Hanoi is a city unlike any I've been to. Motorbikes and taxis zip around with no regard for traffic law, knock-off merchandise is sold everywhere, and vendors cook food over small sidewalk fires they've ignited directly on the pavement. A meaningful share of economic activity could be classified as misdemeanors.
The best way to feel like a local is to look like a local. So our first order of business was, as it always is when traveling, to find a barber who could style us in the fashion of the modern Vietnamese. 808 Barbour Shop Men's fit the bill.
English isn't widely spoken among the people here and Vietnamese isn't spoken among Mike and I, which is how Mike's hair came to briefly look like this:
I believe I've pinpointed the key moment of confusion:
Mike had pointed to the barber's slick fade to signal that he'd like the same length haircut that the barber had. The barber said he understood, but after one swipe of the clippers it was clear that he did not. "Very short" Mike said, baldly and a bit worried. "This is the same as my haircut," the barber assured. "Got it one month ago," he clarified. Ah.
Thankfully the 19 year old wunderkind knew his way around a pair of shears and turned Mike into a handsome looking doctor after all. Very cool!
We spent the day perusing fake North Face and Nike stores that were, like everything here, cheap. For example, bahn mi's and beers are a dollar each (20,000 Vietnamese Dong) and "North Face" backpacks marginally more. Shirts from street vendors provide the best bang-for-your-dong:
On our way to dinner we turned down a street that was oddly quiet, a sharp contrast from the normal beeping and whir of motorcycles. On-lookers lined the street. Babies perched on their parents' shoulders and elderly stood in the front row. The people held flags or flowers or both. We realized why a minute later -- Trump was driving through on his way home from meetings with Kim Jong-un. The crowd ooh'd and ah'd and filmed the moment they had been waiting for with their phones. Although Attend a Trump rally was not on the original itinerary for our Southeast Asia vacation, it was heartwarming and even sweet to see the support for peace.
We explored a bit more of the town before ending the night with what would be our first of many group massages. While most of the massage was relaxing, the end of the session focused on removing knots in our heads. Chop after chop percussed against our foreheads until finally the "knots" relinquished. Woozy from either the relaxing massage or a mild concussion, we went up to our bunk beds and fell asleep.
