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Hanoi, Vietnam
Damn, this is one crazy, frenetic city. Within an hour of arriving in Hanoi, a dozen scooters almost hit me and a zillion people tried to sell me a tour, a pedi-cab ride or a selection of photocopied best-sellers. Then, a lady with bright red lipstick and about my mom's age tried to get me on the back of her scooter and home for a massage. So gross. An hour later, I saw an old woman get hit by a motorcycle. Nasty.
The communists certainly won the war against America but Hanoi now is gripped with a rapacious appetite for capitalism. There are still city banners that celebrate the victory but US dollars are now the currency of choice, Vietnam Airlines flies to New York and foreigners are warmly welcomed. I didn't see much of the city before I escaped to the coast but at night it was tough to navigate: dark and narrow streets filled with people, traffic, hawker stands, food stalls and with nowhere to walk. Plus the weather was very sucky. 
I escaped on a two-day tour to Halong Bay where very picturesque limestone towers ('karsts') shoot up from the ocean floor. There are nearly 2000 islands here, all covered in dense greenery. It is a lovely place but it's also crowded with visitors and a corresponding number of cruising 'junks'. The tour was fun but we only saw a small area; the other 1990+ islands remain unobserved. Driving to the coast was an experience as well: rice paddies, muddy fields, polluted towns, highly impatient traffic and scooters completely overloaded with chickens, pigs, onions and so on. North Vietnam is still severely poor.
The communists certainly won the war against America but Hanoi now is gripped with a rapacious appetite for capitalism. There are still city banners that celebrate the victory but US dollars are now the currency of choice, Vietnam Airlines flies to New York and foreigners are warmly welcomed. I didn't see much of the city before I escaped to the coast but at night it was tough to navigate: dark and narrow streets filled with people, traffic, hawker stands, food stalls and with nowhere to walk. Plus the weather was very sucky. 
I escaped on a two-day tour to Halong Bay where very picturesque limestone towers ('karsts') shoot up from the ocean floor. There are nearly 2000 islands here, all covered in dense greenery. It is a lovely place but it's also crowded with visitors and a corresponding number of cruising 'junks'. The tour was fun but we only saw a small area; the other 1990+ islands remain unobserved. Driving to the coast was an experience as well: rice paddies, muddy fields, polluted towns, highly impatient traffic and scooters completely overloaded with chickens, pigs, onions and so on. North Vietnam is still severely poor.
