First Impressions of Hanoi

I made my first trip to Vietnam to visit Misha back in August.  We spent a week together, and though the timing wasn’t great (there were tsunami warnings and a lot of rain), it was still enough time for me to form an initial impression of the city.  My trip also coincided with the city’s preparation for National Day, a Vietnamese holiday on September 2 commemorating Ho Chi Minh declaring independence in 1945.  Vietnamese flags and portraits of Uncle Ho were everywhere, much like July 4 celebrations in the U.S., but far grander.

2025 marks many milestones for Vietnam: 80 years since independence, 50 years since the end of the Vietnam (or as they call it, the American) War, and 30 years since the normalization of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Vietnam.  Embassy Hanoi has hosted several high-level visitors related to these anniversaries, one of which had Misha working during my stay.  I did a little wandering on my own, but the rain and road closures from the National Day military parade preparations were fairly disruptive. 

I mentioned in my First Impressions of Tokyo post that I have yet to experience culture shock.  I think, had I been posted to Vietnam, Hanoi would be the first city I’d experience it.  In Japan, cultural crossovers are everywhere: in burger and pizza joints, Pokémon and other anime characters, 7/11, ads for baseball teams and the thousands of images of Shohei Ohtani.  Though Hanoi has a tremendous number of foreign tourists and large expat communities, the most noticeable western influence is in the French architecture.  Of course, that’s one of the things that makes Vietnam such a fun place to visit.  Here are some other things I noticed that stood out to me:

1. It’s chaotic.  I would hate to drive in Hanoi.  Traffic patterns are hectic, mopeds and motorcycles are everywhere, and the honking is unceasing.  Drivers use their horns to notify anyone and everyone that they are near, which means the horn is in use every few seconds. 
2. It’s not a very walkable city.  Sidewalks, where they exist, are often blocked by parked motorcycles.  They’re often uneven or damaged, and in some places have tiles that get extremely slick in wet conditions.  I slipped multiple times.
3. It’s very cheap and the conversion rate is wild.  The rate while I was there was approximately 26,000 dong to $1.  This led to some funny sounding and extremely affordable purchases of hundreds of thousands of dong. 
4. The food is delicious.  Piggybacking on the affordability, we routinely ate out because everything was so cheap.  We had banh mi for 76 cents, endlessly delicious egg and coconut iced coffees or passionfruit and mango smoothies for $1.50, and full meals for $5.  My favorite meal with Bun Cha.  It’s a street food make up of grilled pork, greens, vermicelli noodles, and sauces served in separate bowls that is as delicious as people say.  Like most street vendors, you eat it sitting at little plastic tables with tiny stools, not exactly made for beefy Americans like me. 
5.  More people speak English than I expected.  This was very helpful when ordering, because proper Vietnamese pronunciation is extremely difficult. 
6. People are very friendly.  Hanoi certainly has a hustle culture, and many private residences have a small business on the first floor.  Locals are hasty in all that they do, but they are still helpful and quick to smile. 

I hope to return to Vietnam sometime early next year and to see more of the country outside of Hanoi. Misha will be coming to Japan a few times to close out the year so she can finally see Mochi after many months apart, so the next posts will be Japanese content. Until then…