On my own

As time quickly dwindles away to my last month in Vietnam, I start to perceive Hanoi in a different light but please don’t take offense to any Hanoians reading this.  It is, of course, through my personal experience and perception between human interactions with those around me.  

Recently, I’ve noticed myself losing interest in the city of Hanoi… I don’t know when or how it started but perhaps after traveling to the South, I felt tired of the repetitive night scenes of Hanoi.  I do not want to go into specific but within the past weekend I have encounter with the rudest people and d-bags I’ve ever met in my life in Hanoi.   Some people are just unnecessarily mean or maybe it’s the way they answer to questions but I have never felt so offended and confused by their actions and words.  (This is for my own memory of bad experience: Bo Sua Manager, parking person, banh mi lady on Nguyen Quy Duc, taxi drivers!)  Multiple times within the past weekend I receive negative enforcement of how much I am tired of dealing with rude people in Hanoi.  Nevertheless, I am only speaking of the few not majority!  I was losing faith in Hanoi and everything I enjoy a month ago but Monday changed everything for me.

On Monday, I had to go to Vietnam Airline main office near Old Quarter to make some flight changes.  For the first time since I have been in Vietnam, I took the bus by myself to find the main office with a map.   It was quite interesting traveling by myself because I am more aware of the streets I passed by.  Although I got off the bus a bit earlier that my intended spot, but I got to walk around the city that way and do some sightseeing by strolling along the streets with the crazy traffic.  After I finished my flight issues, I had planned to return to HANU but something pulled back me to stay back.  I started to wander around the streets of Hanoi without any endpoint and soon enough, I walked straight to Ho Hoang Kiem.  I found the path to go into the shopping center where there’re only small little streets which I was not very fond with.  It was a completely foreign space that I have never entered by myself but it feels great!  As I walk along the streets, I also encounter with some nice and mean people but it did not bothered me much this time.  I went into an art gallery showing which was pretty neat and found a street fill with art galleries!  I walked aimlessly for 2 hours turning left and right on the small windy street of Hanoi until I was on the other side of Ho Hoang Kiem which I thought was really funny… I didn’t realize how TINY Old Quarter was!    My overall experience was AMAZING! It was great exploring Hanoi by foot and it was fun doing on my own! I love strolling around without an agenda or destination because I feel I always walk or go anywhere only with a purpose.  This experience counters the bad experiences and made me appreciate the CITY itself.  I love how mellow and relax it feels cruising around the lake and through the streets.   

Besides that, this week is extremely stressful with so many events and due dates to meet!  I am under quite some pressure for time to meet deadlines for everything! It is all coming to an end and it is NOT FUN!  The program will soon be over so where did the last 3 months GO?! Very little time with so many things to do on top of wanting to travel around the city!  Of course, the main stress pressure is coming from fundraising for Nghe An.  There’s a lot of planning involve and coordinating with my peers to get it all together because one person cannot do it all.  Even though, I am exhausted by the end of the day because I spent the entire day outside fundraising but it was fun to interact with random HANUers.  It was also a great bonding experience with UCHANU students because we all got to hang out all day! J