Rachel is one of the two people whom I feel a connection with on Twitter, be it her rants on writing thousands of words for essays or thinking critically about issues that may be of direct impact to us, or of influence to people who are far away, but nonetheless bonded by human blood.
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Street Life in HanoiRachel Grace Bok
Less than 16 hours ago, I returned from a trip to Hanoi, Vietnam, with several others from the NUS Geography Department*. For most of us, it was our first time in Hanoi and like many other first-time visitors, I was immediately taken in and beguiled by the curious medley of tradition and (Western) modernity that bursts through Hanoi’s architecture and, more excitingly, its street life - what helps to nourish and convey this intangible thing called a sense of place.
So much of Southeast Asian urban life is intricately tied up with and expressed through the dynamic everyday uses of public space on its streets, much of which have to do with the informal economy Southeast Asia is so famed for. You have, for instance, the mass of roadside vendors sprawled along the narrow streets, who sell anything from clothes toSo much of Southeast Asian urban life is intricately tied up with and expressed through the dynamic everyday uses of public space on its streets, much of which have to do with the informal economy Southeast Asia is so famed for. You have, for instance, the mass of roadside vendors sprawled along the narrow streets, who sell anything from clothes to street food that is whipped up right before you, which you can consume sitting on little plastic stools at nearby tables close to the ground.
Streetside dinner - beef hotpot.
And to sit and eat at the level of the street is to engage yourself in a way that is completely different from eating in an air-conditioned restaurant, for you are less insulated from and more deeply immersed in your surroundings - the incessant beep-beep of the motorbikes and cars that blare past, and the shadows that rise and fall with the passing of other urban pedestrians. To consume street food in this way provides an invaluable level of engagement that brings you more in touch with the city, and its inhabitants.
Most of Hanoi’s street vendors are concentrated in its historic core, known as the Ancient Quarter where shophouses, markets, temples, and pagodas span across 36 streets to surround the Hoam Kiem Lake. More recently, many such vendors have become more mobile in carrying their goods on a bamboo rod balanced across a single shoulder, to escape state attempts to regulate their activities.
A great deal of Hanoi’s informality on its streetscapes also relate to the ways in which its citizens appropriate its streets in ways that go beyond their original, planned, conceptualizations - in ways that are creative and heartening and, frankly, a refreshing change from the rather tightly disciplined and somewhat tamed streets of Singapore. On the early Sunday morning I visited the streets surrounding Hoam Kiem Lake, they had been transformed into a wondrous display of movement and music, where elderly citizens had gathered to dance and exercise. They stretched their badminton nets across smaller roads and set up their exercise equipment to form makeshift gyms. They brought their music players to blare music across the streets, and danced to the rhythms. Such convivial activities, and the collective participation that brought them to life, infused the streets with a vibrance I had not expected, and was all the more charming in its untowardness.
Local Vietnamese playing badminton on an early Sunday morning.
Elderly locals exercising along the lake with their own gym equipment.
And then there are the motorbikes that chug their way across and through the city, and are so iconic of Hanoi that any imagination of its street life would be inconceivable without them. In walking along, and through, Hanoi’s streets, I was inevitably engulfed in the ceaseless cacophony of blaring horns, the heat of tires grinding along roads as I weaved my way through traffic, and the start-and-stop sounds of motorbike engines.
Motorbikes in traffic.
To cross roads safely is a feat in itself; in most roads there are few regulated lanes and fewer traffic lights, and vehicles might slow down for you but very rarely stop. Frequently, motorbikes are parked on pavements, and travel on them to negotiate the traffic. They might even move into food shops in what what be termed as “ride-thrus”. In this seeming blending of road and pavement, it requires a certain degree of alertness to one’s surroundings to stay alive in the streets, and to negotiate one’s way through the city - but it is for this same reason that the streets are so fascinating, for to navigate your way through the city is an everyday adventure of the body and mind.
Street life might possibly be the most indeterminate and, in that, the most captivating aspect of any city, for they are the manifestation of a city’s history and its everyday reality. Neither words nor photography can come close to what the city holds for its inhabitants. It is through experiencing and being a part of street life that one might begin to grasp the essence of the city, and, to that end, begin to understand it.
*Here I’d like to thank the organizers of the trip: Cheryl Siah, Flora Toh, Tan Shuming, and
Nadine Koh - you guys were awesome! And a thank you to Dr. Jamie Gillen as well for
taking the time and effort to bring us round Hanoi.
4
*Here I’d like to thank the organizers of the trip: Cheryl Siah, Flora Toh, Tan Shuming, and
Nadine Koh - you guys were awesome! And a thank you to Dr. Jamie Gillen as well for
taking the time and effort to bring us round Hanoi.
4
*Here I’d like to thank the organizers of the trip: Cheryl Siah, Flora Toh, Tan Shuming, and Nadine Koh - you guys were awesome! And a thank you to Dr. Jamie Gillen as well for taking the time and effort to bring us round Hanoi.
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"life and society" will feature various people from different walks of life and various parts of the world. New posts are up every Monday and Thursday at 6pm (GMT +8 / Singapore time) through the first week of 2012. On Thursday (Dec 15), I'll be featuring Alejandro Proano, my friend from Quito who is studying at the University of Arizona now.
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