hanoi has...

...thousands of people all riding around the city on bikes, from kids on bicycles coming home from school, to old men on motorbikes, to entire families (4 people) riding around together
...so many motorbikes that they are all parked on the sidewalk and you have to walk in the street to get by, because the sidewalk looks like a moped shop
...cyclo and motorbike drivers on every corner, calling out to give you a ride
...beautiful women in conical hats, carrying baskets held by wood over their shoulders, selling bananas and pineapples and donuts and all kinds of things, and looking as though they are bouncing on their toes to walk
... kids on bicycles with so many baskets attached to the bike, there's barely room for the kid
...people on motorbikes with 15 boxes stacked on the seat, unattached, so that they are held on only by the good balance of the driver
...people sitting on the streets on tiny red seats, eating noodles and pho and all kinds of other foods, or just drinking the anemic-looking beer at lunchtime
...westerners wandering around like goons all over the place, clutching the lonely planet vietnam like it's their bible
...a park with a giant lake in the middle, surrounded by drooping trees, with men and women and children all sitting on benches, or drinking coffee or playing chess
...kids in white shirts and little red ties who wave to you and cry out 'hello!' when you pass
...little boys in the temple of literature gardens who run past and shoot you a peace sign
...scrawny women with postcards across the street from the sofitel metropole, not begging exactly, but trying to sell something, and sprinting up to you to do it
...wide parisian style bouldevards, lined with colonial buildings with green shutters and leafy trees
...tourist shops where the salesman will play you spanish songs on his guitar for ages, telling you the whole time that he has played only for a year, and smiling despite the fact that you're driving him crazy with your 900 pictures to burn to cd
...salespeople in shops who run up to you when they hear you're english to talk about football
...night cafes that as though they could easily be paris, or rome, or different era entirely
...aggressive women in travel shops who tell you about their services and when you say you will come back, ask 'you won't buy anything from me today?' and when you do come back, they insist you pay them in dollars
...people on the street who want to sell you something, and even when you say no, when you smile, they light up and give you the world's biggest grin
...girls in the hoan kiem lake park, sitting with their boyfriend, who call out hello and wave like children when you walk past and smile
...evening that starts at about 5.30, when the light goes all wintry and the windows fill up with yellow light and it feels like christmas even though it's 80 degrees outside