As I walked through customs at the Hanoi Airport, I saw a young Vietnamese man holding a sign that said: "Hanoi Backpackers' Hotel: JN KWCKDLS" It took me a second to decide whether or not I should go with him, but I finally decided that it was close enough.
Driving from the airport into Hanoi was one of the more harrowing experiences of my life. I didn't fear for my life as much I feared for the lives of those on motorbikes and bicyles who envelopped us on the road. Motorbikes outnumber cars maybe 50 to 1, and they all wear helmets (thanks to a new state law) but the roads are complete chaos! There aren't really any stoplights/signals in the city so whenever you reach an intersection, you just procede slowly, honk your horn and hope that no one hits you. Honking is the most important driving technique. No one drives quickly, but no one every stops either. People use motorbikes to transport everything: babies, entire families (I've seen a family of 5 on one bike), bundles of grass that looked like they were heavy enough to tip the bike over backwards, TV's under arms and even 5-foot tall intricately decorated vases!
We made it to the hostel without killing anyone and my friend Laurel was sitting on a chair in front when I arrived. I met and became friends with Laurel my senior year at Stanford (her junior year) when we were in the same dorm - I was actually her RA. I haven't seen her in over a year because she's been in rural Thailand as part of the Luce Scholars Program. Every year the foundation gives money to 18 students without any previous Asia experience to spend a year volunteering in an Asian nation. In the hostel, Laurel introduced me to the other Luce scholars who would be our traveling companions prior to their final Luce wrap-up session next week in Cambodia:
Dane - former professional soccer player, worked at an NGO in the Congo for 2.5 years, placed in Beijing
Angela - MIT grad from North Carolina passionate about economics and motorbikes, placed in Indonesia
Ming - White hippy (not as implied by her name) from Santa Barbara, Brown grad and a creative writer who was setting up a writing community in Mongolia.
(You can read more about them and see pictures on the Luce link above.)
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