Has Hanoi’s old quarter lost its mojo

I’m in Hanoi trying to find my photographic muse again after what can only be described as a brutal, painful 2011. My own Annus Horibilis if you will. What better way to put that right than being in photographic Hanoi with nothing to do and no-one else to worry about?

I remembered reading a great post by Gavin Gough about “Chasing his mojo” in Hanoi’s old quarter a year or so back and a city that could offer me a chance to re-find mine – to reconnect photographically – was an exciting prospect.

Granted it is winter here and “Tet” and so the city might not proffer some of the photographic treats it has shared with others so readily, but I was very surprised.

Hanoi is no longer a city of bicycles lazily propped up against a fading yellow wall or being ridden by school children wearing the traditional white Ao Dai. Indeed on my walk this morning I counted the bicycles I saw. Four. Hanoi – even its charming old quarter – is a city over-run with new scooters, BMW’s, Range Rover and other luxury cars.

When you do see the charismatic figure of a conical hatted woman shuffling under the weight of their Quang Gang, before you can consider taking a picture, they have stopped, put down their baskets and approached you for $1.

On the first day here I thought that perhaps it was me – that perhaps I had lost my “mojo”. I thought perhaps that I wasn’t slowing down enough or being observant enough. Perhaps I was trying to hard or had too high expectations.

Perhaps. But having now gone out in all weathers (the sun finally broke through after 2 days of cold damp drizzling rain) and all hours, Hanoi’s sold quarter seems all too similar to many other South East Asian cities where the price of advancement has been scarified at the alter of culture.

Has Hanoi’s old quarter lost some of its own Mojo?

Maybe. But scratch the surface a little harder and some of that charm and opportunity can still be found.

Granted it is not as easy as it used to be. Pictures of the wonderful old architecture will have the multiple trailing telephone and electricity hours strung right through the middle of it. But the pople are as charming as ever, the markets as vibrant as ever and the streets as colorful as ever. You just have to watch your backdrop, frame your images more carefully and get in close.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 23rd, 2012 at 5:12 pm. It is filed under Travel and tagged with Cultural, Hanoi, Hanoi Old Quarter, portraits, Street Photography, Travel, Vietnam. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.