Visit the romantic old quarter
"Hanoi is a lovely city, with many attractions – Ho Chi Minh’s home, great museums, beautiful pagodas – but the Old Quarter really makes the trip worthwhile. It is a lovely area, unexpectedly quiet and romantic.
Here is a quote from my favourite travel writer, Pico Iyer, who captures the romance of the old quarter:
“And nighttime was the best of all in the old, and stately capital, as something ancient began to come forth from the shadows. I loved to bump along the lamplit alleyways after dark in a cyclo, a perfect pace at which to see and smell the spicy nights. In the gloom, the town was more mysterious than ever, the streets too dark even to read by, the little stalls half lit, the faces eerie in blackness. Lovers were eating ice cream by the waterside, and children traded cards of movie stars. Whole families sat at tables on the sidewalk, eating elaborate meals by the flicker of oil lamps. Couples sat cradled by their bicycles, or in the hollows of large trees. The air smelled of mint and a festival spirit. And it was easy to feel the lamps were burning inside the people too.”
[from the essay “Yesterday Once More” in the collection Falling off the Map: Some Lonely Places of the World (1993)]
