Describe a street you know well

Band 8 Sample

Well, there are quite a few streets that I could have chosen to talk about, but I’d have to say the one I most enjoy going to is Ly Thai To Street, which is one of the most popular tourist areas in Hanoi.

Regarding the location, the street is somewhere in the centre of the city, about fifteen to twenty minutes’ drive from where I live. So I normally go there by scooter.

And as for how often I go there, well on average, I guess probably something like once or twice a month, which I know is not a lot, but unfortunately, I just don’t have enough time to go there as often as I’d like to.

Anyway, most of the time I actually just go there for the street food, because there are loads of stalls which do really good food, like barbecued squid, bacon sandwiches, chicken wings and stuff like that. So that’s basically what I mainly go there for. There’s also quite a few little shops selling various souvenirs and handicrafts as well, but I don’t spend much time in them because most of the things are pretty overpriced. For example, a pack of postcards will probably set you back about 30,000 dong or so, whereas if you went to any bookshop in the city, it would probably only cost about 10,000 dong.

But anyway, in terms of why I like this street, firstly, as I just mentioned, the food there is fantastic, and as well as that, I also like that fact that it’s pedestrianised, so there’s a lot of space to walk around without having to worry about getting hit by a car! And another thing worth mentioning is that most of the buildings are pretty old, so it gives the street a really nice, traditional feeling.

Vocabulary highlights:

1. souvenirs – gifts that tourists buy to remember a place
2. handicrafts – handmade objects or gifts
3. overpriced – too expensive
4. set you back – cost you, the price
5. pedestrianised – a street or area that is temporarily made for walking only ie. for pedestrians