hanoi is a mess of a place, but maybe that's the point

i was supposed to write a perfect travel post about hanoi. instead, i wrote this while sipping lulu drink at 3 am and wondering why i didn’t just nap in my hostel. the city feels like a character in a bad movie-unpredictable, loud, and somehow oddly captivating. maybe that’s the hanoi thing. i don’t know. i just know the air is thick and the humidity is like, why did i even come here? but then again, hanoi has that charm, if you can ignore the chaos.

i just checked and it’s 26.34 degrees, which is technically warm but feels like being covered in a blanket made of your own sweat. the weather here is like a friend who never leaves your room. you know they’re there, and you hate it, but you can’t stop pretending it’s not happening. i’m not sure if i like that kind of thing.

neighbors? well, if you get bored, there’s a place called ha noi (same as hanoi, i guess) that’s a short drive, but i haven’t checked the traffic yet. some people say it’s a 10-minute trip, others swear it’s a 2-hour ordeal. i heard that from a guy selling street food near river street, and he was definitely high on something. i’m not sure if that’s a rumor or a warning. maybe both.

reviews? i heard that the old quarter is a maze of alleys where you’ll get lost and find a place that serves pho so good it might change your life. someone else said the buses are cursed and will drop you at a random market. i don’t know if that’s true, but i saw a tourist cry after taking one. another person warned me that the local market has a stall that sells what looks like expired soap. i didn’t buy it, but i still smell it in my bag. that’s hanoi for you.

i saw a map of the city on tripadvisor and it looked like a spider web. if you want to navigate, maybe use that. yelp has some wild opinions about the city’s coffee shops. one place is called ‘the place where time stands still’ but it’s actually a tiny café with a cat. i mean, it’s not real, but i kinda want to believe it. local boards? they have tips about avoiding the worst traffic, which is usually around 7 pm. i haven’t tested that yet.

there’s a train station here, and i saw a photo of a blue and white train on unsplash. not sure if it’s real or a filter. another image showed a time lapse of a speeding train, which felt like a metaphor for hanoi. everything moves fast, but nothing makes sense. i tried to take a photo of a street artist painting a wall, but they looked at me like i was a lost tourist. maybe they were.

i also saw a photo of a person near a train, which made me think about how hanoi is always moving. maybe that’s the point. the city doesn’t care if you’re late, lost, or just trying to find a place to eat. it just keeps going. which is kind of nice, in a chaotic way.

i don’t know if i’ll go back. maybe. i mean, the weather is still that stuff, and the neighbors are still there, but there’s something about hanoi that makes you want to stay for a second. maybe that’s the mess.

if you want to check the weather, just look at the feels_like tag-it’s 26.34, same as temp_min and temp_max. so it’s like a constant thing. i don’t know if that’s good or bad. maybe it’s just hanoi being hanoi.

links? here’s tripadvisor for reviews, yelp for coffee, and the local board for last-minute tips. i didn’t check them all, but i’m sure they have something worth reading.