VietNamNet Bridge – Those who love traveling, photography or collecting old stamps in Hanoi usually gather at coffee shops to share their common passion. If you are interested in these hobbies, you can come to exchange and relax there at the weekend.

Tri café – the home for photographic fans

Despite a small shop, for a lot of people who were born and grew up in Hanoi, Tri Café, 183 Phung Hung is a place with the old flavors of coffee.

 It has long been a gathering place of members of Hanoi Photography Club. During the week, retired people who love photographing come here to share their interests from 12 pm to 3 pm. On weekends, people of all ages gather here to discuss photographing programs.

Apart from enjoying coffee, it is also a dating place for professional photographers as well as young people. They share experiences, and exchange old photography-related items. 

People come together because of their passion; hence it does not matter how old they are or how professional they are. It is comfortable to share everything related to photographing.

If you care about photographs, you can come to Tri Café at any time to share your experience with everyone here. The price of drinks is about VND15,000-VND35,000.

Cafés for backpackers

In Hanoi, there are more and more café shops in a variety of styles. Formerly, the capital only had book café, football café, etc. However, to meet customers’ requirement as well as to show the shopkeeper’s characteristic, café shops with distinct imprints have sprouted into existence. 

Starting from their love for traveling, this kind of café shop takes visitors to a new land. Photos from different lands and everything seem to relate to travelling. Even walls and menus are printed with interesting sentences. Many café shops name drinks with unusual names such as backpacking café, Northwest lemon tea.

Most customers here are travel lovers. They come to share stories of their journeys or plan for the next journey. 

If you want hands-on experience, these café shops are good places for you.  With friendly and opencharacteristics of travel lovers, these cafes offer you useful information for your journey.

Some addresses: Nang café on Trieu Viet Vuong Street, Bui Café 35 Duong Thanh Street, Cong (Plus Café) series, or Linh (Soldier) Café.

Café for stamp collectors

For 11 years, the coffee shop at 160 Trieu Viet Vuong has been a familiar place for stamp collectors in Hanoi and even some stamp collectors in Ho Chi Minh City. This place is called the “stamp market”.

Unlike other markets, “stamp market” only gathers once a week on Sunday morning from 9am to 11am or 12pm. There are only several seats and a hot teapot in a sidewalk corner so people can gather and talk about stamps.

At first, this was only the place for people with the same passion for stamps. But more and more people came here, and now there are a lot of collectors joiningthe market. Even if it is rainy or sunny, they always try to gather every market day.

Stamp collectors have to be passionate, patient, and meticulous. And also, they have to frequently update new knowledge. Because stamps are not reprinted, if they are lost or destroyed, they cannot be found again. Stamp collectors often exchange stamps with one another to include new stamps to their collection.

Compiled by Pha Le