Meandering the old quarter

Street restaurant from the balcony of our guesthouse
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The night bus took us to a backpackers in the old quarter of Hanoi, and we decided to stay there as it seemed like a pretty cool place to hang out in.  There is a fresh food market right outside the hostel selling fish, meat, vegetables and live chickens soon to be dead ones.

After arranging a tour to Halong Bay for the next day and train tickets to Sapa we headed out into the chaotic narrow streets full of scooters to have a wander around.  We walked through the narrow winding streets to the focal point of the old quarter - a lake with an island pagoda in the middle.  Just wandering the streets is the most fun thing in Hanoi, looking at all the things for sale, whole shops dedicated to one or two items clustered together to form streets of these items.  We saw the lantern and kite block, the fake flowers block, stuffed toys block, rope and mats block and even fat plastic pig block.