Hanoi Night Market

Hanoi - Vietnam (河內)

 
Hanoi, Ibu kota vietnam ini adalah kota yang relatif kuno, tidak seperti Jakarta yang merangkap sebagai ibu kota sekaligus kota terbesar, di Vietnam, Hanoi bukan merupakan kota termaju / terbesar, gelar itu dimiliki oleh kota Ho Chi Minh, yang dahulunya dikenal sebagai Saigon.
Tempatnya relatif tidak terlalu maju, banyak bangunan kuno dan jalannya relatif sempit.
Bisa dibilang setara dengan Yogyakarta kalau di Indonesia.

Nah mirip dengan Yogyakarta, di sini ada satu versi pasar malamnya seperti Malioboro.
Perbandingan luas daerahnya mirip dengan Yogyakarta, kalau DIY (Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta) luas daerahnya sebesar 3.180 km² , sedangkan Hanoi besarnya 3.450km².
Dengan luas yang mirip tersebut, jumlah penduduknya sangat jauh berbeda, DIY ditempati 3.500.000 penduduk, sedangkan Hanoi memiliki jumlah penduduk 6.500.000.
Bangunannya sangat kecil-kecil di sini, setara dengan Ruko kalau di Indonesia, dan harga tanah di daerah kotanya juga cukup tinggi, terutama kalau dibandingkan dengan rendahnya biaya hidup di Vietnam.


Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam. Though being a capital, this is not the biggest and most modern city in the country, such as Jakarta in Indonesia or Tokyo for Japan. The biggest city is Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon City, whereas Hanoi is  a very different place. Though it's the second largest populated city, it's far cry from the modernness of Ho Chi Minh.

The streets here are narrow, with many old buildings and retro looking streets. This city is comparable with Yogyakarta City in Indonesia. Whilst Yogyakarta is similar in size to Hanoi, where it's 3.180 km² , and Hanoi is 3.450km², the population is twice as big as Yogyakarta. Hanoi is populated by 6.5 million people, while Yogyakarta is populated by 3.5 million people.
This makes the place really dense and the building very narrow. It's very common to see a very narrow buildings, it's hard to find a building wider than 10 meter, usually it's an home-office like building sized 5 x 7 meters.

Bar Pangku

Malam ini kami sedikit kesasar, sesudah berjalan selama 45 menit dan mulai merasa lapar, akhirnya kita mencari tempat seadanya untuk makan malam. Sayangnya yang kita pilih sepertinya adalah tempat yang kurang cocok untuk group ini :D
Ternyata kita makan di bir pangku, entah nama lokalnya apa, tapi tempat ini adalah bar yang menyediakan makanan seadanya dengan rasa yang tidak enak tapi harga cukup tinggi. Penampilan makanannya amat sederhana, dan utamanya sebagai teman pendamping bir dan minuman keras lainnya.

Saat itu banyak pelayan dengan pakaian minim dengan logo bir-bir terkenal, dengan kostum minim. Sayangnya saya saat itu tidak ngeh dan ngantuk, jadi malah tidak difoto hehehe.
Kira-kira ya mirip dengan yang di foto ini :

Taken from  http://saigon-girl.com/

That night we when we were looking for a place to have dinner, we got a bit astray and ends up in a seedy place. This place serves a unappetizing dishes, sorta pub grub that just gobbled up to accompany drinking, which is the farthest thing of what we had wanted, which was a traditional good tasting Vietnamese cuisine .

There's plenty of sexy girls wearing a sponsored costumes, which we thought was a regular things in Vietnam restaurants, little did we know that this is the kind of bar who caters to man wanting to have a beer and sexy girls for side dishes :D. I didn't take any photo of them, because it's a bit early at 19.45. Out of about 4 table, there's only one patronage using the girls service, which was quite loud, but we thought they were just a friend gathering, not thinking anything else. :p
Turns out the girls are sort of an escort service, they were dressed similar to the above image.

Hanoi Night Market

Pasar malam Hanoi ini dikenal dengan nama Dong Xuan, diadakan tiap malam pada akhir minggu, di area kota lama Hanoi.

Tempatnya sangat ramai, lebih sesak daripada kebanyakan tempat di Indonesia. Mirip dengan Malioboro, barang yang dijajakan adalah barang fashion, tas baju dkk, suvenir dan makanan.

Perlu berhati-hati dengan dua hal di sini, selain pencopet, penjualnya juga perlu diperhatikan, sering kali di seluruh Vietnam, penjual barang tidak memberikan kembalian. Jadi kalau anda tidak memintanya, mereka akan pura-pura bego dan berharap anda lupa.

Hanoi night market, also known as Dong Xuan night market, is weekly held on weekend evenings in the Old Quarter of Ha Noi. It's a really crowded place, with locals pouring in, shoulder to shoulder, shopping for affordable goods sold at street stalls. 

This night market opens at 18.30 and goes on until late night. Clothes or other fashion items, souvenirs and food are what mostly sold here.

You need to be careful about two things here, one is pickpocket, the other is the annoying way of Vietnam sellers to rip you off. They usually are reluctant to give the changes of your transaction, so if you don't persistently ask, they'll just keep it.
Once in Hoi An, my friend come back to ask for the change he forgot, and the seller just brush him away, pretending not to remember, while happened just 5 minutes ago. So this stealing 'small money' habits is rampant in every place I visit in Vietnam.