Nguyen Du Cafe: No matter the time of day – morning, noon, afternoon, evening, sunny, or rainy – you can always sit at a sidewalk cafe on Nguyen Du Street (68 or 72), and it offers a different feeling at any given time. Sometimes I don’t like it much, but overall, it’s a quintessential Hanoi spot.
In the days leading up to Tet (Lunar New Year), with drizzling rain and cold winds, strolling through the Old Quarter (Ma May, Hang Bac, Luong Ngoc Quyen, Hang Chieu…), watching people rush to prepare for Tet while you leisurely observe everyone, the feeling is both peaceful and serene, yet tinged with the melancholy of the days before Tet. You can’t find that anywhere else but in Hanoi.
Still on those drizzling, windy days, slurping up glutinous rice balls at Mr. Pham Bang’s shop. I occasionally bring friends from afar there, but they don’t seem to enjoy it much. Well, I guess I’ll just enjoy it by myself.
Still on the menu. Bun dau (vermicelli with tofu) in Phat Loc alley. Don’t describe it any further, many people are dying to try it.
Coffee at old cafes like Lam, Giang, Quat… Honestly, I don’t know how to drink coffee. But I still find sitting in these old Hanoi cafes different from anywhere else in the world.
Mid-Autumn Festival, leisurely shopping for toys on Hang Ma street. If you have time, go on the busiest day, you can squeeze in, choose, pick things up, put them down, and bargain – that’s even better. Every year I make an effort to show up there, whether I go with a group, with someone, or sometimes alone.
Sidewalk iced tea. Iced tea in summer, hot tea in winter. Since I started working, wherever I go, I always look around to see if there’s an iced tea stall. Sitting and nodding over a cup of tea, chatting about all sorts of random things, even gossiping about a few people… but it’s at those roadside tea stalls that the bonds of brotherhood, friendship, and camaraderie among colleagues become much stronger.
Take a walk around Hoan Kiem Lake. This is something you should definitely try or do regularly, especially on cool days. You can detour to the Frog Garden, sit there and chat a bit, or go to Dinh Le Street to browse (maybe not buy) a few books.
Eat Trang Tien ice cream. The other day, a friend asked on Twitter why Hanoians are so attached to Trang Tien ice cream. I replied that it’s a memory. The queues, the crowds, the atmosphere, and the taste… and that same ice cream cone – if you take it elsewhere, it won’t taste as good anymore.
Buy newspapers at newsstands. This is one of the things I miss most whenever I’m away from Hanoi. Nowadays, I often buy newspapers but don’t finish reading them (sometimes they get old before I even have time to read them), but I still maintain the habit of stopping by Hang Trong or Phan Huy Chu streets to pick up a few familiar ones. There are actually quite a few newsstands like this around the world, but for me, buying newspapers is a part of my own personal Hanoi.
