeds or a plate of fruit. Many young people gather with friends over cups of tea. Late-night snacks are also plentiful, from papaya salad to pork rib porridge, from sticky rice with pate to duck noodle soup with bamboo shoots.

24 hours at night

Hanoi's night streets possess a unique beauty: profound and peaceful. Unlike the bustling 24-hour Saigon, Hanoi's day and night offer two distinct charms. After the hurried pace of the day, at 11 PM, the streets begin to thin out. The autumn air is cool enough for passersby to add a light sweater or scarf. Night mist hangs over the streets. Under the soft, yellow light of the street lamps, the nighttime world is tranquil, subtly scented with the fragrance of milk flowers and magnolia blossoms. Someone's window is gently open, and the soft, soothing sound of a romantic melody drifts in.

Walking through Hanoi at night reveals the true beauty and charm of this city. Photographers are now creating their own nighttime images. The 36 streets of Hanoi, with their simple Hang streets, French-style houses, and tube-shaped buildings, create a stunning blend of light and shadow, while the streets under the late-night lights are breathtaking – Hoang Dieu, Phan Dinh Phung, Tran Phu…

2 AM

Now is the time for a special trip to a special, fragrant place – the Quang Ba night flower market. At 2 AM, motorbikes piled high with flowers from the flower villages of Tay Tuu, Me Linh, and Nghi Tam pour into this market located along the dike. The world of countless flowers is bustling all day, but the two busiest times are at 2 AM, when flower growers bring their flowers to sell, and from 4:30 AM onwards, when buyers arrive to select and take their flowers to sell throughout the streets.

Under the flickering light of flashlights, the world of flowers begins to bustle with buyers and sellers. Each season brings its own flowers. Now, the market is filled with the vibrant yellow chrysanthemums of autumn. They are sold in bunches of hundreds of blossoms at surprisingly low prices. Along with chrysanthemums, there are roses, marigolds, lilies, and many other kinds of flowers.

Walking through the night flower market, you won't want to leave. Amidst the intoxicating fragrance lies the bustling daily life of the flower vendors. From 2 am to 5 am, flowers are bought, loaded onto carts, and transported to flower shops on the street or to markets the next morning. If you feel hungry, you can have a hot bowl of pho or some rice cakes, and sip on some hot green tea. Leaving the flower market, I took home carefully arranged bouquets of vibrant chrysanthemums, flowers that would be carried on my early morning flight to distant Saigon.

5 AM

The 24-hour journey is coming to an end, and it's time to finish something I've long intended to do. The first rays of dawn appeared on the horizon as we stood on Long Bien Bridge, this century-old bridge of our land. The sunrise over the Red River was heavy with red silt. Below the bridge, the Long Bien vegetable market was at its busiest. On the bridge itself, laborers busily carried heavy baskets of fruit back and forth. Long Bien Bridge has witnessed the transformation of this land for over a century and will continue to be the bridge connecting the two banks of the river in the future. Hanoi in 24 hours, yet full of emotions and the most special things.

The Thanh