Hanoi Day 1ish

Made it to Hanoi, through customs and I’m again in the old communist block. Not that it really shows, anyone wanting a totalitarian/nationalistic look and feel these days might as well check out Australia on January 26 — there are a bunch of flags around here right now but none on cars. Interestingly, judging by the building developments going on at the airport, they are less strict on branding than Western Australia.

While I’m talking branding, Vietnam is a land of few fonts, it really is. There’s one used all over the place, somewhere between franklin condensed and impact. See it all the time. Sans serif rules the roost for signage here, and not a scat of comic sans in sight.

Came in on the overnight flight, so first stop at the hotel was a nap. The drive from airport to hotel was interesting, in the rain, where lane markings and indicators are less than a suggestion, more of a decoration. For a chunk of the journey L sat in one lane, while I was in another. At least we were generally only going 60, and when folks wanted us to move over they’d beep. There’s a lot of beeping over here (just to clarify, we had a driver, there’s little way either L or I would get behind the wheel here!).

Hanoi has a cool weird vibe, it’s very flat, not a lot of significant high rise, and it’s hard to tell when you hit the CBD. Lots of open green fields growing stuff right up next to more densely populated areas. The main tourist/CBD area isn’t way way busy, more of a cumulative solid that gets tiring after a while. Crossing the street isn’t too scary, as the mopeds are all going fairly slowly and walking a straight pace has caused no issues to date.

Just had a wander around the main lake and areas with L, and now chilling in the Hilton lounge with the local megabrew, Halida. It’s light, refreshing, a little citrus, not hopped to high heaven like oz equivalents. Doubt I’ll drink much of it though, it tastes like a good example of a beer I’m not fussed by.