Hanoi Audio Tours

Hanoi has been a capital city for over a thousand years, and the street plan of the Old Quarter still follows the logic of its medieval guild system. Each lane was once dedicated to a single trade: silk on Hang Gai, paper on Hang Giay, silver on Hang Bac. The names have outlasted the monopolies, but the warren of narrow streets is still there, barely wide enough for two motorbikes to pass. In the early morning, when pho vendors set up their stools on the pavement and steam rises from broth pots, the city feels both ancient and perpetually in motion.

Hoan Kiem Lake sits at the centre of everything -- a small lake with a red bridge leading to a temple on a tiny island, surrounded by the sound of traffic on all sides.

The Vietnamese believe a giant turtle lived in the lake and took back a magical sword from a 15th-century emperor. The Temple of Literature, built in 1070, is still one of the most serene places in the city. French-colonial buildings line the wide boulevards west of the lake, painted in colonial yellow, their balconies hung with plants and air-conditioning units that bracket two centuries of history in a single glance.