- HANOI -
A swarm of two-strokes
I think the first thing you're going to notice are all the mopeds. They are just everywhere. Everywhere. On one road three mopeds drive parallel on the same lane, does not matter if it is the wrong one anyway. Everything is transported by mopeds. As if the law of gravity did not exist. Several printers at once, the new 4K TV or even the family of four are all put on one old rusty moped. Nothing seems impossible, nothing seems illegal. There is even a helmet obligation, which produces partly very creative appearances. Construction worker helmets or metal shells that look more like a kitchen utensil. The majority of the population drives without a helmet as the law is not really executed anyway.
Although mopeds are widespread in Asia, statistics show that you are hardly going to finde a place where it is worse than in Hanoi. There are around 6 million mopeds for the almost 8 million inhabitants. So just as many people as my whole country Austria has got all together. The high appeal of mopeds is largely due to the exorbitant tax the government raises on cars. No one but the upper class can afford cars. It's way easier to get a two-stroke and get a little creative.
Sidewalks for everything, but walking
Traffic alone isn't so bad. However, it seems to be the duty of every inhabitant of Hanoi to honk the horn every 2.47 seconds during a moped ride. Accordingly, the acoustics in the city are incredibly loud. Of course you have to struggle with noise in other big cities, but you can often save yourself in pedestrian zones or in the city center where often no vehicles are allowed. However, this is not the case in Hanoi. If it is possible from the geometric dimensions that a moped passes a path, then a moped will also pass through there.
It doesn't matter if it's a sidewalk or not. If you can't get ahead with your moped because of slow walking pedestrians, they honk the horn. There is always a lot going on on the sidewalk. They cook, grill with open fire, slaughter and gut animals, play cards or wash dishes. I found this colourful hustle and bustle absolutely exciting to watch. Like a small microcosm that starts every day in the morning from new.
This chaos is also used very creatively. You hang a mirror on a fence and put an armchair under it: The hairdresser salon is done!
Interesting chaos
I didn't do any typical sightseeing in Hanoi. I found the daily chaos itself interesting enough. Especially the marching through the city centre gave me many impressions I didn't know yet. There was the food, for example. In the middle of the city centre of a city with several million inhabitants, there were countless stands in every street selling fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, fish or other products. I've never really seen a real supermarket. Of course, the hygienic standards were not necessarily at European level. Meat is bought together with the flies, after all it lies for hours at 30°C in the sun. Oh yes, deep-fried dogs as a whole are also something completely normal in the north. I'd never seen that before, either.
It's really hard for me to explain how Hanoi feeled to me and why I liked it. My colleague did not like it so much because of the incredible noise, the pollution and the crazy traffic. That's part of the reason I liked it. It was in so many aspects just the opposite of a European city and even more chaotic than Bangkok.
Chaos is only a question of the point of view. I haven't seen a single car accident (more like a moped accident) the whole trip, although the traffic was so intense. The fact that I can buy local fresh fruit/vegetables directly from the farmer on every street corner has also totally impressed me. Of course there's garbage everywhere. Of course, nobody is trying to make anything look "neat". It doesn't matter if the express train passes through the backyard and you wash dishes on the side. Or when a salesmen just sleep during working hours. The customer will wake you up anyway. Their system works for them, and I liked it so much. Above all, everyone puts on a smile all the time. The people are happy. This is also proven by various studys:
VIETNAM ranks fifth in the Happy Planet Index results, and second in the Asia Pacific region. This South-East Asian country, characterised by its mountains and tropical forests, has a strikingly low Ecological Footprint and economic output per head almost 24 times smaller than nearby Hong Kong. Vietnam is one of just three countries in the top ten Happy Planet Index rankings with an Ecological Footprint that is small enough to be considered environmentally sustainable. HappyplanetIndex
I hope you enjoyed my little contribution to Hanoi. How do you feel about such big cities: love or hate? Do you have similar experiences? I'd really appreciate a little exchange of experiences.
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