Day 42: Vietnam May Have Won The War, But It's Losing The Battle

Listening: Come and see. I swear by now I'm playing time against my troubles. I'm coming slow but speeding.

What's my problem? The people of Hanoi.

Well. Hrumph. I want to like Vietnam. So far, Hanoi isn't making it easy for me. The girls who work at the hostel are nice. The hostel itself is very nice. The people at the hostel are nice. The servers at the restaurant that I ate at last night were nice. Everything else that I have found has been crap.

Today, I went to Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum. First of all, there are not only foreigners, but there are hoards of locals as well. They all feel that they can jump the cue. They push and shove. They stare. They're just generally inconsiderate, rude, nasty people in this city.

The sidewalks are crowded with motorbikes and people selling stuff, so you have to walk in the middle of the street and dodge the oncoming cars and motorbikes. The weather here, for every day that I have been in Hanoi, has been cold and misty, yet also kind of warm and humid too. I know it's a bit contradictory being cold and warm at the same time, but Hanoi has brought the unpleasantries of both.

I don't know who told me this, but I was expecting the more beautiful girls out of the trip to be coming from Vietnam. I expected the French/Asian mix to really show off some beauty in the fairer sex. So far, Thailand and Laos blows Vietnam out of the water. I can count the beautiful locals that I have seen wandering about the city on two hands. Sure, I haven't gone to any clubs, but c'mon. There have to be some hot working women.

So, right now, Vietnam is losing the battle with me. Maybe I expected too much. Maybe I wasn't prepared enough. There is just so much negativity here coming both from the locals as well as from the travelers. I have heard countless stories of pick pocketing, bag slashings, muggings, beatings.... Apparently, these Brits got into a fight with a taxi driver about the fare and they ended up getting jumped by a crew of Viet guys. Two of the guys have severe injuries and one is in the hospital. I dunno if it's Vietnam or if it's Hanoi, but I'm rather uncomfortable here.

I'm ready to move on... today.

As I type I'm across from the Cathay Pacific office in Hanoi Towers. They're closed for an hour for lunch. I had to forward some stuff to them so they could make sure that they didn't charge me too much or too little for my flight changes. Hopefully it'll only cost me the one hundred bones to switch it up. It'll give me an extra week on the mainland, and maybe some peace of mind so that I don't rush through Vietnam. Or, if I do rush through Vietnam, I'll get to spend some days diving in Koh Tao. That would make me happy. It's a nice happy place.

Well, that's all I have to say for now. Tonight will either be a night train to Sapa or a night bus to Hue. Funny. I'll leave in less that ten hours and I have no clue whether I'll be going north or south. But, heads or tails, I want to get the fuck out of here.