Some wares in the city ... Hanoi traffic is always hectic.Credit: AFP
It's mid-morning in Hanoi's Old Quarter and a half-empty bus chugs past St Joseph's Cathedral. This whitewashed building dates back to the 19th century but, with its heavily polluted frontage, looks more like a relic from medieval France. The roads around the bus are a congealed blur of motorcycles, mopeds and scooters, each loaded with between one and four passengers carrying everything from mobile phones to baskets stuffed with live chickens.
While traffic swamps most big cities, the onslaught in Vietnam's capital is astonishing. It comes from all directions. Even the most seemingly tranquil back street can suddenly be overcome with motorised mayhem and a crescendo of piercing beeps and toots.
The old Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) – flashy, capitalist and more affluent – is notorious for its two-wheeled armies but Hanoi – for so long the poorer, communist sibling, where most residents could only dream of such luxuries – has rapidly caught up.
After initially despising all this hustle and bustle, I soon grow to love Hanoi's hectic streets. Within them I discover excellent shops and cuisine, memorable sights, cultural attractions, quirky characters and customs.
The key to enjoying Hanoi is taking it in your stride – not just the traffic but the touts, too, because perhaps nowhere else in South-East Asia do these perils test your patience so much.
The main culprits are motorcycle taxi drivers, who seem to be beside every footpath, ready to swoop you away. Equally dogged are the booksellers and the women with wooden rods stretched across their backs with baskets of fruit, nuts and sweet pastries dangling from each end. With determination such as theirs, it was no wonder the independence-loving north Vietnamese managed to fight off their southern counterparts, French colonialists and US forces between 1945 and 1975.
A good way of eluding the touts is by ducking into the shops tucked into the ground floors of decrepit three- and four-storey French colonial-era apartments and mansions.
I stumble across scores of trendy fashion outlets, selling authentic brand-name clothes for half what I'd pay back home, plus ones flogging cheap T-shirts and caps.
Quaint shops selling silk, lacquer-ware and handicrafts are wedged between art galleries loaded with beautiful paintings of the Vietnamese countryside and pro-communist propaganda posters from the 1960s and '70s – ironic, given the free market seems to be operating in a big way in Hanoi these days.
I lose count of the number of bootleg DVD stalls, travel agencies, mobile phone shops, photocopying booths, hair and beauty salons, sewing factories and motorbike repair garages dripping with oil and grease – plus an array of markets and food stalls off-loading everything from backpacks and electronics to dog meat and dead cobras.
Hanoi caters for all stomachs and budgets, though. At the bare-bones level, you can join locals on the Yamaha and Honda-packed footpaths, enjoying myriad pho (noodle soup) and rice dishes for less than $2. More plush restaurants have sprung up in recent years, complete with glitzy neon-light exteriors, sleek interiors and price tags to match.
Menus include Mediterranean-inspired dishes as well as prime cuts of beef from New Zealand and Australia.
An excellent blend, and a drawcard for both locals and tourists, is Cha Ca La Vong, a restaurant that has been in the same family for five generations.
Its speciality is fried fish, cooked in front of you on a charcoal stove and served with dill, parsley, bean sprouts, onions, ground peanuts, rice noodles and shrimp paste. At 90,000 dong (about $5.60), this delicious concoction isn't cheap by Hanoi standards but it's terrific value. Cocktail bars and swish coffee shops offering free Wi-Fi have opened in recent years and there are dozens of shabby, down-to-earth spots where you can enjoy a cheap draught beer (bia hoi) or an inexpensive caffeine hit in minimalist surrounds.
French actress Catherine Deneuve was apparently a regular at Kinh Do Cafe while filming the 1992 movie Indochina and I end up at this cafe three mornings in a row, sipping ultra-strong black coffee lightened by sugary condensed milk.
In a city of several lakes, it's the one at the heart of the Old Quarter that most visitors use as their yardstick. The lake's name, Hoan Kiem (Lake of the Restored Sword), derives from a legend that dates back to the 15th century. It's claimed Vietnamese emperor Ly Thai To was sent a magical sword from heaven, which he used to repel Chinese invaders.
After he won in battle, a giant tortoise snatched the weapon and dragged it into the river before handing it back to its divine owners.
Similar mythical tales are presented every evening at the lakeside Water Puppet Theatre, which showcases a 1000-year-old tradition of rice farmers carving wooden puppets and performing shows in flooded paddies. Inside the theatre, men and dragon-figures carved in wood splash about courtesy of highly skilled puppet masters.
The pick of Hanoi's attractions is the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.
Although the complex is dotted with parks, gardens, pagodas and museums, the man himself is still the star of the show, in a darkened room where the walls are studded with both the Vietnamese star and the communist hammer and sickle (a symbol still found on flags flying throughout the city).
Armed guards in ill-fitting uniforms stare impassively as we pass the glass sarcophagus, which is bathed in an eerie red glow.
Inside is a suited and booted "Uncle" Ho, whose trademark wispy beard rests gently on his chest. It looks for all the world as if he's just taking a nap.
TRIP NOTES
GETTING THERE
Jetstar flies from Sydney to Ho Chi Minh City, priced from $969; Vietnam Airlines flies daily between Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. See jetstar.com.au.
WHERE TO STAY
Double rooms at the Rising Dragon II Hotel, 24 Hang Ga Street, Old Quarter, Hanoi, are available from US$70 ($75) a night. See www.risingdragonhotel.net.
FURTHER INFORMATION
See vietnamtourism.com.
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