Swarms of Bees

  Hanoi, Vietnam
Sunday, August 3, 2008

The thing that stands out most about Hanoi is the motobikes.  Endless motobikes swarm like bees at all hours.  You step right into the buzzing swarm to cross the street.  It's not a game of frogger like in China, they buzz around rather than expecting you to dodge them, but it's not a comfortable experience.  

COFFEE!!!

That aside, Hanoi is much more relaxed than I had thought it would be.  On the way there I said, "All I want out of Hanoi really is to chill in the Old City with a good cup of coffee."  Dream came true.  Vietnam has some of the best coffee in the world, and after a month in tea-drinking China it was badly needed.  Happiness shot up my spine at the first sip.  

Saturday was the only really full day I had in Hanoi, Friday and Monday were travel days and Sunday was Halong Bay.  I mostly spent the day walking around the old quarter gazing at the colonial architecture, stopping every so often for a drink and to people/moto watch.
 

Hanoi

The relaxation was punctuated every so often by someone trying to rip me off.  There are a number of booksellers around Hoan Kiem lake.  They have decent English and walk up to you with a stack of books, mostly on Vietnam and/or the war.  They're kind of fun to talk to, and I eventually decided to buy a book from one.  I couldn't bargain down to a very good price, ending up at about $4 American.  After I handed him the 60,000 Dong, he took off with both the money and the book.  I can't believe how fast the guy moved.  I went after him, but I couldn't find him.  What I did find, however, was one of his boxes of books.  I grabbed three interesting titles and continued on my way.  He saw that I ended up screwing him and suddenly reappeared behind me.  I decided to be nice and trade the three back for the one I actually wanted (and my pack is heavy enough). 

Saturday night, I went out by myself to Minh's Jazz Café.  I walked in to a Vietnamese quintet playing Freddy Freeloader.  The bassist tore his way through the changes, and whenever the tenor player took the solo something interesting would be happening above the bass too.  I chatted with a businessman from Hong Kong as the Real Book kept unfolding with How High is the Moon, All of Me, and the Girl From Ipanema.  I had to laugh out loud a bit with the Vietnamese vocalist doing her best impression of some American doing her best impression of someone from Rio.  It is a small, small world.