I love the smell of Phở in the morning!

          I wrote this awhile back and just putting it up now, so it's about HaiPhong even though, it could easily be applied to HaNoi. This is me putting a different (much happier) twist on a famous movie quote (+10 points to those who know it! - I'm pretty sure my dad at least does). You can pretty much tell what time of day it is by the smells hanging in the air. I wake up to the smell of incense burning in the house next door, the days offering for good luck. The morning smells crisp and clean with hints of basil, stewed chicken and burning charcoal. When you walk outside, you see women and children at small plastic tables on the sidewalks, their chopsticks clanging against lacquer bowls. Most likely, they are eating Phở before heading of to school or starting housework for the day. Unless you get up before 6 am, you are unlikely to see men or young women at the breakfast table as the work day begins at 7 am for most people.
         In the afternoon, you can practically smell the heat rising from the pavement, which also leads to a powerful smell from any surrounding plant life, which is lovely and sweet. However, if you walk through a local market, the pungent smell of fish, meat, even blood, practically smacks you in the face. You can hear the sound of knives slicing through the air and a hard chop on the cutting board.
         As night falls, you can smell the air cooling down but my favorite smell at this time is spices. From Everywhere. Most people cook outdoors on small make-shift stoves and the smell is remarkable. When you walk past the street stalls, you can see, hear and smell men sitting down to a glass of Bia Hoi, a truly terrible but popular draft beer. People will sit at these stalls for hours, puffing away on cigarettes, drinking beer and chatting with friends until 10 or 11 at night. Children run around everywhere, completely unsupervised, and their laughter, plus their tiny pattering feet is a charming sound. Things quiet down and the spices leave the air at around 11 o'clock as people clean up and go to bed. From then on, the only smell is the heat, or the cold (depending on the season), clean and comforting, until 5 am the next day when it all starts again.