The Second Annual Autumn Adventure Begins

We left Saigon today to start a big adventure around Southeast Asia. While Matt and I often discussed having a big adventure before leaving Vietnam, we didn’t intend a repeat performance. And while neither our budget nor our timeline is as ambitious as last year, this trip does coincide with our Balkans adventure one year ago.

Our flight out of Saigon was early afternoon. We ran a few errands separately in the morning. I needed to get some antiseptic cream for the blisters on my leg, as well as some travel sized toiletries. I also needed a last banh mi to remember Saigon until next month. Matt helped me bandage my leg when I got home, and then we headed to the airport.

We took advantage of Matt’s lounge access to have a complimentary lunch of steamed buns. I blogged and we laughed at some memories of last year’s Balkan adventure.

We never heard the boarding call for our flight, so we were surprised when the board suddenly displayed “Last Call” in bright red letters. Thanks to the inefficient boarding procedure of loading everyone onto a bus and driving them out to the airplane, we had no need to rush. I realize I’ve become a bit impatient and pushy living in Asia (not willing to be cut in line or pushed out of the way) so I through my share of elbows to get onto the plane. Matt was calmer, and boarded a few people behind me in line.

Once we were seated, we joked about how ridiculous it is that Vietnamese airlines won’t let you listen to music during boarding or take off.

“We definitely stopped that like 5 years ago,” Matt said. “Why haven’t they figured out that music doesn’t affect the plane yet?”

“We stopped that more like 10 years ago,” I said. “I read once that the reason phones are forbidden on planes is because it would be annoying to listen to someone’s phone conversation for the whole flight.”

Inevitably (because it’s Saigon) it rained and we were a bit delayed taking off. Matt slept most of the flight while I read some of the book I’ve been working on since my flight over here and watched a movie I had downloaded on Netflix. Vietnam is by no means a small country, being long and skinny like the east coast of the US. But we still made good time.

From the airport, we ordered a taxi for the 45 minute commute into Hanoi. The taxi driver kept getting phone calls and sending text messages. Matt gritted his teeth as we drifted across 4 lanes of the highway while he sent a text. For some reason, it didn’t phase me.

“It can’t be anymore dangerous than any of our grab bike rides in the last year,” I pointed out. “In fact, our odds of survival are way higher in this thing than on a bike.”

Once we were off the highway, the roads were narrower and the driver had to keep both hands on the wheel. Motorbikes in general seemed less popular here than Saigon. Traffic was definitely less congested. Those who did ride motorbikes didn’t seem to wear helmets, at least not with the frequency of the South.

We got to our hostel and checked in. After stowing our bags, we decided we were pretty hungry and went to get an early dinner.

Bun Cha is a specialty of northern Vietnam. It became world famous when Obama ate it and complimented the dish during his presidential visit here. Essentially, it is pork based broth, with carrots, tarot root, pork meat, and rice noodles. Fried spring rolls are cut up and added to it when the soup is all mixed together. It was solidly one of my favorite meals in Vietnam. We washed it down with a glass of the restaurant’s home made rice whiskey, which was a rice liquor flavored with fermented apricots.

“I wish we’d eaten more of this kind of food in Saigon,” Matt lamented. He’s been to Hanoi three times previously and discovered this on his last visit in July.

After dinner, we were a little torn on what to do. We are only in Hanoi for tonight, so I didn’t want to waste it. At the same time, it was nearly dark, and I didn’t want to rush everything just to see another city.

“What have you not done?” I asked Matt.

“There’s this Harry Potter cafe I wanted to check out last time I was here. It’s just around the corner,” he said.

“Let’s do it!” I’ve admittedly never read nor watched Harry Potter, but a themed cafe is always a good idea.

And this one was pretty cool. In the front room there were costume pieces to take photos dressed as a Hogwarts attendee. There was also a bar to order drinks for take away. In the back room there was space for sitting, with a mural of Diagon Alley and framed photos of the cast of Harry Potter (all in character.)

“I’ve been to more Harry Potter themed events outside of the US than in the US,” I joked. In Scotland I visited the street that inspired Diagon Alley, I walked through the graveyard where JK Rowling found the names for her beloved characters, and I ate dinner at the cafe where she wrote her award winning series. Then, last month, the castle at the Buddhist amusement park was Harry Potter themed (because nothing goes together like Wizardry and Buddhism in an amusement park.)

“Yeah this place is definitely not approved by Warner Brothers,” Matt joked.

I had an alcoholic butter beer and Matt had a Goblet of Fire cocktail. I didn’t try Matt’s (which was made with run, orange juice, and cherries) but mine was great. It was beer and cream soda, whipping cream, and butterscotch.

The name of the bar was Always. “Is that significant?” I asked Matt. He explained that it was.

After our drinks we went to walk around the lake in town. While Hanoi didn’t feel that much different from Saigon (less traffic perhaps) when we got to the park, it did feel different. There were street performers dancing and playing live music. There were kids roller skating. People were going for walks or sitting on benches with friends and talking.

“We don’t really have public parks like this in Saigon,” Matt pointed out the contrast.

“Or if we do, it’s too hot to use them,” I added, remember a few of the parks I’d visited back in March when I first got here. “Plus the rainy season makes it hard to be outside in the afternoon.”

We made a lap around the lake, occasionally getting distracted by street markets down the side streets. On a few occasions, we were approached by vendors and hawkers. I feel a little bad about the stone-cold “get out of my way” face that I’ve developed, but Matt was approached way more than I was.

At one point, as we were weaving through a side street, a man on motorbike road up alongside Matt.

“You want motorbike ride?” He asked

“No thank you,” Matt said.

“You want marijuana?” The man asked.

Again Matt declined.

“You want girl. She give you happy ending?”

Matt declined this offer as well, but it was the first of many to offer these three services to him. It was always in the same order; first the ride, then the drugs, then the sex.

“They escalate to close the deal,” Matt said.

After we lapped the lake, we went to walk around the pedestrian area. The pedestrian area in Saigon (called “Bui Vien”) is definitely more wild than Hanoi. On Bui Vien, you can buy any flavor of drugs you want, you can find home made moonshine, you can find lady boys, you can find cheap beer…you name the vice you can find it. While this was more tame, it was more intense. Restaurant workers would grab you and pull you towards their restaurant. They’d create an all out blockade with both arms out to their sides. Again my “out of my way” face must be pretty good because I only got jostled a few times, but we saw lots of defenseless tourists (even older people in their 50s and 60s) being dragged around and pushed around.

Fresh smoothies have been a highlight of living in Vietnam, and most days we drink 2. To be honest, I think this high fiber intake has helped with a lot of my stomach issues here. With most tourist attractions closed, we decided to go find a smoothie stand.

The one we found was really cool. They had a pretty creative menu, with such unusual ingredients as bergamot and more western flavors like peach. Matt got one called “Mat Mat” which had apple, kiwi, lemon, and mint. I got an “Amazing Mango” with orange, peach, mango, and strawberry.

Surprisingly, the police were blocking off streets everywhere we went in town. It seemed like the entire old quarter was being turned into a pedestrian zone. They were even enforcing rules for people to walk their motorbikes.

“Saigon could never pull this off,” I joked. But it made for a really nice evening to walk around.

We checked out the night market with fake brand name clothes and the usual market trinkets. The classic tourist purchase in Vietnam is a banana outfit, which is a button up shirt and shorts made of light weight material and covered in a floral banana print.

Being a bit tired from the early morning, we decided to go back to the hostel and call it an early night. Before going to sleep, we read a little about our bus transfer tomorrow and the family we are going to be staying with up north. It may be a little more adventure than we bargained for, but a homestay seems like a cool way to experience the north.

I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.