The 5000 Project

so I landed in hanoi, stepped out of the plane, experienced a wave of 35c heat; quite a shock compared to the 15c back in perth. I was determined to not be ripped off by the dodgy motorbike and car taxis for the 30min trip to the city, after asking around I found that there is a local bus on the other side of the highway, 10min walk from the airport in an obscure underpass. The bus cost 25c, quite a difference compared to the $5 for minivan or $20 for taxi. Unfortunately, not knowing where I needed to be dropped off (lacking the GPS on the recently stolen phone), I decided to wait until the last stop and get off in the assumption that it would be in the city centre. Taxi drivers pushed, shoved, grabbed and even punched to get me to ride with them; I resisted firmly and walked over the road to a dodgy cafe that had very flakey wifi. I google maps’d the address on the cafe door, although after speaking with the waitress (by speaking I mean having a 10min english and vietnamese confusion barrage) I got the drift that she was trying to get me to google the cafe name, I did so… in my shock I found that I was miles away from where I assumed the bus had dropped me off, yet I still attempted to walk to the destination. After a good hour of walking, I admitted defeat and hailed a motorbike taxi, giving the address of the residence of a girl I met just before I left hanoi before. I approached the premises to find that it was actually a cafe with a secure lift, thankfully the cafe had wifi (like every second shop in vietnam) and I skype called my soon-to-be host, she came down and accompanied me to her humble abode.

Due to study commitments with her and her boyfriend, I spent the rest of the day relaxing from a sleep deprived two connecting flights, I slept well that night. I woke at 11am the next morning to find that half the appartment was in water after extremely heavy rains during the early morning, flooding the balcony which seeped under the glass sliding door. In my panic state I decided to have a shower before attempting to clean up the moisture with towels and whatever additional liquid obsorbing materials I could find, the rain had stopped and the water wasnt flowing further into the appartment. To my surprise, I finished a quick shower to find the caretaker and a cleaning lady cleaning the mess, no real damage to furniture or valuables, thankfully.

The next night I went out drinking with my host at a beer hoi stall (extremely cheap homebrew beer, as mentioned in previous posts) I met with some Europeans when my host left, when the hour of crime arrived, I decided it might be best if i hang out with my newly found colleagues considering they lived close to my accomodation. by the end of the night I made it back to the appartment with no incidents and all my possesions, only to find that the front door was locked, the key that the host had given me did not work for this main lock, only the elevator. After making a bit of a noise, the night guard, who was covered in tattoos, stopped watching TV inside the cafe and walked to the door, regardless of me holding up a key and pointing upwards, he signaled a phone with his hands and went back to watching shitty american reality tv shows with vietnam subtitles. There I was, alone in the dark and sinister streets of hanoi in the early hours of the morning. I took his advice, I walked once again at dangerous’o’clock through the streets of hanoi in search for a net connection for skype. I found a late night WoW and Warcraft3 internet dungeon and attempted a skype call to my host, her phone was turned off. I decided to stay in the netcafe until morning, armed with a few highly potent asia redbulls, At around 11pm most drinking establishments and all shops are closed due to a curfew, considering the area I was staying in, away from tourists, the thought of trying to find anywhere else to bide the time was quite daunting.

after a hefty sleep when the guard unlocked the door at 7am, I booked my ticket to sapa for the same night; sapa is a town in the beautiful highlands and rice terraces on the china border, last time I traveled down from china I ended up taking a train directly to hanoi from the border, only to find that I accidently skipped the most scenic location in vietnam. I was sure not to make the same mistake this time around.

*** Fun facts gathered from hanoi:
apparently motorbike riders take off their mirrors because its the cool thing to do, adding a nice level of danger to their already dangerous lives

Females dont smoke cigarettes as it is seem as a masculine thing to do, due to this, smoking companies are now targeting women specifically to unlock a 50% market potential

Sapa keeps doubling the tourists each year, it started off as a very unknown area not long ago with no tourist facilities