Hanoi in three breath.

by Sacha Bissonnette (Canada)

I didn't expect to find Vietnam

Hanoi in three breaths. Beef Soup for the teenage (at heart) soul. I will never get over the feeling of being hustled, into what was once a small family room, surrounded by older Vietnamese husbands and wives drinking beer and smoking cigarettes at 2am over a bowl of Phở Bò Đặc Biệt. Phở Bò Đặc Biệt translates to special pho, the combination of any parts of the beef such as rare slice of steak, brisket, flank, tendon. At this place, it entails big 'brisket' chunks of beef. Some eat or pick at just the brisket with their orders of fried bread. Others however, eat their pho with a bowl of fresh green cilantro. My newest Vietnamese friend gets an egg on the side cracked into regular pho broth and then complains about the pho after eating it all up. He then recommends another place we have never been to. There is a a man yelling at everyone, then he starts signing and dancing. We love him for it. This joyous experience costs a whole 2 bucks. In 2008, Club Solace was a busy boat club set to the backdrop of the red river. Since returning to visit Hanoi, I've been searching for this place, mostly from memory. A few weeks ago while navigating the tight, bustling streets and alleys that parallel the river, I discovered an opening that lead down to the water. I found Club Solace boarded up and abandoned. The once familiar EDM and Hiphop loving crowd replaced by a dozen or so dilapidated house rowboats, anchored in polluted water. several residents stared intensely as I walked up onto the mud bank. Two dogs came charging towards me and my ankles because I unknowingly approached the chicken coop that they were guarding. Next to this floating mud shanty town now stood two beautiful café/resto boats you can have a nice meal, coffee, or a few beers while staring out at a strange and uncertain future. About one mile from my where I've settle for the month on Nguyễn Đình Thi street In Tay Ho, is a place I have come to unoriginally naming "lover's lane". I pass this this place every evening. Next to the Cuban Embassy this palm adorned street faces the wide opening of west lake and the hazy buildings on the horizon. On this especially smoggy day I'm out to snap a few pictures before the dusk rush. On the nicer days right when the sun goes down, this is one of the many coveted spots where late teenage and young adult couples come to cuddle up, two by two,using their parked motorbikes as seats. Sometimes they snack, sometimes they talk or just hang in silence. When families live together and there are certain taboos regarding relationship and love before marriage places like lover's lane and Long Bien Bridge - designed by the same architect as the Eiffel Tower - provide a necessary but cheap alternative for a little romantic escapism and privacy which unfortunately is a privilege here, and often comes at some cost. Maybe it's culturally tantamount to the drive-in cinema I've never experienced, a love relic. Whatever it truly is, it's unforgivingly romantic.