Vu Kieu Linh savors the fragrance of autumn in Hanoi

To Vietnam With Love

View Photos (1) Image © 2008 To Vietnam With Love

Excerpted from To Vietnam With Love: A Travel Guide for the Connoisseur, available from ThingsAsian Press. 

I have a bad habit of driving around Hanoi at night without purpose or direction, the weak yellow glow of the streetlights guiding my way. All shops are closed, even my favorites, the street food places. Though a few motorbikes pass me by, and occasional taxis honk at the crossroads, they cannot take away the purity of this city. At midnight, when the streets are empty, Hanoi becomes the familiar hometown of my memory.

With the arrival of autumn, I speed up a little bit in Ba Trieu Street to smell the fragrance of hoa sua—milk flower. Numerous songs and poems have been written about Hanoi in the fall, and so many of those are about hoa sua, the flower that you can find here only at this time of year. Lining the streets, the tall, rough trees have little white flowers which bloom from the middle of September until the end of October. And then the flower season ends. Hanoians must wait another year for the sweet perfume to return.

When I was young, every year when the fragrance of the hoa sua melted in the wind, I knew it was the sign that summer was over and those back-to-school days had come once again. It made me feel excited because I had so many stories to share with my classmates. Hoa sua meant I could go to school each day, seeing my friends and my teachers. Now that I am grown up and no longer living in my hometown, each time I return during the autumn months, the fragrant white flowers transport me back to my childhood.

FACT FILE:

Discovering hoa sua
Starting at the southwest end of Hoan Kiem Lake, begin walking down Ba Trieu Street. At Ly Thuong Kiet Street is the first hoa sua tree that you will meet. Continue walking down Ba Trieu for about one kilometer, until you reach Nguyen Du Street. Turn right, and all along this street are hoa sua trees—and only hoa sua trees—one right after another. You will also see another of Hanoi’s beautiful lakes, Thien Quang. Finish your small tour of Hanoi’s autumn flower by enjoying the fresh lake breeze. If you do this tour by bike, it will only take fifteen minutes; I recommend that you walk so you can fully enjoy it.

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Published on 4/14/08