From the airport in Hanoi, early in the morning, I got to the old town, to one of the hotels recommended by the Lonely Planet. My first impression of Hanoi was that it is not as busy as other Asian cities I’ve been to. After spending there some time I must say though that my first impression wasn’t quite right – the city IS busy and the traffic with hundreds of motorbike and no rules, is like straight from hell, every attempt to cross a street gives you an adrenaline boost ;)Anyways, I checked in, took a shower and a nap and then, in the evening decided to go explore the city a bit.
I went downstairs to ask at reception about the way to the cathedral (which I figured will be a good orientation point) and before the receptionist answered I suddenly heard "I can show you the way". This nice offer came from an environmental scientist who has just defended his PhD thesis and was traveling in Vietnam for about a month. Made a really good impression on me. And so, we went for a long walk through the old town of Hanoi, had a nice dinner and such a good talk that we decided to explore the city together the following day. ***
After 10 days spent together, after we got lost in Hanoi, got amazed by limestones of Ha Long Bay, ate a cobra, had a lot of good beers, street food, went swimming and got ‘attacked’ by bunch of cute, small silver shimmering fish, kayaked till we found a deserted beach on one of those limestone islands, hiked in a constant rain through a national park and had plenty of other adventures and lots of fun, I can say he is a friend. In Poland (and Germany, btw) there is this saying "you can steal horses with someone". Meaning, great friend. And yeah, I definitely could steal horses with him :)
Not that I will change my way of traveling alone though. Still, it was one of the best travels I’ve ever been on and that is also thanks to him. Enough of that.
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