Quick update: I will be leaving for New Zealand next month to write for a travel guidebook! More on this shortly.
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Where is the hate?
Everyone I talked to in Saigon–locals, expats, and passers-through alike—had something bad to say about Hanoi. The people were nasty and aggressive. The city was boring. The simplest transaction was an exercise in gougery. Yet somehow these tales of belligerent cab drivers and rapacious shopkeepers only served to fill me with a sense of anticipation. I mean, isn’t this why we travel? To go somewhere different? I was actually eager to visit this strange and exotic place, this city of assholes.
Sadly, Hanoi turned out to be a disappointment on the asshole front. Aside from a woman who stiff-armed me into a supermarket display and a hotel clerk who so transparently tried to overcharge me that we both started laughing, the people were . . . ordinary. Friendly even, if not as smiley and outgoing as their southern counterparts. What a letdown. Maybe your luck will be better.
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