The Old Quarter sits at the north end of the lake and is home to all manner of businesses from cheap hotels to coffee shops to handicraft sellers. Visitors will find it easy to get lost in the vast network of winding streets but as there’s so much to see, the experience will no doubt be a positive one. With a thousand year old history Hanoi is often described as the ‘grand old dame of Southeast Asia’ and sits among several pretty lakes and ponds. When shrouded in mist during the winter, the whole city takes on a rather surreal atmosphere. France’s occupation of Vietnam is evident in the large colonial buildings and the wide boulevards that are common to the city and also in cultural particulars such as love of coffee, baguettes and pate that is common among the city’s residents. Many older Vietnamese residents still speak French although visitors shouldn’t rely on this as a reliable means of communication. Despite the horrors suffered by many during the Vietnam War, the locals bear no ill feeling towards American tourists and indeed many US citizens travel to the city as part of tour groups whose specific intention is to pursue sites of the city pertinent to the history of the war from an American perspective. The city offers great eating options and visitors not afraid to try some of the local culinary delights will find Northern Vietnamese food especially agreeable to the taste buds. You can pick up a meal from a roadside vendor for less than a dollar or splash out and eat an expensive one at one of the city’s more up market restaurants; wither way you are sure to find something tasty. With attractions such as the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the One Pillar Pagoda and the Hanoi Water Puppet Theatre on offer and a gradually expanding and improving tourist infrastructure, Hanoi is firmly on the map as an essential SE Asian visitor destination. | 
