There’s an architectural oddity in Hanoi that doesn’t seem to fit in with the local style – St. Joseph’s Cathedral (Vietnamese: Nhà thờ Lớn Hà Nội, Nhà thờ Chính tòa Thánh Giuse)
It’s a late 19th-century Gothic Revival that serves as the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hanoi to nearly 4 million Catholics in the country.
If you look closely you can see a tiny man up a ladder cleaning!
Below are just some of the incredible stalls on every street. Lots of the streets are themed according to what they are selling.
Below are some of the DIY shops – the Vietnamese equivalent of ScrewFix!
The city has grown organically – but upwards not outwards. That’s due to the cost of land -when the cities started growing, the laws were that you’d only get charged on the length of the front facade of the dwelling.
As a result you’ll see lots of thin, narrow but very high buildings, usually at least three stories tall.
These are called tube houses. Because of high population density you find them in cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh.
At the front of them you’ll find the whole of life being lived on the streets. Cooking, selling, arguing and chatting.
Whether it’s traditional food being cooked on teeny, tiny little stoves, to live crabs in buckets.
Heaps of fresh greens await a multitude of home cooks, while flower sellers hawk their wares on their rickety old bikes.
And to finish it off, another of the fantastical, rainbow coloured lanterns.
Plus some cute little cooking moulds and tiny good luck charms.
