HANOI – autumn 2015

Autumn in Hanoi… an extremely pleasant place to spend a few weeks this October. Cool days, overcast but light skies with regular morning rain, and evening and nights definitely chilly. I switched the air-conditioning off as my feet—in hotel slippers—and nose were uncomfortably cold. I never imagined that Vietnam, which I consider a tropical country, would have four seasons. Well, of course that is in the northern part of the country only. The mountains north-west of Hanoi are colder still. In the resort town of Sapa, during the winter months of mid-December to mid-January, the room air-conditioning will be set to blowing warm air, and a fireside will be burning in the hotel lobby.

The south follows the pattern of equatorial south-east Asia's wet tropics. I don't know where the dividing line between north and south is located. It surely will not be a single east-west line, more like a transition zone, some tens of km deep, located in the central region. The country's total length (on a north-south axis) is after all 1600 km. Before being colonised by France and brought under a single governor-generalship in 1887, the country consisted of three regions: Cochin-China in the south, Annam in the central region, and Tonkin in the north. The transition zone would cover part of the central region.

On my first morning, the hotel breakfast room, on the tenth floor, had opened its windows and the fresh air enriched the great taste of my morning coffee. 

Vietnamese coffee is of incomparable quality. The country is the second largest coffee producer in the world, but the largest producer of Robusta beans; its Arabica production stands at a mere 4.5% of the total.

After my first breakfast, I went to the centre of town, of the old town that is and the best place for an easy stroll, Hoan Kiem lake. The footpaths around the lake are well paved, benches everywhere to relax, and kiosks for snacks, ice creams and souvenirs strategically located for easy access. And to my surprise, one can stroll past the public toilets without smelling them.

I had my favourite café filtre at the Trung Nguyen coffee centre on the edge of the old town. Together with the baguettes, the filtered coffee is a left over from the French, and as both do provide for a most pleasant intake, they were not turned out with the French. 

 Vietnam, one of south-east Asia's fastest-growing economies, has set its sights on becoming a developed nation by 2020. That does not seem impossible to achieve. When comparing the current state of Hanoi with my observations of eight years ago when I first visited the town, I can only conclude that, if the country had not lost some 30 years fighting, first the French, then the Americans, and finally the Chinese because of a border dispute, it would have been one of the most advanced economies in the region already. And what I see here in Hanoi, is but the smaller part of the overall economy: Ho Chi Minh City in the south, being the more vigorous entrepreneurial, industrial and commercial centre.

Eight years ago I came across two shopping centres—I call them shopping centres rather than malls, as they were rather small and not very fancy. Nowadays there are, however, many real malls, foreign and locally owned. The largest being the Vincom Mega Mall Royal City, an underground retail and entertainment complex of 230,000 sqm, advertised as Asia's biggest. The mall does not only contain shops and restaurants, but also movie theatres, gaming centres, and an ice skating rink of 3,000 sqm. It is owned by Vincom Retail, Vingroup's retail property arm. One of the shopping centres I visited eight years ago, located in the Vin Tower, is also owned by the group. And the second one, Trang Tien Plaza, has become a centre for high-end fashion: Cartier, Dior, Louis Vuitton and the like have boutiques there. 

The property sector appears to be in full swing with building cranes everywhere, while the infrastructure is actively being improved and extended. I have no way to check whether this is bubble-development (with a likely bursting at the end). The activity and spending level inside the shopping malls might, however, provide some indication of the general welfare of the population. I will therefore during the coming days spend a lot of time visiting malls. In first instance I'll go back to the Vin Com Tower, and subsequently to the Royal City Mega Mall, where I was told hockey is on the menu.