Of Coffee And Wars

July 18, 2009

Today, we discovered the pitfalls of being too bright-eyed in a foreign land: missing money. But we are determined not to let it affect our day.

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As I write on the mangled mess of paper which used to be our temporary guidebook (now defiled with streaky ink, crinkled corners and suspicious looking specks), Ellen is sipping her 10,000 VND coffee which she declares to be 'very good' while she contemplates the guidebook.

The streets are considerably less crowded than they were this morning, a welcome relief for road-crossing novices like us. Well, me, really, who jumps every time a horn sounds too loudly. The heat is simply sweltering, so much so that I can see heat waves rising from the ground. I half expect the ground to sizzle and smoke if I pour water on it but of course, that would be a terrible waste of good resources (even I am slightly awestruck at the amount of time we spend hunting for the cheapest water but well, we are proponents of Good Budgeting).

So while the heat has driven everyone else into hiding, we are in a small cafe disrupting the afternoon tea of a family which, strangely enough, consists of beer, rambutans and a lot of back-smacking among the younger, more boisterous lot who seems to be the only ones who remain undefeated by the incessant rays. The rest of us, well, we've turned into snivelling, whimpering pansies.

It is rather amusing though, how they siesta in a town that isn't Spanish while playing American pop hits from the 1999-ish era, of which the Backstreet Boys seem to be a particular cult favourite.

Off to visit the Hanoi Hilton now.

PS: Our conclusion is that Hanoi is not dirty. Singapore is just far too clean but I'm not really complaining.