The best way I can describe Hanoi is like London but 100x busier and hotter quarters unless they were in touch with a local or someone living as an expat . We were lucky in that we had two friends from home that both moved to Hanoi to teach English and have since lived there for 7 years , so we had inside knowledge !
The best way I can describe Hanoi is like London but 100x busier and hotter quarters unless they were in touch with a local or someone living as an expat . We were lucky in that we had two friends from home that both moved to Hanoi to teach English and have since lived there for 7 years , so we had inside knowledge !
Traffic in Hanoi is unlike anything I ’ ve ever seen . Everyone owns a motorbike ; there are very few cars , unless you ’ re a taxi driver . There is also no Highway Code in Hanoi , it really is every man for themself , they don ’ t have road signs , or traffic lights , or a zebra crossing , or even lanes of traffic for that matter . If you need to cross a road , be prepared for it to take up to half an hour , and the trick is to just walk out into traffic ( no , really ), but at a steady pace and keeping that pace until you reach the other side , as the drivers will then notice you and move out of your way ! The worst thing to do is to speed up and panic , which is obviously a natural reaction when you are walking straight into about 6 lanes of traffic going in every direction possible ! After a good few attempts , you do get the hang of it . Beeping of the horn is something you hear 24 / 7 whilst in the city , unlike drivers in the UK , drivers in Hanoi are beeping to make others aware of their presence , it is not used in an aggressive manner at all , it is simply to warn you that somebody is driving right behind or next to you , but it does take some getting used to !
Don ’ t go to Vietnam if you don ’ t like rice or noodles ! Or if you don ’ t like seeing meat being cooked outside on the street in boiling hot temperatures … One of my first dishes was barbequed chicken feet . There was a whole street known as chicken street , where on both sides of the pavement they would be cooking chicken ( all parts of chicken ) on a BBQ . Chicken feet happen to be a delicacy in Vietnam , so I took the plunge and
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