Hanoi « Gigxl

Hanoi

Colin says:
I was hung-over for a lot of it. Sneaky how that happens. I seem to have the impression that I’m not drinking that much now. I have definitely lost weight which I will attribute to a lesser than NYC alcohol diet. Whatever the case. There was a lot of rice wine to be had and a floating club?! Ate some crickets or wasps not really sure, but I put enough -OH back to sterilize the stomach enough for a tarantula.

Outside of the booze circuit. The people we were staying with were awesome. Super rad little situation there. Three roommates living in this amazing house. A four floor mansion as far as I’m concerned. It was awesome. Explained as one of the perks to living in Vietnam, housing being incredibly cheap. They were having some maid issues at the time we were there which they informed us normally comes three times a month.

Alix says:
Back to a bustling city. Gotta have one in the south (Saigon) and one in the north, and little bits in between. Being in north Vietnam is apparently different form the south. The overall feel, I hate to say, is just not so friendly and out for every buck they can get off you. Kinda a turn off for that people side of things. The city has a lot of history, particularly in the Old Quarter which you can tell was the first area established and clearly not built for cars or motorbikes with its narrow, winding streets. It is very beautiful - tree lined streets, old buildings versus the modern buildings of Saigon, the lake with a pagoda, local eateries - but I still favor Saigon. For two reasons. First being the people and the more welcoming atmosphere they create. Second being the food. In Saigon (as well as Nha Trang and Hoi An also in the south) there were local food carts every few meters, whereas in Hanoi there were barely any. I was craving a Vietnamese sandwich and none were to be found! Also, come 6am be ready for a jolting wake-up call, all of a sudden music is blasted followed by propaganda and local news blared from loudspeakers positioned on almost every corner. It’s ridiculous. You cannot sleep thru it no matter how hard you try, it’s soooo loud and lasts a good half hour forty minutes. Gotta dig those Commies.

On a big plus note, we had a dope place to stay via couchsurfing, our love of accommodations, Colin found a new pair of flip flops, a supposedly ‘real’ pair of Ray Bans (he has lost his 3rd pair of sunglasses), and thanks to our awesome couchsurfing hosts - Geni, Cameron and Malcolm - we went out every nite and tried good local food, saw some Vietnamese jazz, went to a dance club floating on the river, drank local beer on the street corner, scored some cheap herb, hatched a plan for Burning Man 2010 and ate crickets! Yep, I expanded my views as a vegetarian and ate some bugs. I have already been eating fish nearly once a week, so something’s gotta give I guess.

I really enjoyed the evening eating time when all the locals went to a local spot, sat down on the oh-so-tiny plastic stools, and slurped foe (traditional soup) together taking up the whole sidewalk. And checking out Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum - finally we see the tribute to this dictator everyone raves about. Didn’t bother with the water puppets thing, too full of white people.

We had some great dinners, kindly shown to us by our couchsurfing hosts. Our top picks:
Quan An Ngon - a collection of the best street vendors put under one roof
Highway 4 - bottles of flavored rice wine, crickets and rowdiness for us!
Cafe Nola - a Louisiana blues cafe with terrific decor, coffees and nibbles