Remote Year: Hanoi Life on the Street

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All photos are © Barbara Cameron Pix, unless otherwise noted.

First-time travel to Hanoi, Vietnam can assault your senses. The culture shock is so real because life is lived large on the streets. It’s a complete departure from what we know in North America. But even though things appear to be absolute chaos, it soon becomes apparent that there is a highly choreographed daily dance, simple rituals that enable a street flow that is fascinating to watch. And of course, that flow provides a lot of opportunities for a travel photographer.

Travelling with Remote Year is fabulous for so many reasons, not the least of which is the opportunity to gather thousands of photos. My Adobe Lightroom catalogue shows that I captured well over 6,000 photos in one month in Vietnam. 

So it was quite a challenge to choose a small selection of Hanoi travel photos to share. 

Each morning I left my apartment with my trusty Fuji XT-2 camera slung around my shoulders and clicked madly as I walked 15-20 minutes to our workspace. I didn’t have to change my route because the daily flow of street vendors and scooters and cars and trains, and of course interesting people, just kept changing in front of my eyes. Or so it seemed.

Sure there are mobile vendors, mostly women with their wares slung on bicycles, who move around all day. And then there are the sidewalk squatters, families who camp out at the same spot every day, starting much earlier than I—probably when the neighbourhood rooster starts crowing around 3:30 am—whose life and livelihood spill out onto the streets for the day.

And on my way back home at the end of the workday, the streets were empty. Not a vendor to be seen, not a chicken feather to be found. Maybe just a rat or two scurrying across the road to hide in the large mounds of garbage bags waiting for pick-up. The daily dance was done, only to start again the next day soon after the first crow.

In this travel blog I share a selection of Hanoi street photos that reflect the daily dance that so fascinated me. I hope you enjoy them.

Stationary Street Market Vendors, Hanoi, Vietnam

Vietnamese people buy their daily food fresh, really fresh, from street vendors. So if you’re squeamish about where your food comes from, a visit to Vietnam has to desensitize you. Especially after you taste all of the fresh food, prepared right before your eyes, literally. It’s farm to table, right in front of you. “Eat local” isn’t even a term in Vietnam, it’s a cultural norm.

I think this is a family affair, and if your eyes travel clockwise from the lower left you see Mom cutting fresh fish, daughter plucking a chicken, maybe that’s Dad cleaning the chicken and brother finishing it off for sale. And then there are two more chickens on deck, oblivious to their fate.

What do you think… is that chicken saying “pick me”???!!!

Fresh pork meat is as popular as chicken at the street markets in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Fresh vegetables are another daily staple in the Vietnamese diet and are readily available at makeshift street markets.

This scooter’s basket is getting filled up with the daily wares for one Vietnamese shopper.

Mobile Street Market Vendors, Hanoi, Vietnam

Watching the street vendors who were mobile, either on bicycles, scooters or on foot with baskets slung over their shoulders attached to a stick, was just as fascinating to me as those who claimed their daily spot on the sidewalks.

Notice this vendor’s assistant in the background, counting the money.

The Vietnamese women who walk the streets with their baskets of wares slung over their shoulders on a pole definitely need to take rest breaks. Notice the tiny pink stool that this woman carries with her for these breaks.

I loved watching the flower ladies, especially because I know they had travelled a long way from the 24/7 flower market in the northern part of the city.

Have scooter, will deliver… anything!

It became a bit of a competition in our travel group to see what kind of kooky things were transported on bikes and scooters. I actually saw a full-size fridge on the back of a scooter once!

The Vietnamese frog-squat

I know the term “frog-squat” may sound derogatory, but it was shared with me by a Vietnamese local so I feel okay using it here. Let me just say that I’m glad I’m relatively short so I could be somewhat comfortable sitting at an outdoor restaurant in Hanoi.

Vietnamese people are small in stature to begin with, so they are comfortable squatting on the low plastic stools that litter the sidewalks outside of the numerous restaurants.

The woman on the left serves hot pho every morning on the street corner across from our workspace. Her makeshift stools captured my eye.

These men don’t need stools to simply watch the daily dance whiz by them on the streets of Hanoi.

Train Street, Hanoi, Vietnam

Train street in Hanoi is a phenomenon that has become an Instagram favourite. And it’s understandable why.

A few times a day a massive speeding train races through a very narrow street where people live and play. Tourists flock there to witness it and capture their own image on the tracks. Many locals have capitalized on the business opportunity by operating bars and restaurants right beside the tracks.

I liked to wander Train Street when it was relatively empty and watch how the locals live and play along the famous tracks.

People watching in Hanoi, Vietnam

Don’t you just love people watching, wherever you go? I do. And Hanoi, Vietnam provided so many interesting people to see and photograph.

If you saw my Instagram post a while back, you know the story behind this photo. But I’ll tell it again because it impacted me in a big way.

I was walking through the Old Quarter one hot & humid day, and this lovely woman was squatting in a doorway. Just watching the world go by. I’m sure she has lived there for many years, and I’m also sure she sees a lot of amazing things go by her doorway every minute of each day.

I saw her and walked by. And then I stopped dead in my tracks. I just had to have her picture. I’m always a bit nervous to ask people if I can photograph them, but I knew I had to ask. So I backtracked and motioned the question, “Can I take your photo?”

She nodded yes and as soon as I brought my camera to my eye, her hands rose in prayer, her smile widened and her eyes danced. When I brought the camera down from my eye, my hands also rose in prayer and I nodded a thank-you. I felt blessed.

The next two photos reflect the differences in generations, from an older gentleman who wears a very subdued traditional outfit to the young woman whose clothing and accessory choices seem to shout out her contemporary vibe, even while she embraces the symbolic red of Vietnamese culture.

Chaos and Magic in hanoi, vietnam

Hanoi, Vietnam is one of my favourite stops on my Remote Year journey. I felt over-stimulated at first and saw only chaos. But the daily dance of life on the streets is where the real magic of Hanoi is revealed once you are ready to see past the surface.

I really enjoy your comments about my #travelphotos. Drop a message in the comments section below.

#VisitHanoi #RemoteYear #RemoteYearCurie #RYCurie

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