The capital of Vietnam, Ha Noi, is a beautiful city rich with culture offering a true taste of Vietnamese urban life. Bustling with traffic and absolutely crazy driving, there is a strange organization in the midst of it all. There are hardly no stoplights, and even if there are, they are not well respected. All cars and motorbikes simply drive simultaneously wherever and in whatever direction they want, be it in a narrow alley or through a larger street.

Crossing the street is quite an adventure, no Perfect Crossroad here. We actually referred to this practice as “Street Crossing”, with its own slogan: “the ultimate urban extreme sport”. The feeling is indeed as if your life is at risk. However, after some tough training, it all seems to work out fine. While we struggle and hesitate, the locals seem to have a peaceful stroll when crossing the jam packed streets with everything including trucks, rickshaws, bikes, scooters and cars. Should crossing the street not be challenging enough, unfortunately the sidewalk seems to bear a different function then what we’d expect. It is invaded by all sorts of “parked” vehicles as well as any possible good that can be sold, so you find yourself walking mostly along the road.

Street life is very charming. They all sit on small stools at small tables -what we would consider child-size, or better, toddler size- and socialize over coffee, tea, as well as delicious bowls of “pho”, Vietnamese noodle soup. People are dressed very elegantly, well-groomed and styled, and you can definitely note that the population is more affluent than the other countries we have visited so far.

This good quality of life also mirrored in their houses. Many Vietnamese people have a large plasma TV at home. They also have plenty of hot water with high pressure, something not so common in neighboring countries as per our experience so far. Actually, we were lucky enough to see the interior of a beautiful house in the French Quarter after being invited by a friendly Vietnamese man we met on the street while we were looking for a coffee place. He was celebrating the new year with many relatives in an interior patio. The most unexpected thing was to find out that he spoke perfect Spanish, since he had done his studies in Cuba; what a lovely person.

Another interesting observation we made was, be it in the city or in the countryside, you can hear a loud buzzing sound coming from the power lines. It seems that the power cabling infrastructure is not sufficient for the strength of power running through them. It is almost a bit worrisome at points!

Given the modern look and feel of the Hanoians, and the fact that it had been almost one and a half months since we started traveling, Josep also got his hair cut. What an experience! How do you tell someone that does not speak your language how you want your hair cut? Well, Josep went in with a European cut, and left with a sort of Vietnamese-Chinese pop star cut!! Haha, just kidding, it was not so bad, however still quite a good laugh.

After strolling the streets, absorbing the atmosphere, and seeing Hoan Kiem Lake as well as the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, we decided to finish our stay in a traditional manner and went to see a water puppet show. This positively surprised us, the water puppets were wonderfully finished and the tasteful live music and singing accompanying the dancing puppets made for a colorful entertaining show.

Now it is time to head to South towards our next destination: Hoi An.