Hanoi Markets are the lifeblood of Vietnam. There are many of them, even each corner has one in this capital city. You can buy anything. Meat, live seafood, vegetables, the fruit of all types, eggs, and much more. There are food stalls where you can sit on a small plastic stool and eat. The markets are always bustling, crowded, and exciting. These markets seem to exist in another dimension to the rest of the city. These are must-see places if you really want to discover culture and life here.

Guide and Jeep will meet you at the hotel in Hanoi Old Quarter at 8.30 am.

The first market to visit is Long Bien situated under the famous, symbolic Long Bien Bridge. It starts at midnight and especially busy in the early morning. Long Bien market, located next to Long Bien bridge, alongside the dike road, is a fruit and vegetable wholesale market and is at its busiest in the very early hours of the morning, when stallholders from the local wet markets, restaurants, and other businesses visit stock up for the day. Fruit and vegetables come in from the Vietnamese countryside and from China, arriving in trucks from around 01:00. A drive or walk along Yen Phu — the main road — at any time between 01:00 and 06:00 will give you an insight into the life of the market, but to experience it in all its glory you’ll need to head on inside.

The next visit is Dong Xuan Market. The dried food stalls are the highlight of the market; wide ranges of ingredients for the kitchen, from shrimp, fish to all kinds of spices as star anise, black pepper, cinnamon, ginger, garlic, chilies; can easily be found there

Return to your Jeep for the drive to Chau Long Market. This market will remind you of a market in the rural area with all daily commodities and foods; live fish, shrimp, frogs, or even turtles could be seen here. Chau Long market is situated on the bank of Truc Bach Lake where “on October 26, 1967, Lt. John McCain in his A4 B1 was shot down in this lake.” (John McCain later became the senator of US)

Have a cup of coffee at the home of an antique collector before getting back to your hotel, tour ends