After praying to Buddha with the locals and drinking whiskey with Indians it was definitely time for me to move on before I got stuck in Bangkok. I've discovered the slow life... sleeping, eating and wandering around aimlessly, drifting from table to table (chatting of course!) for hours on end. Lovely!
Being in Hanoi is like being stuck in time. (For those who've been to Malaysia, it is a bit like Melaka - really old & quaint.) After the ultra modern airport in Bangkok (opened in 2006 / looks like something out of the film "Alien" - but in a good way) Hanoi airport is a complete culture shock - an antique! The trip back in time started there! I met this Spanish guy from the Canary Islands on my airasia flight out here and we were both like "wow, this is the Asia we want to see!"
My hostel offers a free airport shuttle service, so there was a tiny guy holding up a sign with my name on it waiting for me. So cute! I asked him how long it would take us to get to town and he was like: "well, ca. 45min". Uff, thought I, Hanoi must be a really long way away. To make some small talk I asked him: "how many km?" "37" he replied, dead serious. I looked at him to see if he was joking. He wasn't! (It was a bit of a shock for me, because I had been averaging around140km/h on Swiss motorways for the past two months!) But as soon as we hit the road I understood why it would take us so long: he never ever, ever went over 60km/h. 50km/h was the average. But I wasn't complaining - there was so much to see! Beautiful derelict & colourful houses, rice fields, scooters whizzing by with interesting cargo... There was this one guy who had a dead pig (!), strapped to the back of his bike. The pig's throat had been slit and the head was lolling back, showing off all the gory details. And no, I didn't take a picture!
I'm in a dorm with 8 other girls and have already decided that although this place has free internet (an absolute bonus! and the keyboard is neither Japanese nor Chinese as it was in BKK) I prefer to sleep alone if possible!
I went out with an English girl just now, who had also taken the same flight from BKK and at the beginning we were like "oh, this is so peaceful" but as soon as we tried to cross a road we changed our minds! The scooters are absolute maniacs and vicious horn honkers to the boot. I nearly got run over by one going down the wrong way... t'is seriously dangerous! The food is ok, a hell of a lot of pork (not my favorite) and I'm wary about the fruit juices, they tend to use ice - a sure death to all just starting out!
The mosquitoes seem to love me, already boast 6 Fr.1.- -sized bites. Very annoying! Ah well, another excuse to shop for long but light clothing!
So, I'm off, there's a free bbq on the roof tonight. Hope they serve something else than pork!
