Hanoi

Nadine Albach and her Vietnamese colleague Hung Nguyen Viet visit the Dong Xuan nightmarket in Hanoi.

Live in Vietnam is taking place in the streets – so far my impression after some days in Hanoi. Thus, I made some experiences of high contrast yesterday: First, my colleague from Tienphong daily, Nguyen Viet Hung, took me to the water-puppet theatre near Ho Hoan Kiem, which I loved to see as my tourist guide recommended: “You can’t leave Hanoi without seeing a traditional water-puppet show.” But the show mainly seems to be one for tourists – as I have seen only few Vietnamese in the audience and Hung told me, that he himself, living here for about 20 years, never saw one of the shows. Even most of the moderation was in English, not in Vietnamese. Anyhow, this lavish play with traditional music and ancient Vietnamese stories, dating back 1000 years and founded by rice farmers, gave me an insight to the countries rich culture, history and traditions.

There might be no more extreme contrast to this experience than the night market in the area of Dong Xuan during daylight. This seemed to represent modern Vietnam: I had the impression that all young Vietnamese living in Hanoi were strolling across the street. The atmosphere was wonderful: The dark night, contrasted by the brightly lit market stalls, the smell of sweet potatoes and hot corn cobs and all these people, happily searching for some bargain and enjoying being together. Shoulder to shoulder or hand in hand they walked, looked, talked and sometimes made room for the motorbikes driving here as well, although the space was that limited that they could move no faster than the others were walking. My feeling was to witness more of a social event than a mere shopping tour.

Anyhow, as Hung told me, especially young Vietnamese love to search for inexpensive goods, favouring quantity to quality. For me as an European, I could not stop to be astonished by the overwhelming amount of things to buy. “At night market, you can buy anything”, Hung told me – but I had the feeling that it was even anything plus X. Pullovers, blankets, toys, accessories for mobiles, sunglasses, shoes… First, I didn’t dare to ask for any prizes, being so dazzled by the range of products and the buzz of activity. Watching seemed enough. But then I started wondering: “This cute tea set, will I manage to transport it back to Germany? Oh, this shirt is looking nice … and what about these shoes…?”

In the end, a market stall selling sunglasses caught my attention. After some time of looking, inspiring the saleswoman to lower the price even more, I chose two models in up to date style for me and my husband – what a nice gift to bring to Germany. After that, no reservations left, I also bought some training suit. But suddenly, although me being in a shopping mood now, the salesmen started packing away their goods and closing their little shops. Eleven o’ clock, end of market.

At this time, one more contrast waiting as I drove home to my hotel: I suddenly got to know a completely different Hanoi – with empty streets and full of silence.