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Five guides and one rule

Nét is five guides and one rule: eight guests at most. We walk because Hanoi is best at walking pace, start early because the city does, and eat where there are more locals than chairs.

What we will not do

We will not hand you a conical hat for a photograph, take you to a “workshop” that is really a shop, or call this city chaotic. It is organised. You have not learned the rules yet.

Nét is a fictional company. The guides, tours, prices and reviews on this site are samples, and say so. The facts about Hanoi are real, and each one is sourced and dated.

How our pictures are made

Hàng Trống is a street beside Hoàn Kiếm Lake that gave its name to a way of making pictures: a black outline printed from a carved woodblock, then the colours painted in by hand, so no two are alike. This site is made that way.

Each picture starts as a licensed photograph. An image model, FLUX.2 [klein] 4B, redraws it as a Hàng Trống print in two to four of the colours below; we then separate the drawing into a key block (the line) and one plate per colour, and print them on the page, one on top of another, onto a sheet of dó paper. No human artist drew the lines, and the site does not say they did. Each print credits the photographer whose photograph it follows.

The Long Biên Bridge print taken apart into its sheets, from the bare paper at the bottom to the black key block on top.
  1. Paper, giấy dó
  2. Ochre, vàng Hà Nội
  3. Lake jade, xanh hồ
  4. Sappan red, đỏ vang
  5. Shutter green, xanh cửa chớp
  6. Key block, bản nét
Printed from the bottom up. Watch it come apart on the home page.

Last verified 29 October 2026 · high confidence · Wikipedia, Hàng Trống painting; Hanoi Times, Hang Trong folk print Some painters draw the whole picture by hand without a block. The tradition is now practised by very few artists.

The guides

Five sample guides, each shown by a seal cut from the first letter of their name. No faces, and none of them is a real person.

  • Lan

    Leads the dawn walks. Speaks English and French.

    Sample

  • Hà

    A former teacher. Leads the morning at Văn Miếu and the museum.

    Sample

  • Tâm

    Cooks, and decides the eight stops on the food walk.

    Sample

  • Khôi

    Rides. Leads West Lake by bicycle and the day trips.

    Sample

  • Mai

    Prints. Runs the workshop with the printmaker.

    Sample

What we hold to

  • Eight guests at most, and six at the printing table.
  • We start when the street does, and finish when it gets loud.
  • We name the street, not the shop. We take no commission.
  • We say what we do not know, and give the date we last checked what we do.
  • Vietnamese names are written in full, with their marks.