Description: There is something about Hanoi which is best described in the idiom of its former colonial administrators. It is
laissez-faire, both in its individualism and in the minimal interference from the
Government in leading the lifestyle to which one aspires.
It has a nice pace to it, none of the
craziness of Bangkok or Delhi. Much of what is quintessentially Hanoi is reflected in the way you cross the street. You walk, or glide, slowly across the traffic at an even pace and everyone drives or rides around you, just don’t take on trucks and buses, and to dash across would be
dangerous. Everybody moves comfortably around each other and gets on with life and there is always time for a laugh or a cup of coffee. Another example of their way of life is to be found around the lake fronts in the morning. Hoan Kiem Lake, which is next to where the hotels of the Old Quarter are found, is five minutes walk from most places on that side of town. It is also unique in Vietnam in that you don’t get over-hassled by people trying to part you from dollars. Hanoi has smooth edges and over several visits I have found it easy to

make friends among the locals and enjoy their wonderful subtle Hanoi sense of
humour.
Hoan Kiem’s life is abuzz at four thirty in the morning. At that time, the serious
joggers take over the encircling streets but by five thirty this has changed and the people have moved to the gardens that surround the lake. Paths are crowded with people involved in one form or another of tai chi, or there are games of badminton with the net strung between trees, some serious, some social. And there are a lot of park benches for the elderly, who chat whilethey practise sedentary callisthenics.

Hanoi’s citizens are keen on keeping in shape. Balance in life is something to be
maintained and in Vietnam there is a balance to most things. Their beautiful food has a modicum of French
influence but it adheres to the oriental principle of
texture, taste, aroma,
sweetness and sourness
being upheld in harmony. Equally, there must there be a measure of exercise, work, family, dining and sleeping with perhaps a little time for philosophical reflection.
They seem to bear no malice toward foreigners for sins past. But as one friend pointed out, over eighty per cent of the population have been born since the end of the American war, so there is not as much feeling.
Hoan Kiem seems to be
everything peaceful but an old man, who also wanted to converse in French, showed me where the anti aircraft emplacements were when the Americans bombed the city.
There are no visible scars of war and a lot of the city is relatively new, but its heart is the Old Quarter, where the best hotels are, where the cheap hotels are, where you will find the best Vietnamese and international food. The local food is delicious. It could be Pho Bo Hanoi, the wonderful and addictive beef noodle soup that is gently flavoured with anise and
cinnamon and served with a raft of thinly sliced raw fillet of beef on top of the top of the noodles. Boiling broth is poured over so that it cooks ever so gently while you add in the bean sprouts and
chillies and fresh basil and coriander and lime quarters. You could sample a banquet menu in one of the more
upmarket restaurants or you might sample the banana fish at Cha Ca La Vong, a
restaurant about two blocks from Hoan Kiem which is so famous they named the street after it. Nor has this establishment changed its menu in over 120 years.
A bit further around the lake and back another street or two is the Hang Be market, in the street of the same name. Here there are a
couple of hundred metres of stalls selling anything and everything to do with the art of cooking and eating. Freshly, butchered meat is to be found next to a million flowers on one side and live fish and prawns on the other.
Over on the opposite side of the lake you can find the streets that lead into the centre of modern Hanoi with its wide streets and parks and thousands of trees and statues of people from
history. One of the biggest is of Vladimir Ilych Lenin.
It might move a bit faster, over here, but not a lot.
Hoan Kiem gots it name in the fifteenth century when the
revered leader, Le Loi drove the Chinese from Vietnam; he and his entourage took his dragon shaped boat on Luc Thuy (Green Water) Lake. Almost immediately wave rose up in the normally placid waters bringing The Golden Tortoise to the boat. The tortoise told Le Loi his work was now complete. It was time for him to return the sacred sword which had been loaned to him by the king of the sea. The sword then removed itself from the scabbard at Le Loi’s waist and flew to the tortoise who clasped it in his mouth and then disappeared. Thus the lake is now ‘Restored Sword’ Lake, Hoan Kiem.
I asked many people whether they might have awaited the
return of the sword during the war with the Americans and was told that people always looked for the Golden Tortoise, but in terms of that war, it was one which they would always win.




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