Returning to the Road

So, it's been a while.

That's our fault, though more a consequence of our situation; more specifically, we were living and working in Ho Chi Minh City, which means that we were, for all intensive purposes, living a normal life, albeit in a land far, far away. But despite the ridiculous traffic and strange ways, we quickly fell into what most would consider a rather uneventful, workaday existence that would only have interested the most devout followers of our lives and/or lovers of the mundane.

But now, writing this as we are sitting in the Tan Nhat aiport, our time in Saigon is over and we've gone nearly a year without a blog post. During the course of those 350 or so days, we have, like anyone living anywhere, compiled enough experiences to interest people other than our parents and, thusly, this blog post - after months of nurturing gestation - is ready to plop squealing out of the metaphorical womb, covered in viscous fluids, to announce to the world that yes, we are alive and yes, these things happened.

This will be done in stages, because a) we're far too lazy to write it all at once and b) you're probably not interested in reading a 20 page short story detailing our experiences. Actually, a short story could be kinda cool. Let's see how far we get, shall we?

...

We actually got quite far and have the short story but it spiraled a bit out of control and requires more pictures once we get back to Saigon so we'll leave you hanging on that one for now. In the meantime, let's get back into the travel blogging with a bit about our post-HCMC sojourn thus far.

Kate and I left Saigon on October 20th after nearly 14 months in the city, during which time we'd seen a bit of the south and the middle of Vietnam but never the north. Accordingly, we flew straight up to Hanoi, the capital, which happened to be in the midst of it's 1000th anniversary of existence.

We came into Hanoi with mixed feelings, mostly because we've been a bit bummed out about our choice to live in Saigon as it is, despite it's charms, a big dirty city. Hanoi, we had heard, was much more beautiful. We had also heard - and these are the things that kept us from living in Hanoi - that it had crazier traffic, worse weather, and everything closed early. So let's report on those first.

The traffic in Hanoi is much, much, much LESS hectic than it's southern counterpart. Almost infinitely so. True, the bikes still look a bit threatening, but it's more of a gentle stream than a raging river of mounted traffic. Even in the city center at rush hour, it never gets worse than, say, late morning in a quiet part of Saigon.

Anyone who thinks that Hanoian traffic is worse than Saigonese has either never been to Saigon or... I actually can't finish that sentence. It's just much more chilled out up north. I will say, however, that the drivers feel slightly more dangerous just because they drive more like Western drivers; that is, they don't swerve casually around everything the way that drivers in Saigon do. Similarly, they actually stop at lights, don't cut you off, and generally stay on their side of the road.

The weather here has been pretty ideal. Warm, even a bit chilly at night, but not at all sweltering or freezing as we'd been led to believe. It turns out that we arrived in the midst of a nice spell during the best season to visit, so it isn't really a fair portrayal and I can definitely say that the mosquitos are much more aggressive in Hanoi than Saigon.

And this is supposed to be the shoulder season for mosquitos too so it might well be fairly miserable at other times of the year. At the moment, however, it's extremely nice not to soak our clothes through with sweat every time we leave the house.

As far as things closing early... well, that's true. Most places in Saigon close fairly early but there are definitely all night joints and many places that will stay open until 1 or 2 in the morning. In Hanoi, everything closes by midnight.

And many places close earlier. I'm guessing that if you lived here, you'd find the places that stay open later, but for the visitor, it's definitely an early city.

So are we bitter about choosing the wrong big city? Slightly, but I don't think that Hanoi is a cure-all for the Saigon blues. Many of the same problems we had with Saigon are still problems up here and many of the things we enjoyed about Saigon are harder to find in Hanoi.

A quick comparison shows us the same:

Traffic - advantage Hanoi

Weather - advantage probably Saigon

Nightlife - advantage Saigon

Food - advantage Saigon

Culture - advantage Hanoi

Travel opportunities - advantage Saigon

Air quality - advantage Hanoi

Cost of living - advantage Saigon

Friendliness of people - split

More on the friendliness later. But I think that's enough for now.