While most of my friends in Canada and Germany made fun of my Instagram stories for wearing a beanie at 14 degrees Celsius, Nayan - Dutch friend who also flew to Hanoi for a couple of days - was still hesitant on joining my trip to Sapa for not having enough warm clothes with him. He even sent me a picture of his skinny jeans, no-show socks and sneakers to make his case. I must have told him a hundred times that he could buy all the necessary gear while in Sapa if he needed to, but he wouldn’t budge. He preferred to stay in town for the main purpose of his visit was to try obtaining a business meeting with a potential customer. Business comes first. We still enjoyed dinner and drinks together at Jlegu, a locally-held Korean BBQ restaurant that offers all-you-can-eat meat and soft drinks for 169,000 VND per person, and vodka bottles at a ridiculous price too. In fact, the pricing of the vodka bottles was so ridiculous that it didn’t make sense at all. You could either get a 300ml bottle for 50,000 VND or a 500ml for 100,000 VND. Go figure! When I pointed that out to Nayan, he was actually mad to have overpaid during his last ten (10) visits to this restaurant. He then proceeded to “table corner math” to find out the total quantity of vodka the restaurant owed him. I might have seen a bit of blood dripping from his left ear.

Next stop - HERO - a night club also located in the Old Quarter, not far from the BBQ joint. I wasn’t sure why Nayan insisted on going there, but it all made sense when the waiters brought us the bottle menu. In this club, bottle service is only 30% of what we normally pay in Saigon. We ended up paying around 2,000,000 VND for a bottle of Smirnoff vodka, soft drinks, a fruit platter and a shisha. That same order would have cost around 6,000,000 VND back in Saigon. Although prices are much lower, the staff still required that we pay upfront for our order, as well as any of the add-ins. A bit funny if you ask me. Another nonsense…

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We made it back from Sapa where, once again, the weather was absolutely gorgeous despite everyone discouraging me to go at the time of the year. According to what they were telling me, it wasn’t the right season to travel to Sapa, the weather would be awful and I’d be stuck indoors for the whole duration of my travel. Luckily, I am a stubborn mofo who does what he wants, and with reason, since I haven’t seen one drop of rain the whole time I was in the Northern Vietnam provinces.

Just out of the sleeping bus in which we had just spent six (6) hours, a herd of Grab Bike drivers await us without even the time to put our shoes back on - shoes the driver asked us to place in a plastic bag before hopping on the bus. There was no way we could possibly fit our luggage plus ourselves on two motorbikes… Scratch that! I’ve seen much worse being transported on a 125cc in Vietnam. Let me rephrase… There was no way we would want to be sitting on a tiny motorbike, holding on to our large size luggage, after having just spent six (6) hours on a bus! So, we booked a Grab Car instead, to which the Grab Bike drivers asked us why we are encouraging rich people who can already afford cars while the poor bike owners are still trying to make a living. Just another example of the backward thinking I have experienced more than once during my time in Asia.

HANOI’S FAMOUS Chả Cá

It was getting late and we haven’t had the chance to have dinner yet. I was getting hungry and so was My, so I asked her to find a restaurant to enjoy some local Hanoian food. My is from Northern Vietnam and have lived in Hanoi for a few years. Since she now lives in Ho Chi Minh City for about four (4) years, she does have her list of “Must Have” comfort food which turns each of her visits into a food tour. I get it! I am exactly the same every time I travel back to Montreal. Speaking of which… it has now been four (4) years since my last visit. Thanks, COVID-19! God, I miss poutine! I simply asked My to proceed to fulfil any craving she has at the moment. She immediately thought of Chả Cá. So, off we went to a restaurant specialized in Chả Cá that apparently did well for itself for the last few years, as they keep expanding with new branches around the city. It did sound promising.

the existence of Chả Cá can be traced back to more than 130 years. It was first invented by the local Doan family, who served the special dish to troops during the French colonial ruling period. Usually made with snakehead fish - a freshwater fish found across Vietnam - Chả Cá is considered one of Hanoi's signature dishes. The marinade (a mix of turmeric, garlic, shallots, galangal, salt, sugar and fish sauce) is the most important step. After marinating the fish for at least an hour, it's usually grilled in advance, then fried in oil with dill and when it's ready to be served with rice noodles and mixed with mắm tôm (shrimp paste). If you ask a foreigner about mắm tôm, chances are that you will see an expression of disgust in their face. Some will even go as far as comparing its smell to garbage. For my part, I enjoy strong tastes such as blue cheese, kimchi or the Moroccan helba (fenugreek). I am not scared of smelly pickled condiments. Of course, it is a condiment, not a dish. So, there is no reason to stick your nose into the tiny bowl that holds it. Just take a little and add to your food for flavour enhancement. No one is asking you to chug a full jar of mustard either!

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THROUGH THE EYES OF A LOCAL

EGG COFFEE AT CAFE DINH SECRET COFFEE

Before transferring to my hotel, I asked My to share some of her favourite food spots in the city. She had lived in the Old Quarter a few years ago, so she knows some good places. I checked into the Shining Central Hotel & Spa, located only two blocks east from Hoang Kiem Lake and Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc Square (Quảng Trường Đông Kinh Nghĩa Thục), where the New Year’s Eve festivities would take place. I was ready to explore the Old Quarter, but first… coffee! It seems like the whole Latin dancing community of Saigon travelled to the North of Vietnam at this time of the year. I saw on Facebook that Frank and Chili - the two (2) masterminds behind the Vietnam Latin Beach Festival - were in town too. So, I texted Frank and proposed to catch up over a cup of egg coffee at Cafe Dinh Secret Coffee. While I’m on FaceTime with my brother, I turned on the camera to show him how odd the entrance to this coffee place was, hence its name. It was a riddle worthy of the most challenging scavenger hunts. Go through the front door, pass the first staircase, turn right after the parked motorbikes, walk through a smaller door, walk up the narrow stairs, turn left, and here you are! Apparently, this coffee place is quite famous despite its hidden location.

ICE SKATING IN VIETNAM

I met Chi about three (3) months ago during the Vietnam Latin Beach Festival held in Mui Ne. We bonded over photography and she had promised to show me some interesting street photography spots around the city. I was quite eager to discover the Old Quarter and other hip spots she had planned for me to visit, but she had other plans in mind for our first encounter. For some reason, she really wanted to go ice skating. Not quite the Vietnamese immersive activity, but I assume she wanted to use the presence of a Canadian to her advantage with a private course. Being the courteous Canadian fellow that I am, I granted her wishes and coached her for an hour on the ice skating rink of Vincom Royal City. In Saigon, we also have a Vincom shopping mall with an ice skating rink, so it was not exactly the Hanoian experience that I was hoping for.

ART GALLERY

Before ice skating, I stumbled upon an art gallery that caught my interest. I invited Chi to walk in to have a sense of what the Hanoian art scene looked like. I was astonished to notice a lot of teenagers posing in front of art pieces the same way they did for other grammable spots around the city. I have never seen this in the Western World where paintings and sculptures are made to admire, not to take pictures with. Notice, times might have changed with the increase in popularity of self-proclaimed “models” on social media platforms. I recently flicked through an Instagram story mocking this very phenomenon. The meme said:

Female: “I am a model on Instagram, and you?”
Male: “I am a soldier on Call of Duty.”

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CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH MY DOPPELGÄNGER

Despite the dullness of going ice skating, something quite out of the blue happened while skating as I thought I saw my very own doppelgänger! If you are superstitious at all, you already know that seeing your own doppelgänger is considered a bad omen. He was sitting on the couch of a coffee shop just outside the ice skating rink and facing away from me, so I was not able to validate whether or not he was my true doppelgänger - neither I wanted to find out, to be completely honest - but, what I saw from the back and a glimpse of his profile was enough for me not to investigate further. Quite frightening! I managed to snap a picture from a distance in an attempt of finding out whether I was delusional or not. I shared the picture with my friends and waited for their counsel. The subject had the exact same haircut, similar facial features, nose in his phone, same style including the tight pants… I think the only way people would know for sure that it’s not me is the fact that the he was wearing Nike Airmax sneakers while it’s a universally-known and unrefutable fact that I would never betray my three-stripe family. Another plausible explanation for this strange encounter would be heautoscopy - a term used in psychiatry and neurology for the hallucination of "seeing one's own body at a distance". It can occur as a symptom in schizophrenia and epilepsy and is considered a possible explanation for doppelgänger phenomena. But since my friends concurred he is indeed a look-alike, I am deliberately deciding to rule out the possibility of neurological disorder.

Bò Nướng IN THE OLD QUARTER

The hour has passed and we thought of going to the Old Quarter (finally!) for dinner. Just when we hopped on her motorbike and drove out of the parking lot, the rear tire got completely flat. I thought, what is it with this girl? Will I ever make it to my street photography session or are we doomed? We left the bike behind in the parking lot and booked a Grab Car to the Old Quarter where we had bò nướng (Beef BBQ) sitting on tiny red stools, as usual, while eating delicious street food. If you think you need a fancy barbecue grill to enjoy grilled meat, think again! The Vietnamese have managed to debunk the art of making delicious food at a low cost. All you need is a source of heat, tinfoil paper, a pack of margarine and vegetable oil. That said, I had to Jamesplain to Chi that flip-flopping the meat every ten (10) seconds makes it chewy, and that it tastes better when grilling 70% of the required time on one side and the remaining 30% on the other. I had her tried my technique and she agreed that tender meat tastes better. While I taught her how to make the meat less chewy, I might have solved loud chewing. You’re welcome! Though, I don’t intend to change the whole country’s mindset.

LATIN DANCING IN HANOI

After dinner, I had promised Sao Mai - one of my Kizomba teachers and now a friend based out of Hanoi - to stop by her social dancing event organized in her dance studio (Beso Latino Vietnam). When in Mui Ne for the festival, I have heard a lot of talks on how the Hanoi Latin dancing scene was thriving, so I wanted to see for myself. Unluckily, I could neither dance nor drink that particular evening because of a skin infection under my arm that had me on antibiotics and made it quite nearly impossible to perform any dance move without feeling pain. So, I sat at the bar and observed. I wondered why social dancing in Hanoi took place in a dancing school rather than in a club or bar like in Saigon. She explained that Hanoi is quite conservative compared to Saigon and that it is immensely difficult to find a bar that would accept such events held regularly at their venue. To ensure the consistency required to build a strong community in Hanoi, she opted for holding the events at her dance studio. Fair enough, although the atmosphere did remind me of an elementary school dance - stools all around the dance floor, dimmed lights over a polished wooden floor. All that was missing was to have men sitting on one end of the room and women on the other.

After the event, Sao Mai, Chi, their friend Quynh Anh and myself went to another rooftop bar to chat. The kind of rooftop bar that has red lights and no DJ but a laptop instead where you are free to play the songs of your liking. Looking around, all I saw were batches of people in a comatose state with gigantic balloons in their mouths. Quite the creepy place if you ask me. It kind of reminded me of the coffee shops in Amsterdam. At 11:00 pm sharp, the police drove by with a megaphone asking the bar to turn off the music. The bar lowered the music for a bit, until the police drove off, and then cranked it back up. The place was dead anyway, so we left short after that.

“Where are the “real” rooftop bars as we know them in Saigon?”, I asked.
“There is no such thing here in Hanoi.”, replied Sao Mai.
“Fun…”, I added.

On that short self-explanatory discussion, Sao Mai and I agreed that she should visit Saigon again very soon. She agreed and even committed to visiting on personal travel, not for business. To be continued…

NEW YEAR’S EVE IN THE OLD QUARTER

Bún Ngan Nhàn

Finally, December 31, 2020 has arrived! The day that everyone awaited provided the challenging COVID-19 year we have all experienced. Chi and I met up in the morning and walked around the Old Quarter, finally! For now two (2) reasons, it felt like this day would never come. The Old Quarter is such an eclectic place, I knew I would find a few interesting shots just by walking around with my mirrorless camera in hand. First stop, Bún Ngan Nhàn, a famous Bún Ngan (goose noodle soup) joint known across Vietnam. We went in and sat at a table. Chi called the waitress out loud as they normally do, only for her to be replied that the process has changed and customers must now queue up to order. About twenty (20) minutes later, our order was placed, and ten (10) more minutes further before the first part of our dish was served. The first part consisted of goose bones with a bit of meat still hanging from them mixed with bamboo shoots. A bit later, we received the soup for which we came to this joint in the first place. It was delicious! Not sure about the attitude of the chef, though. She shared a sarcastic comment as I was taking photos of her from a distance with my 70-200mm lens, so it’s not like I was in her face taking photos of her. She said something along the lines of “Keep taking more photos of me!”. Apparently, her temper is no stranger to the Vietnamese community, as a story broke out a few years back involving her snapping at a customer. To this day, the Saigonese still cannot believe this place is still open for business. Well, I guess I had the full experience!

HANOI OLD QUARTER

We spent the rest of the afternoon doing exactly what I was hoping to do during my time visiting Hanoi. this being walking around the Old Quarter in the attempt of capturing the most eccentric episodes this city could bring to the surface. Chi - granddaughter of a married couple who had lived their whole life in the heart of the Old Quarter - knew the area like the back of her hand. She purposely led the walk in the narrowest backstreets that couldn’t be noticed to the naked eye. Old course, these little gems enclosed at times some of the most beautiful scenes. Between the old colonial architecture and the assortment of hustlers owning the streets with their baskets, carts and rickshaws, it was the perfect setting to improve my photography, which - I humbly admit - I am just starting to get accustomed to since a few months only. My friend Aron, a seasoned photographer for a decade or two, took great pleasure in scrutinizing and criticizing all my photos one by one. So much so that it became a running gag to wait and see how long it would take for me to receive his feedback through DM. As I posted my stories on social media, I was simultaneously receiving praise from one side and disparagement from the other. What an emotional rollercoaster!

NEW YEAR’S EVE ON BA DINH SQUARE (Quảng trường Ba Đình)

At the end of our city walk, Chi suggested that I joined her at her friend’s place for the New Year’s Eve celebration. She mentioned him living in an apartment in the Old Quarter overlooking Ba Dinh Square. She even showed me a picture of the view from his balcony. It sounded promising. I didn’t have any other plans anyway, except for maybe joining the masses on the square. Chi met me in the hotel lobby and from there, we proceeded to her friend’s place, but first… let’s find something to eat. From outside, the queue at KFC seemed decent, which would let us believe that we’d be out of there within minutes. I’m not a fan of fast food or KFC for that matter, but the speedy process that the short queue led us to believe was enough to invite us in. We indeed placed the order right when we entered. The cashier then directed us to the pick-up counter upstairs, only to discover a humongous queue that would surely keep us on our appetite for the next half-hour. Just like sitting customers at the tables near the window creates the illusion of a popular restaurant, hiding the queue will equally invite people in. Only, the latter will frustrate you, especially if you are in a hurry to beat the crowd of people that kept pouring in and get to your evening venue before the main square becomes unnavigable. As expected, we got our order served about thirty minutes later. Luckily, the apartment was just a hundred meters from KFC. We were still on time.

The host came down to open the door for us. He slid a metallic bulletproof-looking door to let us in. We walked up the very narrow spiral staircase and then, walked up a ladder to access the attic… and there was the apartment. First, a narrow room furnished with a futon, a dining table and a rudimentary working station topped with a computer, a sketching book and a ruler. Then, a balcony - where we spent the whole evening - bridging with a second smaller room where I could barely turn round. I could see a kitchen that was smaller than an airplane bathroom and an even smaller toilet containing a toilet seat and a urinal. This means that every time he needs to cook or go to the bathroom, he needs to walk past the open-air balcony. Imagine it rains. What do you do then? Do you hold it in? Oddly enough, the host is an architect. Imagine my surprise when I saw he lived in an apartment that barely held together. Chi further explained that these are the types of apartments we can find in the Old Quarter. They are often rudimentary and low cost. Though, you get what you pay for.

We spent the evening outside on the balcony, listening to the music coming from the square and its masses piling up. It was so cold that night that I kept my jacket on the whole evening. Still off alcohol, for the time being, I was lining up cups of green tea in the attempt of keeping myself warm. There was also a shisha and some grilled chicken that had long passed the stage of room temperature. It was like being in a beer fridge. There were only five (5) of us, and none of the people present knew any English except for Chi. Not quite the glamorous countdown celebration I imagined while looked at the picture Chi showed me earlier. The countdown to 2021 was approaching and we could not find one free space on the square. Vina House was at its loudest and people got excited when the 60-second mark appeared on the jumbotron. Mười… chín… tám… bảy… sáu… năm… bốn… ba… hai… một… Chúc mừng năm mới! At zero, the fireworks we were all waiting for started with the first boom. Only, we couldn’t see anything despite the apartment’s prime location for our view being obstructed by the building across the street. While Chi and friends climbed over the shack sheltering the kitchen and bathroom to stand over the sheet metal that served as a poor excuse for a rooftop, I decided to stay down and video call my parents back home. Short after that, we waited for the square to empty so I can walk back to my hotel. We called it a night around 00:30.

On the next day, My had arranged a private car to drive me to her hometown - Thai Nguyen - where I was to attend my very first Vietnamese wedding. I was very much looking forward to this event, as I have never had this experience in nearly three (3) years living here. When My learned that I had plans to visit the Northern Provinces around the same time as her brother’s wedding, she immediately invited me. She made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. I final check-up at the clinic in the morning, check-out from the hotel, a bowl of mì bò and the driver picked me up right on time. Off to Thai Nguyen!