Hanoi. A city drenched in sweat like a french cake marinated in a lusty liquour. It's hot and the change from the dry mountainous climate of northern Yunnan has given our bodies much to complain about. We are trying to use the AC as little as possible to try to adapt but I'll probably just have to get used to the fact that I'm a sweaty girl. Though hopefully not stinky. We are staying in a fake hotel. Fake as in they stole the name from a legitimate hotel reveiwed in the guide and we were too sleepy at 6 am when we got off the sleeper train to care. Walked by the real Prince Hotel this afternoon. I have now realized that the smiles I was so happy to see in this country are as fake as the products they're selling. Well, these are the "businessmen" of course. We've met some interesting people who have entertained us with vietnamese lessons and stories of their families and these are the faces I've been waiting for.
We've spent the last few days strolling through the scorching streets, visiting museums and tasting the city's specialties. We went to the temple of literature, the fine art gallery and the ethnology museum, which was the highlight with its replica houses and extensive exhibit. We are staying in the old town and everything is within walking distance if you can bear the heat. Hanoi is spotted with lakes where people gather to catch the breeze in the afternoon. We also went to see the water puppet performance the other day and were blown away not so much by the puppets but by the music. Today we are on a mission to find a monochord, a theremin-sounding, slide guitar-esque, one-stringed intrument with a heart-rending whammy bar. Killing time before the puppet show we found a shop full of vietnamese propaganda posters and bought a few of the smaller replicas. Then we got some pho ga. As we were gettting up to pay Brandon noticed that the front pocket of his backpack was wide open and his passport, notebook and sunglasses were gone! Just that morning we had taken our passports to get them photocopied and had taken his out of my bag so that if I lost my bag we wouldn't lose both passports at once. Needless to say, we were stressing out. We would have to stay in Hanoi until Brandon got as new one and cut into our time in Hoi An. The hassle this meant! We decided to retrace our steps--though it appeared to us that someone had stolen it. The way the pocket was fully open seemed strange to us. We had gotten around the block when a vietnamese man called out to us. At first we thought he was another moto driver trying to get us to ride with him, but the actions he were doing were a bit different. He had a piece of cardboard folded to look like a book. We were extatic and in utter disbelief when he showed us a plastic bag with all of Brandon's things in it. He motioned that they had fallen onto the sidewalk. We gave him $5 and thanked him profusely, I think Brandon even hugged him. With 10 mins until the show started, we speculated that perhaps it had been a scam. But if so it was the most complicated, well-thought out, random scam I've ever heard of. Scam or not, the passport is safe and our minds free from worry. Our only problem now is how we can managed to stop watching HBO and MTV into the wee hours of the morning. It's cultural research. Really.
Naomi
