Hanoi

After arriving in Hanoi off the overnight bus, being dumped in the middle of no where, accosted by five separated moto drivers, doing my best impersonation of the reason why tourists are hated everywhere ("Will. you. just. GIVE ME A MINUTE?!?! I just got off an extremely uncomfortable, 12 hour, over-night bus ride, I don't know where I want to go yet, but I am going to pick a place where *I* want to go and if you will just GIVE ME SOME SPACE, I will be able to figure it out. Thank you.), finally agreeing to be driven to the train station to buy a ticket (where I am told repeatedly that you don't buy tickets at the train ticket office. Silly me. These are tickets for the local people. Rich tourists such as myself must go through the ticket office to buy a ticket for the tourist train - which amazingly enough is the exact same train as the local train, but the tickets are just more expensive - and they would be more than happy to take me to such an office...), walking off disgustedly to find my own hotel, walking around, tired, dirty and miserable for about half an hour, I finally settle into the first hotel that offers me a$5 room and crash until 3:00 p.m. that afternoon.

After a nap, a shower and a decent meal, Hanoi looks much more appealing. A big city like Saigon, it seems to differ from Saigon in many ways. Where Saigon is more modern and spread out, Hanoi is a cluster of two lane streets and narrow alleys; Saigon has parks, Hanoi has lakes. The colorful buildings of Saigon are more muted here and even Siagon's populace seems more modernized than that of Hanoi.

Although still accosted by moto drivers on every corner and a few in between, the whistles and shouts of 'hey you' have been replaced by a much more pleasant, "moto madam?" Which, when replied to with a smile and a polite no thank you, cease until the next corner. Hanoi's old quarter, where I have spent much of my time so far, is a maze of narrow streets and even narrower alleys lined with shops, hotels, restaurants and over 8000 tour agencies, the majority of them proclaiming to be 'Sinh Cafe,' a reputable company recommended in all of the guidebooks, proving that trademark infringement has found Hanoi a hospitable place. As with the rest of Vietnam, shop owners selling the exact same product line the streets making it easy enough to get around - ah, tire street, that's right next to book street and moto part street. If I keep walking this way, I should soon be on clothes street... - but more difficult when you are trying to find something that is not sold on the street you are on. A few times I'd wished I'd found myself on 'bakery' street, as opposed to 'electric appliance' street.

At night, the sidewalks suddenly disappear under the feet of small, red plastic chairs and folding tables which soon fill up themselves with the many residents of urban Hanoi. It is easy and enjoyble to find a nice spot to rest and enjoy the life in the streets that is life in modern Hanoi.