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greetings friends....
Well i just arrived back in the states two days ago: i'm wearing shoes in my house to keep my toes warm and i miss vietnam. my last 15 hours in vietnam ended with the 4 flights it took me to get back home (hanoi-saigon-hongkong-chicago-denver) It was a wild, exhausting, almost dreamlike passage of time.
I stayed in Hanoi as long as i possible could, changing my ticket to Saigon on three different occasions. I became very comfortable in Hanoi, mainly because of my introduction to several great travellers and even greater locals. After staying up till 8 in the morning with a couple of brilliant and outrageous ausstralian social workers (Leanne and Mandy) i met my friend Toan at my hotel the following afternoon, and after some parting words, got out on the last flight possible to Saigon (where i would meet my United flight at 6am). I arrived in Saigon with about 6 hours to kill.
I caught a taxi to Pham Ngu Lao St. (in the backpackers quarter) to do some last minute e-mails, phone calls and to buy pirated CDs/DVDs. At about one in the morning I walked into an intersection lined with a few cafes, food stalls, etc. and noticed everyone, Vietnamese locals and travellers alike, out on the street watching some disturbance up the street. i went to go have a look at the festivities when, all of a sudden, several cops on motorbikes came down the street and on the sidewalks (some with sticks) hitting people and chasing people away.
There were maybe a couple hundred people running and scurrying down the street trying to sneak back into the bars (which were slamming their doors) or just get out of the path of the motorbikes and the communist guards with the sticks. This continued for about 30 minutes. in fact it became more like sport - the cops would chase everyone off from the scene of the action, then they'd all go back. exhausted and confused, I sought refuge at a cafe on the corner. another traveller passed by me - his shirt was torn to shreds and his lip was bleeding. I asked him what was going on. He said he saw a man getting stoned (as in rocks thrown at him) and beaten by several locals. His first instinct was to help the guy out. A simple humane instinct - you see someone getting the shit beat out of them and you may want to intervene. well, his price for intervention was a fat lip, clothing torn to shreds and all his money stolen. i offered him a drink and told him to take a seat. His name was Trevor, a poli-sci grad from Toronto.
Apparently the people were beating on a plain clothes officer who had been giving some locals trouble. Trevor didn't know that when he went to help that he'd be coming to the aid of a communist cop. Even as we sat outside the cafe a few Vietnamese kids walked by and snarled at him for his actions. I was really surprised by all the commotion - so far vietnam barely felt like a police state. The only other altercation I'd encountered with police in Vietnam was also at about one in the morning in Hanoi when one of the green guards was knocking and yelling into a bar that was open after hours (after 11pm in hanoi and very common), people scurried to put out joints, hide playing cards and then leave. In fact, Vietnam only vaguely felt like a communist state - the government may be autocratic but the economy, for the most part, is capitalist.
So, as the commotion settled down in Saigon at about 3am, Trevor sat amped on adrenaline after being punched and robbed, while I sat nodding off in my chair - partially from 3 hours sleep the prior night and also from the valium (so easily accesible) i'd become accustomed to taking on bus and plane trips. Trevor went back to his hotel while I sat catching 10 minute naps as the cafe closed and streets became silent. My friend Toan warned me about falling asleep in Saigon before my flight - no one was around and i was beginning to feel vulnerable.
i went to the airport early and a few hours later was in HongKong, now waiting for my next plane bobbing my head back and forth as i fell asleep and probably drooling out of my mouth. As the last passengers boarded the plane the guy next to me told me that they were offering 400 dollars cash and a hotel for the night for any passenger willing to give up there seat and fly out the next day. The plane was overbooked and every announcement they made went straight through my ears. Hearing this, I almost attempted to unbuckle my seat belt and get off the plane but it was too late. i was kicking myself in the shins for not staying awake - those of you who know me, know that this would've been one of those ideal "paul" scenarios- after already having a free to ticket to vietnam, getting 400 dollars to spend a night in Hong Kong. But as a concellation i got upgraded to business from chicago to denver for offering up my seat. but it didn't matter - i was missing Vietnam already.
I'm gonna leave you guys with a few last funny anecdotes of the moments and people i met on my trip. For some reason these ones stuck in my mind:
- the Aussie from Perth driving me around on her moto at 7 in the morning. After drinking all night at an expat French bar (Le Maquis), we rode past stoic communist guards and hundreds of early morning risers - excercising and praying outside of Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. It must have been so obvious we weren't headed to work like everyone else - this ballsy Australian girl bobbing and weaving her moto between rush hour drivers and the foolishly grinning american on the back.
- then there's the drunk Swedish guy (Mats) playing and losing a game of pool to a female pool hustler/call girl who played with only one arm (not an amputee - she just used one arm to play a game of stick). Anyways, I'll never forget this comment Mats made. There was a grotesque, middle-aged, caucasian man sitting at the bar w/ a prostitute. Mats looked at him, looked back at me and said "that ugly, fat fuck must be in paradise."
- and finally there's ms. toan. My dear friend who probably single handedly kept me in Hanoi for almost a week instead of the planned 3 days....
I'll miss Hanoi with its Chinese influenced culture/cuisine, motorbike ramps built in front of every residence/business and into the stairwells of every building, and of course the early morning exercisers who line the parks and the waterfront. Still so much of Vietnam remains a pleasant mystery and I hope to return soon.
paul
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