Southeast Asia 1

Singapore's Changi airport has a pretty fantastic reputation: fancy lounges to sleep in, showers, a pool, a gym, whatever you want. Bountiful amenities notwithstanding, when you arrive at 1:45am, bleary-eyed and stiff-jointed, it is really fucking hard to find a place to crash. We ended up getting a hotel in the red light district for the night. (No bed bugs, yay!)

We spent the next two days wandering about the city, being baked alive in the tropical heat. It is really, really draining to be out in midday...just wake up early and do stuff or sleep through it. My duffel, similarly exhausted, finally split open along a side. It served me a good 10 years, but I found a cheap and stylish replacement in Little India. Singapore is a tiny city divided into cool ethnic villages (e.g. Chinatown, Little India, Arab Street) -- allowing you to walk from a Buddhist temple to a Mosque in less than five minutes. However, Chinese food seems to dominate as the cheap fast-food of choice on the street and in hawker centers alike. What really matters is I finally got to have my siu gap ho fun (roast duck rice noodles).

Now we're in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, where I will probably die as so much roadkill -- flattened by a stinky herd of mopeds. Christ, the HONKING! It never ends! Do NOT wake up here with a hangover. Crossing the street here is like being Frogger in a very dense, noisy level. Walking around for a couple hours leads to sensory overload. Food, however, is stimulating in a good way and tasty cafes are a dime a dozen.

Restaurant and hotel staff are sweet, but most of the locals in this area of Hanoi do not give a flying fuck about tourists. I can't speak for other areas of Vietnam, but many are indifferent (once they realize they're not getting your money) and some are downright rude. Living in Japan, I take pleases and thank yous and common courtesy for granted.

I was looking at some items in a market today, and I was blocking a woman's path. She had a heavy bundle of goods on her head, but she didn't give me so much as a warning -- just yelled "OY! OY!"and swatted me upside the head with a book in her free hand. I felt bad for being in her way, but I also wanted to punch her in the face.

We're gonna check out the west side of town tomorrow, starting with Ho Chi Minh's embalmed corpse. Maybe that will be less intense.