Hao Nam Street is a traditional yet popular street for musical instruments. The street also gathers all the top-notch musicians and excellent students majoring in music since there is an outstanding school named Vietnam National Academy of Music (Học Viện Âm Nhạc Quốc Gia Việt Nam) located in between the music shops.

There are hundreds of big and small music stores along the side streets and back alleys as well as hidden corners. Thousands of guitars are lining the walls of the stores.

In Hao Nam musical street, it is not hard to catch sight of colorful-haired rockers, artistic music players, high school and college music students picking up their instruments with parents and friends. The shop clerks engage in lively discussions and happily demonstrate a variety of accessories and instruments, from guitar, violin, cello, piano, flute to Vietnam’s traditional instruments such as bamboo flute, bau luthier (đàn bầu), 16-string-zither (đàn tranh), Vietnamese violin (đàn nhị) or even t’rung (a Ba Na ethical instrument from Tay Nguyen).

What is interesting in this local musical instrument shopping street – Hao Nam is that the customers can bargain the price. It is even considered as rules here. “Never accept the price in the first place” is what we often tell each other. If you plan to buy some instruments in Hao Nam, you should be very careful checking out them to even the smallest details and prices. It is best to go with locals though.

Photos taken by Tu Vu

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Every day, those papers appear unprecedentedly at almost every single corner of the streets, especially neighborhoods and apartment buildings simply because those are high-populated areas with numerous of households. The most typical and common advertising notes are all about “concrete drilling and perforating /cutting service”. Those companies that own these “creative marketing strategy” have spontaneously created an ugly thing or an incredible street art?

One question came to mind: “Why are these advertisement notes pasted or painted on walls but not in other forms?” The locals’ answer is simple:

“People usually neglect brochures and leaflets!”

That explains why these papers get pasted and painted in public so that everyone passing by can catch the attention by looking up on the walls or electric poles. About 20 years back, these advertising lines already appeared on the walls but it can hardly be seen as of density as nowadays. Although the origin of this “trend” still stays unknown, one thing in certainty, they are getting more and more popular and sooner or later becoming a modern and effective advertising method anymore.

These colorful lines and papers of concrete drilling and perforating service, in short-term, have created a kind of special feature for Hanoi. “Khoan Cat Be Tong” has even been shown in an exhibition called “Speeches of wall” by Lolo Zazar in 2012 at the lobby of L’Espace Hanoi. Local fashion label Ginko started using the design in its clothing and accessories as well. However, these “Khoan Cat Be Tong” marks are still somewhat considered a sore in the eyes for many people. Some neighborhoods even made a big whiteboard called “information board” to let everyone use it as a mean of advertising by sticking all the leaflets on if in need.

To see more photos, check the open album below or go to Flickr:
Photo Album Flickr
(Please use the left/right arrows to navigate in the files of the open album)

Words by Trang Nguyen

Photos by Nhan Tran

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Video shot by Minh Nguyen and edited by Hung Nguyen
Scriptwriter: Chi Le

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Not everywhere, somewhat at this small Ao Dai (Ao Dài) lane branching from Dien Co street of the newly-formed Bac Tu Liem district, more than 10km from the city centre.

The 400m-long lane boasts splashy paintings on its once lifeless walls, a non-professional work of arts reminiscent of Vietnamese propaganda images few decades ago. This decoration enters various themes close to local issues and interests, almost always containing purposeful messages. In one corner, a picture of a lovely 3-member family emerges with a poem on family planning, known as a call by the government to control birth rate in the 1990s and 2000s.

Elsewhere, slogans such as “work hard, study hard” or “children are the future of tomorrow” recall ethics lessons in elementary school. Paintings of environment protection and encouragement of working equally spring the array of gray walls into life.

Their author, Cao Chi Thinh, 95, started his embellishment roughly 20 years ago and continues to these days should any of the households allows him to modify their house exterior. A local, Thinh employed limewash to entertain his neighborhood as much as prevented the lane from wall vandalism. Thinh used to work as a propaganda poster maker and these paintings reveal his desire to mobilize his craft for public use as he got old. Inhabitants gladly receive his creativity, notably since the cost of these paintings was covered by Thinh himself. Many cite his wall paintings as embodiments of their childhood and inspiration for the kids.

By no means a showy representation of amusement, wall paintings at Ao Dai lane pride themselves as a difference in a district yet to be exploited for tourism. En route to the city’s Noi Bai airport, you may feel tempted to stop by and grab your cameras for a few minutes of pleasant remembrance.

To see more photos, check the open album below or go to Flickr:
Photo Album Flickr
(Please use the left/right arrows to navigate in the files of the open album)

Words and Photos  by Hoai Sa

The post Retro Nostalgia in Ao Dai Lane, Hanoi appeared first on Maze Vietnam.

Take a walk here, and you will be astounded by the number of instruments here, varied from common worldwide ones such as guitar, bass, ukulele to the traditional ones of Vietnam, as well as other few countries.

Take a walk here, and you will have more in your experience. Feel the sound of traditional music playing in the so-called ‘central heart corner’ of a modern city.

Click on the photos below for full size:

Some facts you should know:

Most Vietnamese traditional instruments, as well as most of the instruments showcased on Nguyễn Thiện Thuật St. are string instruments.

Many Vietnamese instruments are ‘decorated’ with traditional drawings and pictorial-sounded names, such as ‘moon’.

Similar to Nguyen Thien Thuat St. in HCMC, Hao Nam St. in Ha Noi is a street full of instruments too, with a diversity of Northern Vietnamese traditional music.

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