In Hanoi, you pay your real estate taxes based on the frontage of your home. Thus arose the convention of the ‘tube’ house, a narrow looking building with a small doorway that accordions out on the inside to include all sorts of added-on rooms, balconies, staircases, ladders, water tanks, a hodge-podge of a home that sprouts features over time.
Much of the city has this higgledy-piggeldy vibe. Old and new stuff converge everywhere, ancient banyan trees sprout ethernet cables, ancient Confucian temples fly Communist flags, crooked old ladies in conical hats stagger down the road, one hand steadying a bamboo stick hung with wicker baskets, the other poking an iPhone 6.
(To be continued, maybe tomorrow)
Danny Gregory 
Interesting regarding the “tube” houses. Taxes bring out the best and the most cunning amongst us. I found myself going back and forth looking at and enjoying your work.
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Great trip! I like to travel with tour drawings. Thanks
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Thank you for posting all of these looks into life in Hanoi. I don’t expect I’ll ever get there, and appreciate the visual tastes you offer.
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I am loving your trip drawings. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and experiences with those of us doing a stay-cation.
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Loving your travelogue. It’s almost like being there…without the mind-numbing plane trip. Thanks!
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