The riders are virtually all helmetless, though the women are wearing gloves above their elbows against the subtropical sun. The bikes are like a swarm of angry bees occasionally stinging each other. The government, so efficient at tracking down dissidents and unsanctioned worshippers, seems helpless to enforce the traffic laws, even after empowering police to bring down speeding bikers with tear gas. The city whose fall in 1975 signified the end of the war is now the economic engine of reunified Vietnam, and it looks like it. The teeming street life spills over into rickety houseboats on the rivers.
Hookers cruise around tourist hotels on motorbikes.
Vendors, beggars and pedicab drivers jostle for trade. This is the place to do business and party long past midnight. With salaries averaging several times more than in the countryside, the city is swelling with rural migrants regardless of government controls on movement. So a second city is being built next door as a magnet for industry and migrants. Hanoi, with its lakes and tree-lined streets, is the stronghold of communism.