hanoi days
a spontaneous, late-summer excursion
as an avid bojack horseman fan, there was no way i wasn’t going to open this entry with the show’s hanoi episode. first order of business, i can now attest that bojack’s animators did an excellent job recreating the city. though i am not vietnamese american like diane nguyen, i felt her curiosity, her yearning and her craving for new experiences at the cusp of new beginnings. like diane’s, it was also my first time in the country. there was no smell, touch, taste or sound that wasn’t novel.
at the same time, my first words on the car ride into the city at 2am were “it feels a bit like china here.” the gently flickering lights on the freeway, the fields of agriculture only slightly visible in the nighttime, and the fading blocks of concrete buildings all painted a silhouette of the countryside at home.
and just like shanghai, hanoi was indeed humid. it rained spontaneously all five days we were there, and while i come from a city known for its humidity, i was put in my place. my extremities crinkled the first 24 hours in hanoi. i wore sandals everyday, took them off to be barefoot at a film store that doubled as the owner’s living room, and treaded through puddles and traffic, afraid that my toes may encounter the violence of a pair of bike wheels in a city with few traffic lights.
coupled with constant moisture were sounds that stimulated my ears at almost all times (even during sleeping hours - i made makeshift ear plugs out of cotton rounds). the backdrop was always a combination of engines revving and bike horns honking, with the colourful addition of something extra. on beer street, we were bombarded by bars’ enthusiastic summons. on our guided day-trip to ha long bay, i was unable to count on one (if even, two) hand(s) the number of foreign languages spoken by tourists around us. what i also won’t forget, quite randomly, is the 90+ minutes worth of royalty free, 1920’s-esque (if i’m being generous) pop song covers we endured at a “speakeasy” next to our airbnb. my americano was good, though, and so was my sour.
but if my hearing was working overtime, my recently deteriorated sense of smell (covid, maybe) was stretched thinner on this trip. travel bloggers of hanoi are certainly not lying when they vividly describe street food aromas that peak around 8pm. i will never forget the smell from the chicken pho stand that dragged me away from our previously decided dinner destination on our last night in hanoi. without surprise, our phos were phenomenal (i’m rejecting the pun opportunity here, for better or for worse). beyond the extremely pleasant, though, i also caught the intense scent of mothballs on multiple occasions, and am having a hard time forgetting the creeping scent of mildew from our shower-toilet-sink-in-one airbnb bathroom.
this won’t be a proper travel entry if i didn’t state the following: the people, architecture, food, culture, and everything in between in hanoi made up one of the most unique experiences i’ve had traveling. i say this with very little sarcasm; and yes, about the food, i will return with new mail in due time.
i’m used to traveling with an agenda, making stacked google maps lists, restaurant reservations, and at times even calendar blocks for different activities. in hanoi, i did none of that, mostly in an effort to take less control over things in life in general, but it’s better we don’t get into that. apart from booking a klook tour for ha long bay, which is a three hour bus ride out from the city, we simply did what we pleased at any given moment in town. this kind of traveling has its downsides, but certainly has its perks as well. we didn’t hit every museum in town, but made our way to the women’s museum and national fine arts museum just fine. we may have gone to the same coffee shop two days in a row (in my defense, i had different drinks), but finding a bit of routine on an otherwise short trip is honey sweet.
i certainly hope to return to vietnam, ideally with a bit more grasp on the language (this time, i had three days of duolingo under my belt). in the meantime, i shall reminisce the simplicities of daily life in hanoi’s summer, the seemingly accidental green-and-orange palette across town, and the solid trust in a community where diners always pay after their meal.
with love, till next time <3