{"id":23839,"date":"2017-12-06T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-05T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures?p=23839&preview=true&preview_id=23839"},"modified":"2025-04-22T13:50:43","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T03:50:43","slug":"embracing-the-chaos-in-hanoi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/embracing-the-chaos-in-hanoi\/","title":{"rendered":"Embracing the chaos and learning to love Hanoi"},"content":{"rendered":"

It took me all of a day to decide I didn\u2019t like Hanoi<\/a>. I arrived at night under a sky that was starless and rainy, air that felt cool and clammy \u2013 and in a taxi that cost me 400,000 dong more than I had anticipated.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Come morning, a grey haze hung over the city, drizzly rain seeping into every crack of the mangled sidewalks and into my pores. The streets screamed with chaos \u2013 cars, motorbikes and bicycles all surged from seemingly every which way, a moving mob on wheels.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

Photo by Richard Misquitta<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s not that I hated it. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever ‘hated’ any place. But Hanoi\u2019s energy felt like an assault. New smells and loud sounds and the sensation that everything around me was always moving put my senses into overdrive. There was too much to take in, to watch for as I crossed muddy streets of reddish brown rivers, trying not to get hit by a weaving motorbike, my ears ringing from blaring horns. I just wanted it all to stop. I needed to breathe.<\/p>\n

I was travelling with a friend from home who, unlike me at the time, had travelled extensively through South East Asia<\/a>. \u201cJust trust they\u2019ll go around you,\u201d she said, as I froze for the umpteenth time while trying to part the sea of motos. \u201cThey don\u2019t want to hit you.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: HOW TO CROSS THE ROAD IN VIETNAM<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

Photo by Louis Bryant<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s one thing to logically understand that the drivers of Hanoi aren\u2019t aiming their wheels at pedestrians, but it\u2019s quite another to convince your survival instinct of the same thing. Each time we crossed a road, it felt like victory \u2013 the prize being all my limbs still attached to my body.<\/p>\n

We stopped for lunch at a stall simply named Ph\u1edf G\u00e0 (translation: Chicken Soup), located next to the wildly popular Caf\u00e9 Trang. The ph\u1edf had a slightly sweet broth, with pork meatballs in hers and chicken in mine, and a collection of herbs and chilis that made it more flavourful than the best soups I\u2019ve had anywhere in all my travels. Before I had departed for Vietnam, everyone told me the highlight would be the food, that there is nothing comparable to real Vietnamese cuisine. In that moment, slurping up noodles and broth, I knew they were right \u2013 and thought that maybe they had even downplayed the power of a good bowl of ph\u1edf when you\u2019re wondering where the hell you are.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

Photo by Patrick ONeill<\/p><\/div>\n

It was sometime around then that my anxiety started to slip away. Leaving lunch and dodging cars and bikes and vendors along Ng\u00f4 S\u0129 Li\u00ean suddenly felt methodical. Maybe it was the soup soothing my senses, but I could see everything moving like a ballet in organized chaos. It was like those 3D magic eye games I used to play as a kid, where you\u2019d stare at scrambled images that only revealed themselves when you stopped trying to focus.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a06 COMMON SCAMS IN VIETNAM (& HOW TO AVOID THEM)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

One of my favourite novels is The Beauty of Humanity Movement<\/em> by Camilla Gibb, which takes place in Hanoi. In fact, it was that very book that had made me want to visit Vietnam in the first place. In one scene, the character of Maggie, terrified by the traffic, is led across the street by Hanoi resident Tu\u2019. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like floating, like walking on water,\u201d she writes. \u201c\u2018Look straight ahead,\u2019 [Tu\u2019] says, \u2018and whatever you do, don\u2019t hesitate. You need to find the quiet inside.’\u201d It felt a bit like that. Quiet in my body while the world whipped around me.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

Photo by Patrick O’Neill<\/p><\/div>\n

All afternoon, we walked, maneuvering around sidewalk stalls and taking coffee breaks at rooftop cafes hidden up narrow staircases. Eventually we reached Ho\u00e0n Ki\u1ebfm Lake, home to Ngoc Son Temple and several endangered soft-shell turtles. (Book nerd alert: this is also where Maggie and Tu\u2019 were crossing the street.)<\/p>\n

We passed over the Huc Bridge to the temple on Jade Island, and in 20 steps we were a world away from the chaos of the city. Across the water, Hanoi\u2019s traffic carried on, the sound of horns still audible but no longer ringing in my ears as we sat under the weeping willows and fig trees and incense smoke spiralled above our heads.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: A DAY IN HANOI, VIETNAM: YOUR GO-TO GUIDE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

We wandered the park trail that lead around the lake, stopping at one point to watch two men playing something I couldn\u2019t understand. It seemed like a cross between golf, horseshoes and badminton, and I stood watching until they coaxed me to try my hand at a round. I was terrible, which they quite enjoyed, and with our language barriers, we couldn\u2019t exchange words \u2013 just smiles and giggles shared between strangers while the city buzzed on behind us.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

Photo by Patrick O\u2018Neill<\/p><\/div>\n

The more I relaxed, the more I found there were other moments of calm, too, like the kids who would squeal and yell an English hello!<\/em> to me \u2013 and then giggle twice as hard when I responded with a xin ch\u00e0o!<\/em>\u00a0Sometimes it\u2019s the smallest moments that make all the difference. Like how sitting at a streetside ph\u1edf shop, sipping a soup \u2013 the most delicious soup you\u2019ve ever tasted \u2013 can make you feel like time is standing still, even while traffic zips past.<\/p>\n

In hindsight it sounds like a dull day, but that\u2019s what made it perfect. When chaos is around you, you have to seek out the calm. Hanoi, I\u2019ll remember your mayhem and your traffic, and not necessarily fondly. But I\u2019ll also always remember that you taught me to find the quiet inside.<\/p>\n

Experience the chaos and quiet of Hanoi<\/a> on an Intrepid small group adventure now.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Feature image by Patrick O’Neill.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you’re surrounded by chaos, you have to seek out the calm. One traveller shares her experience of her first time in Hanoi. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15808,"featured_media":23847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[286],"tags":[246,41],"class_list":["post-23839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-hanoi","tag-vietnam","ipf_region-vietnam"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEmbracing the Chaos and Learning to Love Hanoi | Intrepid Travel Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Traffic, people, organised chaos... 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