I enjoy an early morning and I especially love the feeling of being the first one awake going about my morning routine in blissful silence. In Hanoi, there is no such thing. Roosters, motorbikes , joggers, cyclists and Tai Chi are in full swing from about 5 am (in the roosters case much earlier), and around 15 minutes from my house is the bustling Long Bien market which runs from around 1 am right through to 6 am. The Long Bien market is a wholesale produce market of mostly fruit and vegetables. It is located under the famous Long Bien Bridge that was continually bombed and repaired during the war, now a symbol of the resilience for the people of Hanoi.
Every night of the week hundreds of trucks carrying fruits and vegetables from provinces all over the country and even China make their way to the market. The huge quantity of fresh produce, enormous piles of herbs, masses of fruit and vegetables and even some fish cover the market and sprawl out to the nearby streets. Vendors and stallholders from local wet markets and restaurants arrive to stock up for the day. It is very likely that this is where some of my interviewees will source their fruit and vegetables too, so I had to come for a look. I decided to visit at around 3 am when apparently it is at its busiest. Dragging myself out of bed after waking to a heavy storm only an hour beforehand was difficult but so worth it in the end. I arrived to witness the last of the large trucks, which had come in full, unloading their produce onto the pavement while men and women squatted down sorting through it, some of what I presume was the ‘bad’ produce getting thrown to the side. I first perched myself on the Long Bien bridge where I had a view of the street outside the market.
.
From here I went under the bridge and into the madness. Buyers rushed around the market with baskets, pushcarts or motorbikes in search of their required produce and money was exchanged rapidly. There was shouting and commotion as hordes of men and women pushed through the crowds and horns beeped as motorbikes weaved through the tight passages loaded with boxes and crates. Traffic jams continuously built up, nobody really willing to give way. It was chock-a-block and there was no time to waste. If I stopped for more than a second I got a nudge, more often a push to move on fairly swiftly. Not wanting to disturb anyone made capturing the true chaos on camera quite difficult.
One thing that stood out was the sheer amount of rotten fruit and vegetables and plastic waste accumulating on the streets. The cleaning begins every morning at around 6 am, and I can only imagine the mess left behind at this stage.
As it started to get bright, and things were slowing down somewhat, I decided to make a couple of purchases and head away, in awe of what goes on in Long Bien market all through the night seven nights of the week.
I approached one lady selling mangoes. I felt a sense of disappointment when I said I only wanted 3. I was not allowed to buy the mangoes displayed but was instead brought to the back of her patch to a little basket and told I could only buy these. (The forbidden mangos pictured to the left!!). I happily agreed. I then made my way around to purchase dragonfruit, pineapples, lychees, and watermelons. Breakfast was sorted for the week and at a price almost incomprehensively cheap.
Some of my purchases
