The highs and lows of Hanoi

Hanoi is overwhelming. Navigating through the streets on foot is a constant challenge and dropping one's guard pretty much guarantees at least a few horns being honked in your direction. The din of horns is pretty constant though, and it's often hard to say what purpose they're actually supposed to serve. It's louder and busier than anywhere I've ever been, and I think I'm starting to like it. Not to live here, mind you, but when there's so much activity all the time, there's always an interesting situation to stumble upon.

On Sunday night, we decided to go out for a quiet drink at a bar we had read about. We weren't expecting much excitement, and we may not have found any had we not sat next to some young Viatnamese high-rollers. They were sitting around a big table, doing frequent shots of one of the house liquors. They invited us to do a shot with them, and we accepted like the polite young gentleman we are. One shot somehow turned into us sitting around their table doing many shots of a smoky liquor (I lost count,) being fed delicious food, and learning useful Vietnamese phrases like "He's drunk."

We were having a great time, but it was pretty late so we tried to help pay and head back to our hostel. They refused any efforts by us to help with the bill. As we later learned, one of the young folk owns a couple companies and was more than happy to share his pre-new-year celebration with some friendly foreigners. And what better way to finish a celebratory dinner then taking everyone to a karaoke bar, getting a private room for us, ordering expensive whiskey and covering the entire tab??

We sang our hearts out. Oddly enough, I think I performed much better on the Vietnamese songs than I did on the American ones. Our hosts were much, much better singers than us. And they knew more of the words to the songs in both languages.

Apparently if you have enough money in Hanoi, you can escape the din and craziness. Andy and I were fortunate enough to be hanging out with some folks who knew how to do it in style. Then we went back to reality at our ant and roach-infested hostel.