hanoi. vietnam. march 10th – 16th. 2009

An overnight sleeper bus from Hue. A grey and drizzly dawn, with stories of taxi and hotel rooms seems active in our minds we opt to walk again,  packs and all. Not quite as far this time, Hanoi is still asleep and our walk, fairly calm. Overpriced hotels finds us in a decent enough place, but a tiny room on the 6^th floor. Hanoi is not what I expected. It is narrow streets, low buildings, few traffic lights, bustling and chaotic, but somehow in a laid back way. It is a big sprawling, confusing city that lacks a lot of the glaring lights, booming music and ads that have somehow become trademarks of an urban environment. It is cooler and grey here, but I know Stephen welcomes both and it veils the city even more. We wander out mostly for food. Like any big city, there is a large span of prices and choices. We discover (NAME OF RESTAURANT) early on and definitely frequent it most often. Closest in our room, this restaurant is airy, quiet (it is on the 3^rd floor), full of windows and somewhere that we can linger for a few hours. We wander another day and end up close to a site called the Temple of Literature, so we decide to make our way there. Lack of intention aside, there are several other things that make our random encounter there seem exceptional. The admission almost deterring us, taking a path through other then the main and crowded ones, I hear a woman say hello and I  am aware that she is talking to me. I know I recognize her, but am racking my brain to remember how, when she says ‘Nelvana?’, then I realize it is Jackie. Someone I haven’t seen in 10 years since she left Toronto for Hong Kong and who I had no idea as to where she was now. It turns out she is living in Hanoi, with her Husband (!) and she is only at the temple today showing her in-laws around. We make plans to try and contact one another before we leave for Hong Kong ourselves. I hope to meet and catch up. Timing really is everything and I really look forward to the opportunity to reconnect. The only other thing we do in Hanoi meet with a girl named Chi, a young woman living in Hanoi who befriended someone we know from Toronto traveling in Vietnam last summer. She takes us to the Ethnology Museum and we realize at the end of the day that we would have preferred to just hang out with her in a more personal environment. It was nice of her to hook up with us, especially on the word of our friend. I think we had enough of tourist environments and didn’t appreciate the museum (and cost) as a result. That said we are still drawn to Halong Bay and leave Hanoi for 1 ½ days to go spend a night.

laurel's hanoi photos on flickr

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