where the streets have six names...

i've been back in ha noi now for 4 days, and so far, when i'm not sleeping or sweating, i can usually be found stuffing my face (more on the wonders of vietnamese cuisine later). as the locals would say, everything in ha noi appears to be "same same, but different." very different, in fact. a lot of progress has been made in the 6 years since i left (no surprise then that one of the few vietnamese phrases i've retained is "economic development"). sky risers, swanky hotels, investment organizations, traffic lights, cross walks... the list goes one. some of my old haunts have disappeared, and some have been discovered and written up in guide books! but that is nothing compared to the number of cars on the road these days.

maybe i'm just waxing nostalgic here, but when i arrived in 2000, i swear i only saw a dozen or so cars a day. now, there are a dozen on each block. it's crazy. not that i'm against being sheltered when it's pissing rain and you're on your way home from work. no, that is a good thing. the problem is that driving patterns haven't changed much to adapt to these cars. aside from the explosion of traffic lights around town, the vietnamese way of driving is still very much an experiment in controlled chaos. (incidentally, i heard a story the other day of a physicist who studied chaos theory and was so fascinated by the traffic patterns that he moved here to research them. so engrossed was he that after about a week or so, he was hit by a motorbike and had to go home.)

this did not deter me from what i really came here to do, however, which is ride a mo-to-bike! i couldn't wait to get back on the streets of ha noi, so yesterday i finally got myself set up with one. though i absolutely loved my shitty russian bike back in the day (RIP bette geen), i've upgraded to a zippier, cleaner honda model – this way i avoid ruining all my trousers and having to carry spare spark plugs in my school bag.

i set out to rediscover ha noi, letting the flow take me where it would. this was partly because i had no set agenda, partly because i had no real choice: i'd unfortunately chosen rush hour for my little joy ride. but i maneuvered those streets like a local: sharing the road with lost flip flops, great big fallen bags of who knows what, vendors and pedestrians crossing whenever and wherever they pleased. the only difference i'd say was the fact that 15 minutes into my jaunt around town, i had no clue where i was. i got seriously lost. off my map lost. thank GOD I can ask for directions lost. oh GOD, how do I say lost lost. it doesn't help that vietnamese streets change names every two blocks or so: independence street, barbecued fish street, the two trung sisters street...

i made it back eventually, but not before i'd nearly left town on some giant dirt road lined with vietnamese truckers (i was quite a sight for them, i'm sure). but, for the first time in almost a week, i slept through the night. maybe i'm on to something.