Hanoi autumn has for a long time allured many domestic and foreign tourists. Once going here, I am actually attracted with its stunning beauty and the romance of a thousand year capital. Autumn in Hanoi begins when people can feel the smell of milk flowers in the streets at cool nights and it lasts from September to November before getting cold. Milk flowers are traditional symbol of Hanoi’s autumn. There’re many songs that mention their charming fragrance. Wandering on the streets, you can breathe in the beautifully sweet fragrance of Hoa Sua, or Milk Flowers, perfuming the night air and creating an area of romance for young couples out on a date.

Passing by West Lake in every afternoon, I always have a chance to admire the image of Ngoc Lan flower along streets…These loving couples often stopping to choose the white, pristine, and beautiful flower as a gift for their own lover. In addition, renting a boat floating in the lake tour in this season though it’s quite cold, you will actually find out an extremely poetic life.

 If you take part in a tour around Hanoi in the autumn, do not miss chance to ignore to explore lakeside cafes and enjoy the inexhaustible food culture of Hanoi. Among the hustling industrial age, Hanoi still retains its own identity. I usually sit for hours at lakeside cafes contemplating daily rhythm of the life to explore a different life of the busting capital. Surely, you will not found this in anywhere else apart from Hanoi.

I really love flower stalls, baskets of street venders, homely stores with wooden furniture, Old Town with 36 Streets…Located in the city center, Hanoi Old Quarter is particularly enchanting in this time with one of the most fascinating festivals in Hanoi: Old Quarter Mid-Autumn. From Dong Xuan market main entrance to Hang Ma – Hang Luoc Street, ancient house blocks turn into brilliant lantern streets selling lion’s heads, star-lights, and masks made of cardboard, toys for children. In the afternoon, you should walk through in small roadside stores to quickly enjoy hot soup bowls or slowly sip a little white wine with hot lemon-snail plates nearby. The Hanoian actually much loves boiled-snails in the cold season. More particular, boiled snail with lemon leaf and ginger sauce in Hanoi is far different from in any places with its fragrance and tasty.

Hanoi unique and characteristic feature, you will actually experience the quintessence of a thousand year capital.