O Hai, Hanoi!

I arrived in Hanoi last Thursday, after a would-be grueling twenty-six hours in transit. Thankfully, due to the glorious hospitality of Singapore Airlines (my dream-significant other objectified, or corpafied, rather) and the shining entertainment transit mecca that is the Singapore airport, my trip was pleasant and thoroughly tolerable.


The rooftop sunflower terrace for your relaxation and enjoyment at the Singapore airport.

I’ve been wanting to visit Hanoi for a while, as I’ve only heard wonderful things about the city from everyone I know who has been there. It did not disappoint. To me it was part Palermo, Sicily with its bustling markets and Catholic cathedrals, part French Concession, Shanghai with its wide boulevards and colonial architecture, and wholly unique. It is a fast-paced, dizzying city that charmed me instantly.

One of my favorite aspects of Hanoi was the over-abundance of food everywhere. My first night there I was completely exhausted from my travels, but was nonetheless still able to stumble out of the romantic courtyard of my guest house (the lovely Hotel des Artistes, a part of the Hanoi Cinemathique), and onto the busy street of Hai Ba Trung. There I discovered no less than 4 stations of street food within a 5 foot radius. I squatted down on the closest plastic stool I could find and was immediately presented with a steaming bowl of beef pho for my pre-bedtime snack. I think it cost around 25 cents, which is enough to buy maybe some air back home.

The famous Vietnamese sandwich- bahn mi.

Hanoi is also one of the only places that I have visited where I have felt almost paralyzingly disjointed. I owe it in most part to the language barrier, for none that I knew, nor my pathetic attempts at Vietnamese, got me anywhere near as far as my big dumb grin and a spectacle of charades-like hand motions.

Apparently my out-of-placeness was quite obvious. Even my friend Jake, who is tall, blonde, and basically looks like a Viking, noticed the frequency of staring contest challenges directed towards me. My hopes to blend in soon faded, and the realization quickly sunk in that I will always, for whatever reason, be a walking freakshow in Asia.


Hoan Kiem Lake at dusk is sheer perfection.


Hanoi: a study in historisis. Every street specializes in selling or doing something specific, like the stuffed animal street where I found this cuddly store.


The paper district in the Old Quarter.


Just taking a stroll through the Temple of Literature, the most luxuriously fitting place to read a book. Ever.