On Saturdays, every segment of Hanoi’s population can be found at the city’s Hoàn Kiếm Lake.
There are families enjoying activities together and parents of small children posing them on playground furniture or large trees. There are lovers – both getting married and posing for professional photographers and those just falling in love and cozying up for selfies.
And then there are the long-married older couples, dressed in their Áo Dài and suits, with the women posing like you girls and the husbands flashing their big-ego DSLRs.
You have young students practicing their English with cue cards for interviews with foreign tourists and the high school and uni girls who want to take photos with the foreign guys.
The sk8tr boyz are there too, flipping and trying to look cool, but not really achieving much, and the tots in their oversized go-carts mirroring their fathers’ honk-first-brake-later driving skills.
It’s a carnival, complete with musicians and jugglers and food sellers and fortune tellers. And it’s wonderful. This video captures only of a few of these sights. You need to go see it for real yourself. (Filmed with Osmo Pocket.)
