Hanoi is a very vibrant city during day time, but during night, it seems to turn it up to eleven. You can see alluring street food vendors with steam rising from their pots and pans, bars obnoxiously blasting music really loud trying to attract western tourists and of course, just as many scooters going everywhere.
Street food extravaganza
One thing becomes clear really fast - there's no shortage of street food. At times, Hanoi feels like an everyday food festival - except 10 times bigger what these kind of festivals are in Helsinki. It's fun to just go from store to store, thinking what kind of food to try next.
The openness and casual nature of eating outside makes it feel very inviting. You rarely see people dressed very fancy, and the restaurants themselves could be described more as functional than decorated up to the last detail. Of course, there are fancier restaurants too, but overall I feel like Old Quarters is filled with simple hole-in-a-wall type of places, where the focus is not on making it look good on Instagram, but where the food is excellent.
I think most Asian countries are quite known for their extensive wet markets, and Vietnam is no exception. I didn't get to visit any really big ones, but just some streets in Old Quarters. But it was still fun to see all the fresh fruit, vegetables and other foods on offer.
Afterwork
Hanoi is a great place for combining drinking and eating. Much like izakayas in Japan, Hanoi has tons of places where you can order beer or other drinks, and all kinds of foods to go with it. Small dishes that are perfect for sharing. It's so fun to order like six different small dishes, and try a bit of everything while sipping cold beer (with ice!) to cool down from the hot day. One of the best dishes I had was a super soft, yet crispy tofu with some tasty chilli sauce and green onion. Simple, but so good.
Night streets
Besides food, there's plenty of interesting things happening in the evening. People chilling, doing all kinds of business on the streets, aunties dancing in the park... One thing I recommend, is to buy fruit from one of the vendors that can be found near the park, and go eat it under the trees. They chop and peel you any fruit you want and give you this interesting chili salt that is bit sweet (muối ớt), where you can dip your fruit on a stick. So yummy! It feels such luxury to be able to buy freshly prepared fruit, although it's probably bit overpriced for the tourists 😅
Quiet moments
When you wonder a bit out of the most busiest streets, the chaos and the noise gets less. The contrast makes it interesting.
In some places it get really dark, as there might not be streetlights nearby, or the light just doesn't reach into the narrow alleys. Despite this, I never felt uneasy or unsafe while walking around.
And so, the night comes to an end...
I hope you enjoyed this small glimpse into what Hanoi looks like at night. I was there only for a week, so there would have still been lots more to see, I'm sure.
Writing this, I realised I still have one roll of film undeveloped from my point-n-shoot, with some more night market photos. That will have to wait until next time. :)
Thank you to Ngọc Nguyễn and Uyên Trương for their valuable consultation in writing this article. 🙏