Back in Hanoi

In the late 1980's, Hanoi was one of the most closed and secretive of cities in the world. Travel there entailed difficult-to-obtain official permission, ever present minders/surveillance, and often rough detention and deportation if you fell out of favor with the local authorities.

Today, Hanoi is on its way to reclaim a part of its former glory as the "Paris of Indochina". It is a dense city population-wise, bustling with renewed economic activity. Feels smaller and more provincial than Saigon (with its wider boulevards) and parts of the city can be a maddening maze of people and motorbikes. It is historically, the cultural and political heart of Vietnam. A friendly smile from a stranger is harder to elicit here as people are more conservative and perhaps are still coming to grips with what to make of the influx of foreign tourists (aside from regarding them as walking ATMs).

I lived for 3 months in this city from May to July for my volunteer project - and came to like it for all its charms and imperfections. This is where I find myself again after all my travels, as a point of departure from the region. This week, the city was hosting the Asian Europe Summit. Sidewalks were rebuilt, new street lamps were installed, and motorcades could be seen doing trial runs, horns blazing, through the impossibly thick traffic. It is a sad fact that this regime doesn't seem to put money into improving the infrastructure of the city until a few foreign dignitaries are slated to arrive.

It's nice to see old friends and familiar faces again (after after all the unfamiliar faces and fleeting friendships of the backpacker's life). I hung out at an old office where my project counterpart used to work and access the internet with our Vietnamese friends. Another night, we hung out with an assortment of european expats working at various NGO and UN projects. I practiced spanish with a woman from the north of Spain (and got slapped for playfully calling her "una chica caliente"). We ended the evening at some "Bia Hoi's" (beer cafes) in the old quarter - where one drinks local draught beer sitting on cheap plastic stools on the sidewalk, watching the street life go by.