Hanoi at night - the city that never sleeps -part 1

 “A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it”, - George A. Moore.

Hanoi at night -  the city that never sleeps - the old quarter

My "love story" with Hanoi

I was born in a small village in a province which is 70km far from Hanoi – the capital of Vietnam. To me, living in a big city was really appealing. As the information that I obtained from Television Ho Chi Minh city is the busiest city in Vietnam and the life style of people there are closer to western style compared to Hanoi. Therefore, I just thought by myself I would love to live in Ho Chi Minh instead of Hanoi if I had a choice.

After studying and living away from home – in Vietnam – for 3 years, I appreciate more what life has given to me since I was born – the charming beauty of my country. I fall in love with every single thing of Vietnam every moment of life. In particular, I feel in love with Hanoi more than ever. Each and every single thing in Hanoi meant a lot to me so I am compelled to share with you so that you can be aware, be ready and have a great time when you come here.

Hanoi at night – the weekly Friday meeting at Beer2ku – 61 Luong Ngoc Quyen

You may hear about Couchsurfing which connect travellers and local people so travellers (couchsurfers) can stay free at local people place, in exchange they can share their life experiences, cultures or languages.

In Hanoi, people either stay with their families or rent out a shared room so it is not so common for people for travelling. Besides, the number of Vietnamese travel around the world is not so high. Therefore, people cannot host travellers. However, there is a hug community in Hanoi where gather all young open minded people who love travelling and they know about the idea of Couchsurfing even they have never used it.

Couchsurfing has meetings every day in a week. One of the nights that I organized is on Friday. If you come to Hanoi, you should definitely join to meet up with cool people from all around the world. You can check out all the Couchsurfing events in Hanoi from Couchsurfing site (https://www.couchsurfing.com/events/).

On Friday, we normally meet up at Beer 2ku – 61 Luong Ngoc Quyen from 8pm. Beer2ku is a busy bar that is located in the old quarter of Hanoi. It has 4 stores facing a walking road that leads you to a beer corner where thousands of people sitting on small chairs and drink “bia hoi” – draught beer.

In front of the bar, there is often happened a street music show. In the bar, they sometimes have dancing show where you can see both boys and girls dance on the floor. You may also meet young waiters there, and you cannot believe they are around 16 years old only. One more interesting is that there will be some girls in nice uniform dress walking around the bar and approach different people. You can support them by buying beers or cigarettes from them.  

Normally the attendants always change every week since they are travellers. So we normally chitchat a bit in Beer2ku for around 2 hours then we go to the beer corner. Later on, we may go to a bar for dancing.

You may feel the city never sleeps until 12am when suddenly some policemen sitting on a police car coming to the beer corner. After some seconds, all the chairs are cleared, the streets are cleared. When the policemen leave, all the chairs are put down on the road again. After 12.30am, all the street shops are supposed to close as the bars do but you can still sneak into some bars where they close the doors but inside music is still on and people still drink and never sleep.

By the way, I would like to share with you why everyone is sitting on a small chair. 

Why Vietnamese is sitting on a small chair. 

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