I spent the last two weekends with people from the expatriate community; first in Halong bay and then in Hanoi. Being an expat is pretty different from being a tourist. You are away for so long without the constant newness of travelling, so finding places with home comforts is more important. And western comforts are very much available in Hanoi, and in a form even in Halong. The office by necessity employs cars with drivers to transport staff around, but they also get to use them in the evening and at weekends.
No need for taxis or to buy a car. Travelling in a car in Hanoi is an eerie experience. Almost all the vehicles on the streets are very low power motorbikes, buzzing about at 20mph.
A Honda Dream is the dream purchase. The world of the larger vehicle, bus or car, ethereally intersects that of the motorbikes. You constantly honk your horn, and the motorbikes flow round you, as if you were driving through syrup. The moto is much more exhilerating, the car feels calm and magical. One day there will be too many cars and the current system will become really dangerous, everything will have to slow down, and more traffic laws will need to be enforced.
To achieve home comforts, expatriates often head for restaurants serving Western food, and bars in a European style. However it is fundamentally hard to really get into it. For example, women tend to be either prostitutes, or very traditional that you have to court and marry before you get to know them. The lads took us to the bar at the bottom of the Fortuna Hotel in Hanoi at about pm, just for the experience.
Extraordinarily, there were maybe two hundred girls there, all stunning and dressed up, being counted off by their motherly minder. Because the lights were dimmed, she had a torch to shine in their faces so we could properly size them up. It made me feel quite sick; although the girls looked bright and happy, and are no doubt relatively well paid in total, I felt more like I was being showed chattel than introduced to people. They were available either to keep you company for the evening or for more, as a service offered by this swanky four star hotel.
