We’ve just spent our first full day on the streets of Hanoi, and to say it’s different from our last port of call is an understatement; unlike the luxurious and affluent trappings of Hong Kong, this is what I expected an Asian capital to be like - dirty, crowded and chaotic. As we soon found out though, there where quite a few hidden gems to be discovered…

On first hitting the streets, it doesn’t take you long to realise that the preferred mode of transport here is of the two-wheeled variety. Mopeds and bicycles rule the streets here in pandemonius fashion. There are cars around, but they probably make up 5% of the overall traffic and either tend to be owned by the wealthy or a taxi.

As cars here are uber-expensive and there’s very little in the way of public transport, people resort to piling as many passengers onto a motorbike as physically possible in one go, and where your average civilised Westerner would probably have something the size of a small truck to cart their kids to school in, it’s not uncommon to see entire families of four riding around on bootleg Hondas and Suzukis.

Being a pedestrian in Hanoi is a mixture of luck and blind faith - just because a crossing light is green, it doesn’t mean that the traffic will stop for you. In fact, you become less worried about this as time goes on, as you can literally walk out in the middle of the road, and the swarm of bikes will just go around you without pausing to think.

Sensibly, our first tour was restricted to where we could get to by foot. Here in Hanoi, there is a district of markets called the Old Quarter where each street has a certain speciality - e.g. one street would sell shoes, another clothing and another vegetables etc… It was here where we spent most of our time today, having a good rummage around in clothing and niknak shops.

The hassle factor here is thankfully moderate - there are a lot of tourists here, so there are plenty of opportunities for the locals to make a living from photo opportunities, pedal-taxi rides etc… It’s not nearly as bad as some places though - people here will take “no” for an answer, and will generally walk away if their services aren’t required. Shopkeepers obviously want your business, and in most cases they are only too happy to help even if you are “just browsing”.