Following recommendation from our hotel concierge, we went to the night market in the Old Quarter Hanoi after we finished our streetside dinner. The night market was set up only on weekend nights (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). Apparently it’s an extension of a daytime market with the same name, Đồng Xuân market, except with the night market they extended the market to the street by closing a street and make it a pedestrian only street lined up with stalls. Finding the night market in the Old Quarter was pretty easy, as it was located on a street called Hang Dao that started on its south side near the northwest corner of Hoan Kiem Lake. From there, the market went along the street for about 600 m until it reached the Đồng Xuân Market.

The market was quite crowded at night, mostly with the locals. I don’t know if people went there specifically to shop, or it was more of a social activity to hang out at the market. When I looked at tourists’ comments on the market, one comment that frequently came up was to beware of pickpockets. Apparently such incidents frequently happened there among the tourists. Fortunately we didn’t have such experience during our visit there.

We walked around the market for quite some time to see what we could find there. The market was a mixed of stalls selling anything from clothes to souvenirs, crafts, toys, etc. There were also many vendors selling snacks and drinks. We looked for things that might be interesting to get as souvenirs, and Kristi was also looking to find wooden sandals for her mom. But we didn’t really find anything that we would like to buy or even enter a bargaining session with the seller for. It was an interesting place to people watch, however, so as long as you’re careful to protect yourself against pickpockets, it might be an interesting place to check out if you happen to be in Hanoi during the weekend.

The photo below was taken at the south end of the night market. You can see the sign indicating the two ends of the night market, and the street divided into two pedestrian walking aisles with stalls lining up on both sides.