Hanoi Day One

When I landed at Hanoi Airport,  I thought the city was covered in a cool mist. My taxi driver was so intent on delivering me quickly to the hotel that he didn’t slow down at any intersection – confronting bicycles, motorcycles, pedestrians, cars and buses with the same “out of my way” attitude and a cacophony of beeps .  This was especially worrisome given the lack of seatbelts in the back seat.  At one point, I was certain that the side view mirror was going to do a brain biopsy on a moped driver – but somehow the space-time continuum bent, and everyone survived to confront the brutal traffic here another day.

On the way from the airport, under the giant billboards on the airport road, I was surprised to see working rice paddies (and more accurately working women wearing traditional Vietnamese triangular conical hats stooped over in the paddies. There were even a few water buffalo!

Turns out, the cool mist has not burned off – and probably wasn’t a cool mist in the first place.  It’s a smokey haze – enough so that most of the motorbike drivers and passengers (and there are always passengers) wear masks or kerchiefs over their lower faces.  

The city is busting – with a mixture of retail stores, food stalls, and motorbike repair shops on most blocks.  The traffic is so bad that I worry about crossing the street – I’ve taken to using another pedestrian as a “moving pick” to shield me from the oncoming traffic.  The motorbikes even pose a threat on the street, and at one point one tricked me by going down a one-way street the wrong way.

Hard to believe I’d be hungry after three meals on the LAX-Bangkok flight, and another small meal on the short hop to Hanoi –but as noon rolled around (midnight Boston time) my stomach was rumbling, and I ventured out to a vegan restaurant that specializes in ‘mock meat.’  Photo is attached – food was absolutely great.

I’m sitting now on a bench outside the Ngac Son Temple.  It’s pretty – but not at all in a peaceful way. It’s set on Hoan Kiem Lake – in the center of the old city- and the circumferential road is just full of Vespas and Hondas laying on their horns.   It’s about 50% tourists here – I’m happy I’ll be finding my way to wats (temples) that are much more peaceful over the next two weeks.

A word about the currency.  I mentioned yesterday the dong was recently devalued – it’s almost 20,000 to a dollar. That means a $100,000 dong note is worth a bit less than $5 (and my meal at the vegan restaurant was 92,000d.)   It’s striking that on the shrine at Ngoc Son there are incredibly small bills – many of them just 100d (the equivalent of a half a penny).  There are also no smoking signs everywhere – along with signs about how to use the fire extinguisher in case of an incense accident.

I’m a tourist attraction here too.  One family took a picture of their kids sitting on a bench next to me.  Not sure what they’ll caption this.   They didn’t speak any English, and the laptop (just outside of the photo range) was definitely an attraction.  

I took a tuk-tuk ride - from a pushy (and ultimately pretty slow) driver -- ironic that I should be building up my quads in anticipation of the next two weeks and I ended up sitting for yet another hour.   Once I relaxed the ride was honestly nice - although merging into mixed traffic was like taking a stress test. Below, my tuk tuk driver.   The really bad news is that he purchased cigarettes on the way - and gave 10,000d and got change. That means that cigarettes here cost less than 50 cents a pack.