Fri 29th Dec – Singapore -> Hanoi (Vietnam)

Disclaimer: I forgot mum’s birthday today. Happy Birthday mum.

Had such a bad headache overnight and into the morning, likely caused by being out in the humidity during yesterday’s zoo extravaganza. Needed an ibruprofen when I woke up. Doctor Lucy says to take with food so for the first time in my life (but surely not the last), I order room service. Meeting expectations, all breakfast options are hideously expensive (the good ones are more than $50 sgd). I settle on the most inexpensive – toast and jam, at a basement bargain price of $12 sgd. The money is well spent and the ibruprofen clears the headache within half an hour.

The flight from Singapore to Hanoi (North Vietnam) is traumatic for me but Declan pushes the narrative that it was normal turbulence. We land to the worst smog I could ever imagine. The city is just swathed in it. The whole weather system is simply smoggy – it is impossible to tell if it is rainy or cloudy or sunny – just a ceaseless smog as far as the eye can see (not very far). Unfortunately we will be subject to this for our whole time in Hanoi, where we will be in the world’s third most polluted city, behind those in India and Pakistan. It smells horrible, makes my throat tickle and hurts my eyes.

The short term irritations and long term health concerns about the smog are superceded the moment we get into the airport transfer car to get to our hotel. Vietnam lives up to its reputation for having unimaginably chaotic traffic. Lanes are nothing more than a suggestion, horns blare in an irregular but guaranteed rhythm, and drivers efficiently blast of text messages with one hand casually on the steering wheel and occasionally one eye on the road. On the backs on motorcycles are little kids with no helmets, commercial sized bundles of flowers and, most suprisingly, half a tree. All people that are afraid of flying should spend just one hour on a Vietnamese highway.

Our hotel is a far cry from the Fullerton. In fact, everything in Vietnam is a far cry from Singapore. In Singapore, all difficulties were condensed into the wall of humidity you were required to break through when leaving an air-conditioned sanctuary. In Vietnam, these difficulties have all dispersed from the weather and filtered down into every other aspect of life. Scams are commonplace. The roadside coffee has chemical filler in it. The masks are too cheap to provide any substantial protection from the pollution. The smog is apocalyptically dense. The traffic is life threatening. The water is filled with diseases. The fresh vegetables are blasted with chemicals. The hotel has poor ventilation and zero soundproofing. There is a high incidence of rabies. It’s going to be a big two weeks.