Hanoi

Good Morning Vietnam!!!!! I was somehow the only Westerner on the bus to Hanoi, but luckily it wasn’t at all full so I got a double sleeper seat (extra room, near full recline) all to myself rather than having to snuggle up next to a local. Was surprisingly comfortable but for once I was glad not to be any taller than I am; suck it Dutch people! Of course the bus was actually early for once which meant arriving in the dark at 4:30 in the morning alone. Things you don’t see on the morning commute in America: guy on a motorbike driving along with two gutted pig carcasses across his lap. So after fending off the motorbike “taxi” guys, “No take taxi! Taxi mafia!” I managed to find a taxi whose driver of course absolutely refused to turn on the meter and haggle him down to a reasonable for alone at 4:30 in the morning price to get to the hostel and grab some shut-eye. Phew, it’s hot again. Time to explore the city and do a little shopping for random stuff like shaving cream and a new belt.

Some fun nightlife in Hanoi, though I think the sampling of 6 different types of random late night street food might not have been the best idea. Met a bunch of friendly local middle-class seeming Vietnamese with decent English who wanted to hang and go out with us. Was quite entertaining. Laughing as they made everyone try the ridiculously strong local tobacco which you smoke out of a giant bamboo bong which seems to cause the sweats and uncontrollable coughing in those not accustomed to it. Weather turned a bit shit today, so good day to take it easy and hopefully it’ll clear up tomorrow for me to walk around the city and see all the museum stuff before heading for Halong Bay in the near future.

                So, ended up spending quite some time in Hanoi partying and meeting new people. I ended up staying at this huge backpackers hostel that was chock full of keen-to-get-wild young Brits and Aussies (among other nationalities). Definitely can’t quite keep up with the 18-21 year olds these days but it’s fun trying. The hostel threw a crazy fun Halloween party as well. Lots of good nightlife and local street food to be had in Hanoi as well as street lining rows of tables and chairs where they serve local homebrews for about 25 cents a glass. Not the best tasting beer but the price is right anyway. Unfortunately Hanoi as the capital actually has a curfew, which means technically street side cafes are supposed to be done at 11 I think and bars by midnight. Additionally there’s apparently a new police chief in charge who’s trying to set a tone by more vigorously enforcing the rule. So there’s this very interesting phenomenon whereby police trucks start cruising around at night screaming at the locals from megaphones mounted on the vehicle. A local Vietnamese friend I met said that the translation is somewhere along the lines of, “Go the fuck home!” Anyway, so the funny thing is this weird pantomime type thing happens where the local proprietors will just turn of their lights as the police come by shouting and then will turn them right back on again as soon as they’re past. Also of course some clubs and bars seem to be exempt on some nights. So there will be like 20 people sitting outside and the owner sees the cops coming, shuts off all the lights and shushes everyone and then right back to business as usual. It’s obviously not fooling anyone but seems to work for at least an extra hour or so past the official curfew when the cops start getting serious and threatening to seize stuff from the café, kebab seller or club. Weird, right?

I met a hilarious German guy who had been working in Hanoi and some of his students from the university came out with us one night. Really interesting getting their perspective on things.The girls were kind of bemoaning how conservative Vietnam is in regards to relations between the sexes and how there’s a huge double standard in regards to this attitude with men versus women. Any funny business pre-marriage for the ladies apparently means you’re spoiled goods but the reverse isn’t true. Go figure. They were also asking me what they teach and we learn about the Vietnam War in America. Met and interacted with quite a few locals in Hanoi actually. These guys stopped me and an Korean-American girl I was walking with in the street once and I was expecting some kind of sale pitch scam right away but they were students doing some project and wanted to ask us some questions and take our pictures. Was really good actually, I like meeting other backpackers from all over the world but it’s great to get to know locals and much harder generally. Though a pretty failsafe rule in SE Asia for going out at night and finding the popular local spots is to just find the nearest karaoke bar.

                Did quite a bit of wandering around, honing my street crossing skills in the madness of motorbike traffic and visited a colonial era French prison where they had tried to suppress Vietnamese nationalism with charming methods such as indefinite solitary in small cages and an honest-to-god guillotine. Wonder why the Vietnamese kicked them out? It also featured in a glass display what was alleged to be John McCain’s flight suit along with a picture of him being captured after his plane went down. So that was interesting. Unfortunately Ho Chi Minh’s preserved body was out touring the world or having a play date with Lenin or something so there was no point going to the Mausoleum. Too bad too, as I would have liked to see it.