Hanoi

Rain steadily washed the pavements and our feet as we wove a pathway through lines of parked scooters, street stalls and locals running for shelter. Without a planned destination and our cheap umbrellas struggling to defend us from the unrelenting shower, we ducked into the inviting glow of a shopping mall.

Ushered by a smartly uniformed doorman into a pristine gallery we entered the opulent Trang Tien Plaza. Walking through a glossy landscape of Dior, Lacoste and Calvin Klein, we felt very out of place in our damp backpacking clothes. An aura of elitism radiated out of the central hall of escalators and reflected off the brass handrails and polished marble of quiet empty spaces.

We wondered who in Hanoi had the finances to shop at such a place, where prices were equivalent to home and the average wage is much lower. It felt far removed from the political ideals that the modern country was founded upon. We then wondered how we, in our attire (not to mention Alex's hair), even made it inside before imagining how the colour of our skin could bypass this.

Amongst shelves of overpriced Calvin Klein jeans, tailored for petite Asian bodies, we simultaneously found ourselves closely shadowed by staff around the store. It was perturbing enough to make a swift exit and led us to reexamine our outward image and how it could have brought such close scrutiny.

Subsequent internet research identified that the staff's behaviour to be common etiquette rather than reactive to us. We then realised that it was something we had already encountered but in local shops. The plaza's gloss unbalancing our sense of where we were in the world.

Leaving the plaza and culture shock behind we circled the edge of the Hoan Kiem Lake, where tree branches dripped the remnants of the deceased shower. A smog hung in the air to dampen the view so we ventured further into the city's Old Quarter. Down the narrow streets we wandered through a world far removed from that displayed in the plaza.

Originating from the 13th century system of guild cooperatives, each of the quarter's '36 streets' (there are in fact more) sells a particular product and are named accordingly. Firstly with the word 'Hang', meaning shop or merchandise and then with the name of the product. For example, 'Hang Bac' is the street where silver products are sold, 'Hang Ma' for paper products, 'Hang Gai' for silks and so on.

Yet we found it less precise as we past a frenetic collection of street hawkers peddling snacks, lighters and shoe repair as well as shops selling fresh fruit and women's shoes side by side. We imagined the discussions generated in Hanoi homes ('I thought you just went to the grocer for Bok Choy?...Yes but these fake Jimmy Choos were on sale next to them!') when a hawker, squatting down on the littered steps of a shop, grabbed Alex's passing foot and attempted to lift his flip flop off his foot to 'repair' it with glue. However a look and a few words were enough to convince him that Alex's flip flop was in perfect working order.Read more