Hanoi is the place of thousand or lakes and rivers. It is the city of food, food everywhere and they are simply fresh and delicious. I really love Hanoi, people here is really kind. The most kind people I have met compared to anywhere else in the world. This city is full of hundreds of motobike and bycicles, people here work so hard and everything seem rush on the street but it was not like a big city rushing hour. It was the unique Hanoi rush hour where cars, motorbikes, paddle carriage and bycicles are verywhere. There are people who carried food on their bicycles and a load of french toast budgets, handmade buskets, fruites and flowers. I love the vibe and anergy in Hanoi. It was impressive how hard people are working and they can just use a little vehicle to carry loaded of food to go out and sale it on daily basic without any promblem unlike other countries which I would see track instead. I either saw people loaded food on the big busket and carry it on top of her head. 

 In the city of Hanoi. There are food everywhere, people even used their tiny home and turned into a restaurant business, sometimes these restaurants are in the little alley which you would never know they are existed. People here do not live in a big space. They are very tiny and that is a common things here, but there are also big house for some of the rich people. These peole are usually live in other country like France and when they make money. They built a nice house back in Vietname. I metioned France because I have met some Vietnamese people who live in France and owned restauratns there, plus when I traveled to Hanoi, my toured guied even told me about it so I make sense to me. I love street food here. It is not a city where you will look for a fancy restaurants. I went to some nice restaurants here but the food were blanded and boring. I am not sure if they tried to make it high end or so. I prefer street food here much better and for me this trip to Vietname is all about culture, people and street food. There are no luxurious life style here. It is about food and people.

 Hanoi is the city of beef jerky. This is the common dish I could find everywhere and they are so delicious. This dish is actually papaya salad with the beef jerky. This dish was simple, clean and complex flavor. I think this is one of the best salade I have ever had. It was so good and I could eat tow of three of them. There was also bird that I tried, at first I though it was scary but once I put it in my mouth. I was like wow. This is so delicious! The balance of the spice and how they cooked the bird was just perfect. Here people usually sit on the stool right by the sidewalk for the street food or even in a little restaurants. It is not that common at all the sit on the chair. It was a new experienced for me to sit on the stool like that and eat some food. It was kind of advanturous and authentic. I also have a great memory that I was kind of bored at night so I went out to walk around near my hotel then I ran into a snail vendor so I gave it a try. They boiled the snails with some ginger. It was simple but it was so fresh and good. That was a fun thing to do for the night time here. There are plenty of food to chose. I usually tried something that I have not seen before so overall. Those new food advanture experienced in Hanoi was excellent!

 This city is so vibrant of its culture and people. There are food everywhere, hard working people and loaded of food and their bicycle and hundreads of motobikes on the road. This is the scariest thing of my tirp which was about motorbikes. I was freak out to cross the road and I did not even want to try! There are no crossing light for people here and I just had to cross the road while hundread of motorbikes are coming towards me, my tour guid told me that you should never stop and walk smoothly and do not run because motorbikes rider will figured it out to give you way. It was extreamly crazy and I did not want to die here but I did what my tour guid said and I was alive, somehow I did not like this experienced. There are a lot of people die by motorbike accident here, especially during the football fever or special festival.

 Here in Vietname I could travel with Thai money and US dollar. It is more convenient to carry these money to travel around South East Asia, specially if you carried Vietnamese money and then travel to other country. There are not many places that are going to accept Vietnamese money for exchange. I don't usually go shopping in the store around here but there are some places where they sale carving wood and handmade. I think they are from China but they are great and the prices are great, but buying stuff here can be rib off for the tourist. They would try to rib you off first so you need an art of bargaining and walk around to check the price first. I did not have such a good experienced when I went to the seafood restaurant here. I selected a big cuttlefish from the tank where they showed infront of the restaurant but then they cooked in the back of the kitchen. When they served me it seems so much less then the usually size and the price were so rib off compare to the bigger city like Bangkok which I could pay less. I have to say there are notthing better then authentic Vietnamese, food in the little alley or sitting on the stool right by the sidewalk at night and eating snails. This was much more fun and memorable experienced for me.

 More then food and people. There is one of my favorite place. The classic and old architecture that arrtacted people to travel to Hanoi to visit this place. Temple of Literature & National University. This temple was surrouned by pawn, trees and authentic Vietnamese architecture. It is the mixed of old Chinese and Vietnamese. There are a lot of influence from traditional Chinese culture as well. I heard the story that collede students like to come here and wipe there hand on the head of turtle statue here because they beliefe for the luck. It became a traditional thing to do. More then this temple there are some more interesting place like french quater and mesuem but I traveled to Hanoi for one big reason which was about exploring the Halong Bay. Halong has a unique natural features. This is one of the most famous attractions as well as notable values in culture and daily life. 

 Halong bay has many cavesand islands. Halong is the world heritage by UNESCO. I enjoyed the route from peir to Halong bay by authentic Vieatnamese ship. It was magnificant and relaxing. There are so many different shapes and sizes of these stalaxtites and stalagmites all around. On this trip I decided to visit the cave. It was stuning and they also use some colorful light in the cave to make it more intresting for the natural creature of those magnificant rocks. There are photographer around there so I could get a real good shot in the cave. The ambiance insdie the cave was exotic. All around the islands. There are people who live around here and they used authentic Vietnamese boat as vehicle and they also sale fruites and veggies to the tourist. It was very interesting to see the traditaional life style out of Hanoi city. These life style around Halong bay was definitely different and represents Vietnamese traditional to the tourist. It was the image of Vietnamese life style that made me want to come back to this country because of its own slow life culture. This trip to Hanoi Vietname was vibrant, fun and authenticness. I love the food, people and culture here. It is absolutely a place when I feel like layback and some advanturous with the street food culinary. It was a great experienced that was different from other trip in South East Asia. Hanoi has it own way.