Hanoi

Also could be called: the Shit Show

Note: parents don't read this one since you don't like posts solely about drinking and this one contains absolutely nothing cultural and a lot of whizzing around on motorbikes at high speeds in the middle of the night.

Ok now that the parents are out I'll make this a little less PG. Stop reading mom.

This is the ONLY picture I took in Hanoi. That should tell you something about my mental state for the vast majority of the time.

Got to Hanoi at 4ish just in time to run into Tine and Steffie (the Belgian and Austrian girls) leaving the hostel with a gaggle of irishmen they had befriended the night before. I went and got some food with them, my first springrolls of the trip which were absolutely delectable. After two big red Hanoi beers I was almost ready to accept the guys' offer to get on the train that night and head down to Hue with them since they were on about the same timeline as me - Saigon by Sunday. With a drastic effort, and because the second beer had made me a little sleepy and unmotivated, I decided it was too much work to try and find the train station to get a ticket. I went back to the hostel with the intention of going and walking around the city, only to be drawn into the bar by the irresistible force of 2 for 1 happy hour drinks. In my defense there was also a really interesting convo going on about the election and it was fun to be the token american.

I was going to exercise my willpower a second time in order to leave the bar and get dinner but my good intentions were concurrent with a guy in a huge guinness hat proclaiming three free beers for anyone who moved the party to the roof bar with him - obviously all of us went up.

Talked a lot more about the election up there.. it really was amazing how interested every non-american was and they all expected me to be an authority, which I clearly, in every way, am not, but at this point I was tipsy enough to be able to bluff myself through anything with confidence..Thats what I've found over the years as long as you can tell the person you are talking to is not an expert on the subject, then as long as you are really persuasive you can make them believe anything.

Drank more, then went on a group exodus with some of the guys who worked at the hostel to Finnigans, an Irish bar around the corner. Attempted to play pool, and then when after a few games it was apparent I couldn't hit straight I went and joined all of the people dancing on top of the bar / stools / tables / any flat surface. One of the guys from the hostel was one of the more ridiculous people I have had the good fortune to hang out with. He was ano skinny, had hippie hair, lots of tattoos and looked perpetually fucked up on substances. He and I decided it would be a good idea to climb up onto the tiny little flat space where the backs of the two booths met (restaurant booths) and dance on top of there... I have no idea how either of us managed to balance on the three inch wide, semi rounded top of the booth, let alone dance.

From here we made another exodus to a bar called Maos and one of the american guys got too drunk and started being really annoying and following me around as guys tend to do while they are drunk (Mistering for all you CMCers). I started talking to a different american to get away from above creepy american and he said he was leaving and could give me a ride back to the hostel. For some reason in my inebriated state I did not realize that he actually worked at the hostel, and thought he was a motorbike-taxi driver...which I guess maybe in my drunk mind was plausible since he was offering rides. I cringe to think if I tried to pay him or something when we got to the hostel since he was just doing it to be nice. I know I also asked him later in the evening why he was driving a moto-taxi in snasia when he could obviously get a better job here since its so easy for foreigners..I don't think I fully realized he worked at the hostel till the end of the night, kind of embarrassing.

Got to the hostel, and was still to wired to go to bed since I had probably downed a good 4 red bulls over the course of my night. Anyway, drunk people never want to do the one thing that is good for them: go to bed. I am especially deceiving as the drunker I get the more effort I make to convince myself and everyone around me I am sober. Aperently I thought I was still too "sober" to go to bed. I saw Kid who drove me home getting on his bike to go back out so naturally I invited myself regardless of whether he actually wanted the liability of a drunk girl on the back of his bike, especialy at 50 mph with no helmets. I'm glad he let me come though because it was really cool to see the city that late at night.. and we literally went for at least an hour long drive through the whole city, so I got a completely free tour, Hanoi Hilton, Pagodas, etc, and with a very knowledgeable guide too since he had been living in Hanoi to quite a while.

Old Hanoi is built around a central lake which I hadn't spent any time at so we chilled there and watched people go by for a bit. Its amazing how many people are out even at 4 in the morning in Asia. Old women were already setting up their stalls for market the next day, something I never would have seen if I hadn't just stayed up all night, because no matter my intentions, there is no way I can wake up at 4.

PS although it sounds very sketchy driving around at 4 in the morning with a guy I met while drunk, we did NOT hook up, so you can wash your brain out with soap... always thinking the worst of people. (I know you were thinking it..)

The next day it poured rain, so I didn't really get a chance to walk around, I kind of just sat in bed all day and took naps trying to recover from my epic night. I went to an delish place for lunch though when the rain took a break and tried my first real vietnamese food. (On the boat they did not really know what to do with me since I didn't eat seafood so I really just ate french fries the whole time). The menu was in vietnamese, but luckily Kid was nice and just ordered everything veggie on the menu for me so I could try a ton of the dishes. We ended up having way too much food but it was sooo good. My favorites were these bean filled dumplings that were kind of sweet, and a salad that had some sort of lemongrass dressing and made my mouth burn up. I also had Watermelon Juice that was amazing as well. Basically vietnamese food is the shit.

After this I sadly had to go get on the bus to Hoi An at 6 PM that night , but I really want to come back to Hanoi because I feel like I did not get to spend enough time there and Hanoi Backpackers was the most fun I've had at a hostel since the Pink Palace... I guess there were some other occurrences in common other than the debauchery.. oops, my bad..but it was vacation..

the 24 hour bus ride to Hoi Anh coming next.

PS I am planning on doing Hanoi and Sapa in Jan, so I'll take pictures then and actually post them, because Hanoi is one of the more cool cities I have been to in my life. The fusion of French architecture and Asian Chaos is a very mindboggling combination. All of the roads are european narrow with trees packed in where there really isn't enough room to accomodate them, and all of the houses are tall and skinny because of the parisian tradition of paying property tax on the width of your house, not the hight or square footage. Mix this with the chaos of a million motorbikes, sidewalks full to bursting with life, enough wires and laundry to block out the sun, and you have an idea of the scene Hanoi presents. I would go back in an instant since I did not get to spend enough time actually seeing the city.