We took 'Nam at Dawn

[Note: Laura wanted this titled "Good Morning, Vietnam". Agree to disagree.]

Just after landing in Vietnam, we asked our taxi driver to drop us off at the "Star Hotel". He indicated that he knew where it was and would be happy to drop us off there. About twenty minutes later, he pulled over before a busy intersection where a man appeared at the backseat window. He pulled out a business card that said "Star Hotel" and eagerly welcomed us to Hanoi. We got out, paid the driver and looked around for Star Hotel. The man said that Star Hotel was full, but he was also the manager of another hotel a few blocks away. We asked to have a look at Star Hotel anyway. "No, no, no....Star Hotel full!" he said, pointing vaguely at a travel office and then a shoe store, literally pulling us down the block. After some very serious and repetitious conversation, we broke free. We found Star Hotel about four blocks away. Plenty of rooms available. Welcome to Hanoi!

You know that scene in Batman Begins where Bruce Wayne is discovering the Bat Cave? He crawls through the dark cave entrance which eventually widens and is suddenly surrounded by thousands of swarming bats. At first he's afraid and crouches low to the ground, but then gathers some courage and stands up to find that the bats will actually fly around him, rather than into him. That's kind of like Hanoi, except instead of bats it's scooters, motorbikes and cyclos. Six million people and two million scooters. And it's just as cold and damp in December.

Hanoi is a bit of an acquired taste. The non-stop honking of horns, the extreme persistence of streetside vendors, the roads that literally change names every block and the sidewalks used for everything (parking, cooking, sleeping, child rearing, grooming) except walking - these are attributes that one doesn't necessarily find immediately endearing. And yet it does have some charm.

Once your ears stop ringing, you'll discover that the Vietnamese occupying the shops and restaurants and guesthouses (all operating from about 7:30 AM to 10:00 PM) are some of the most polite, diligent and hard-working people you'll find in Southeast Asia. We'd read about it first, but it hit home pretty fast. Our first meal was at a restuarant that employed underpriveleged youth and trained them as cooks and serving staff (I had the "pho", which wouldn't be my last). It was an amazing meal and the waitress came over to show us how to properly eat the soup so that we weren't eating condiments as entrees. Later, Laura took her broken eyeglasses to a little shop where a man sat back on his haunches and worked magic with her dislocated lens and bent frame (the frame of her eyeglasses, that is). After about twenty minutes of work, he shrugged when we asked about payment and charged us about 70 cents. I won't go into detail about the five-star shoe-shine our hiking boots received after two days of trekking through rice terraces a few days later.

Avoid the scooters, watch out for the loogie that guy just hocked right in your path and maybe Hanoi has its own way of welcoming you. More of a slap in the face than a pat on the back, but a welcoming nonetheless.