I just arrived into Hanoi, one of my favorite cities, and I am about to begin a long 26 day visit to Vietnam. I will travel from North to South, beginning with a tour provided by Realistic Asia for 10 days, followed by 10 days somewhere wonderful, yet to be determined. Finally I will attend the Inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA) Mid-Year meeting in Ho Chi Minh City from 9/25-9/30. There I will be meeting with many old friends from around the world and coordinating a women’s event in the city before returning home. Follow along and enjoy time in another world.
New cars and the country’s red communist flags along the street. Welcome to Vientam 2026!
Hanoi
I am sitting in the beautiful breakfast room of the Metropole Hotel in Hanoi, which is celebrating its 125 year anniversary since its founding during French colonial times. Although on past trips here I would have said it is located in the most upscale part of the City, near the Opera and the historic government buildings, today the city has expanded its commercial outreach and this may no longer be true. New stores are everywhere, often tucked between more modest shops, and near even smaller long narrow stalls between buildings with their wares hung on the two facing walls.
My first day after arriving was spent with an old local friend Quynh who had accompanied me on several earlier trips to this rapidly changing country. He told me how he had to close his 3 restaurants in Hanoi during COVID times — as happened to small entrepreneurs all over the world during the pandemic. We walked together around Hoan Kiem lake, a center piece of the older part of town, busy with weekend visitors and families enjoying the outdoor space in, for me, fairly hot weather. The country is obviously investing in significant public renovations, with beautifully maintained plantings and walkways, including public restrooms along the shore, and restored historic government buildings all painted yellow and adorned with red national flags with yellow stars.
Most striking is how clean everything is, no dropped trash and in my 2 days here no sign of graffiti. There are older cleaning women pushing carts in the area and on this weekend, the main streets around the lake are a pedestrian area closed to motorized vehicles. I asked Quynh about homeless people and he said there are none — they are with their families or are picked up by the police and either sent to “reeducation camps” to be trained for a job or, hopefully as this was not mentioned, to appropriate mental health facilities.
On Friday, when there was normal traffic, about 50% of vehicles on the road were motorbikes and scooters and the other 50% new cars, public and private buses and commercial trucks. There is a significant upscale beat among the young generation who are busy taking selfies and videos for posting during their weekend stroll around the lake, well dressed and self-confident. Quynh mentioned that young people today have little interest in moving abroad as they have good economic prospects here as well as strong family ties. The government, although communist in structure with respect to the selection of officials and the hierarchy of the administration, is capitalist in all other respects, with free trade and individual economic interest a hallmark of the times. As one of our young guides during the day reported, whereas his grandfather viewed the land he was given to farm under Ho Chi Minh’s agenda the height of prosperity, his father saw the ownership of a motorbike the insignia of economic wealth, but today it is the Mercedes Benz that would indicate financial success.
Our group of 8 travel advisors all women, plus our coordinator from Waterstone Marketing, have been enjoying our time together. Yesterday was spent on an enormously enjoyable tour of Hanoi with Hanoi Back Street Tours, each of us on the back of a Vespa scooter, all wearing helmets, with an experienced driver weaving through the traffic and traveling through small back streets that buses can not go. We went over the oldest bridge and then back to the center of town where Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum is located together with his house, and then to the Three-Pillared pagoda, the Temple of Literature, and the ancient temple site in the middle of Hoan Kiem lake, known for its history related to a golden turtle and to the preserved live turtles on display.d
After lunch, we spent the afternoon doing what travel agents do, visiting certain selected luxury hotels so we are educated about what might be available for our clients. I happen to like these inspections as it gives me an idea what some people experience in their travels abroad, a kind of rarified view of life compared to the world outside on its doorstep with a required necessary mental adjustment to be made moving from one to the other. Our Sofitel Legend Metropole is an example of a beautifully renovated heritage hotel, the Fairmont is a newly opened super-modern luxury hotel, and the last, the Capella is not like any hotel I have ever seen — newly created by a wold-famous interior designer in an ultra-opulent densely-packed1920’s style interior of huge extravagance of color and contrasts.
Having gotten very little sleep, I was hardly able to stand by the time I got to my room, ordered room service and was asleep by 8 pm.
