One day I met my friend Janak at an awesome Chinese/Singaporean restaurant that I only discovered a month or so before leaving, then we drove through the city on the mental roads to get to the Keangnam Tower in the south of Hanoi. It is the tallest tower in Vietnam and the top part is open to the public. In addition to taking in the views (of the smog) there is also a 5D cinema and an optical illusion museum. The view wasn't as impressive as it could be, given that it was a pretty hazy day, but with my time in Hanoi fast running out I didn't have a chance to wait for a clear day, epsecially as they're fairly few and far between. The 5D cinema was better than we were expecting it to be, and actually quite fun, but the best part by far was the illusion museum. We spend ages posing at all the different pictures, although the member of staff who was following us around was ever so concerned that we weren't posing correctly at some of them.
We spent a few hours there, which we were both rather surprised about as we had been slightly skeptical about just how good it would be, but it was good fun and definitely a place I'd recommend. The only problem is that it is so far south on the outskirts of the city it's quite a journey to get there. Unfortunately we ended up leaving just as rush hour was kicking off so we were faced with a challenging journey through crazy busy streets. By the time I got back to West Lake it was dark, which actually turned out to be a good thing as I was able to finally see the West Lake dragons all lit up!
Another evening I met Janak at an awesome Japanese restaurant for okonomiyaki. The restaurant sits you down opposite the chef who cooks your dinner for you right in front of you and it is sooo nice, and cheap! After dinner we went next door to a place called Cong Caphe to indulge in a coconut coffee. It's a good thing that the branch around the corner from my apartment only opened a week or two before I left, otherwise I'd have been there every day for some coconut goodness!
One evening some farewell drinks were arranged for me and another guy leaving at the same time and a bunch of friends from work came along to a nice place called Barbetta for some fun at their rooftop bar. As the night progressed people slowly left til there were just 4 of us left, when we decided that rice wine would be a good idea. Unfortunately there wasn't any in the bar, so the bar staff went out to find some. When they returned empty handed they decided to make us some shots to make up for it, which started us on the slippery slope of shots. When the bar closed we ended up going back to Danelle's house and sitting by her pool until the sun came up. It was a nice way to catch up with some of my closest friends from work before leaving, but you don't half feel like a dirty stop out when the journey home takes you past a morning market in full swing! My friend came by that morning to look at my bookshelf and decide if she wanted to buy it, so we went out for a morning bowl of pho and some che and a gossip before heading back to mine to carry it downstairs and tie it to the back of her motorbike.
A couple of days before leaving I met my friend Cat at a regular lunch spot, KAfe, before heading off for a spot of shopping and then some tedious banking. I went to the bank and told them I wanted to close my account; they gave me a number and we sat down to wait, then after about 30 minutes they came over to tell me their computers had just crashed and they had no idea when they would be working again. I asked if I could go withdraw my money from the ATM and then change it to USD in the bank and she said no problem. I went to get my 10 million dong, then went back in and they said "oh no, we can't change money as our system is down". Not what I want to hear as dong is pretty much worthless outside of the country, and now with it out of my account I couldn't transfer it back to the UK. So off we went to try and find a place to change dong to dollars. First we went to Cat's bank, and they told me that as I hadn't taken it out of an account with them I couldn't change it with them, so we crossed the road to Western Union to see what they could do, which turned out to be absolutely nothing. Next up was a currency exchange shop that wouldn't exchange currency, so finally I ended up going to change it on the black market, where I got a better rate than I would have done at my bank! It took forever though so we ditched our plans for a manicure and pedicure, and after a quick coffee in a nice little cafe by the cathedral, we made our way up to the spa for our facial. Just after we got there and got all settled in there was a power cut in the neighbourhood which prompted random banging and shouting at the spa while they tried to get the generator started, then after three false starts they finally got the generator to stay on long enough to crack on with the facial! Quiet the Vietnamese experience.
The following day was my last full day in the city and after spending the morning getting things packed and sorted out at my rental agency, I met Cat again to go and get our manicure and pedicure done. We then had fun moving my countertop oven from my apartment to hers with a taxi driver who was high as a kite while trying not to smudge our freshly painted nails. Once we achieved that we went to meet Janak at the Singaporean restaurant that used to be a regular spot when Alison and Calder were living in Hanoi. After dinner we headed to Red River Tea Rooms and settled in for some farewell drinks with some of my favourite people in Hanoi. It was a nice few hours and I finally said my goodbyes and dragged myself away at midnight, well aware I had to get up at 4am. It was tempting to stay out later, but I had to get back and pack up my last few things (which took way longer than I expected) and try and get some sleep.
It was sad to leave Hanoi, because as frustrating as it could be, I had lots of fun there and met some awesome people. For all the traumatic things that happened there, there were plenty more exciting moments. I miss my friends, obviously, but I also miss the relative freedom there is to life there. I'll have to go back in a year or two and see what's changed, and meet up with whoever happens to still be there.
Here's the full set of photos from my last few weeks in Hanoi. I have one more post to write about my brief stop in China, then I'll have to set up another blog for my adventures in Budapest, the UK and Australia!
