At 3 AM, in a Dark Alley
A Dramatic Arrival in Vietnam
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📍Hanoi, Vietnam
After the surprising encounter with Israelis on my flight, I finally landed in Vietnam - tired, exhausted, and without my special travel pillow that remained in my checked luggage. A lesson learned the hard way - this is a mistake that will never happen again!
Immigration control was an exhausting experience in itself - a huge hall full of people, long lines at every counter, and everyone looking like they're standing still. It took me an hour and a half to get through, and it was already 2:30 AM.
Upon exiting the hall, I exchanged 650 Australian dollars - which is a little over 10 million dong. Just like that, in one moment, I became a millionaire, just like everyone else in Vietnam.
I almost bought a SIM card at the airport, but remembered the incident in Manila where they sold me a SIM at an inflated price. That's another lesson I learned and am now applying.
I went outside and avoided all the taxi drivers shouting at me. There's no feeling I can stand less than that. I stood aside thinking I could order a Grab, but probably because it was the middle of the night, the app showed no drivers available for long minutes.
I gave in to fatigue, and when the next driver asked if I needed a taxi, I said yes. After haggling over the price (where did I find the energy?), showing him the price on Grab and declaring I wouldn't pay one more dong, he said okay and announced "2 minutes."
Those 2 minutes stretched to 20, as he called the driver, telling me "Here he comes!" again and again. By now I was boiling with anger and fatigue. How is it that with all the taxis parked here, I ended up with the driver who doesn't show up?
"I'm going to find another driver!" I fumed.
"No no! He's here!!" he shouted back.
The truth is I didn't have the energy to start negotiating with someone else, so I just waited. After many phone calls, with the guy beside me shouting severe reprimands into the phone, the driver finally arrived, at one of the roads across. The guy grabbed my suitcase, and I ran after him.
A young, giggling driver appears, while perhaps his father? is scolding him. I get into the car, and the young guy starts driving.
Gas, brake, gas, brake. Looking at the signs around. Stops. Takes out his phone, drives while looking at his phone. Reaches a fork in the road, almost takes one lane, and finally swerves sharply to the other lane.
Gas, brake, looking for signs.
"What's going on here?!" I'm already desperate.
Driving almost in circles, enters a road that seems to lead back to where we came from. Everything is dark, there are barely any streetlights, and the only thing illuminating the way was a car coming right at us!
The guy is driving against traffic! He has no idea where he is!
I simply started screaming at him.
"Let me out right now! I'm not riding with you! You have no idea where you're going!!!! Take me back!!!"
He took out his phone and opened Google Translate, asking me to scream into Google because he doesn't understand. I screamed at Google, he listened and answered me: "I'm looking for the exit! Don't worry, I'll take you home!"
"No!! Nooo!! Let me out!!"
I couldn't stand it anymore! I'm not traveling with someone who's on his phone while driving, who has no idea where he is! Why do all the crazy ones happen to me??? It's the middle of the night now!!!!
He just kept driving, and after a moment found the exit. That didn't calm me down. What if I wanted him to stop for other reasons? With what audacity am I saying, not to mention screaming at him to stop, and he doesn't stop?
For a moment I thought of the worst, but I looked at him - he's a small guy, and if it came to that, I could take him down.
During the ride, I just sat there angry. How did I get myself into this situation? How did I gamble on the wrong driver? How did I let this happen? What if they try to hurt me? I'm in a new country! I don't even have internet!!!
We finally reached my street. I paid him and he drove off, and here I am on a dark street in the middle of the night, trying to solve the "escape room" called Airbnb apartment. It's always instructions like "find the treasure" - moving step by step until you reach the prize.
I opened the instructions, trying to figure out which alley (because there are plenty here), and if in movies they say "dark alley" then now I understood exactly what they mean.
I couldn't see anything. The phone's flashlight made everything look even scarier. I was afraid that at any moment I'd point it to the side and see a frightening figure in front of me. Every shadow, every little sound, every strange smell - everything became threatening. In this complete darkness, all my senses were alert as if I were in a horror movie.
When I'm that scared, I talk to myself out loud to dispel the silence.
"Relax, it's probably here. Look, it's not really scary, it'll be over soon," and other nonsense that comes to me out of fear.
I entered one alley and then another, dragging my noisy suitcases and probably waking up the entire neighborhood. I reached the right gate, entered the building, only to see a staircase of 5 floors, as if everything I'd been through so far wasn't enough.
I embarked on a journey - these were long minutes during which I climbed a few floors each time with a different suitcase, breathless, exhausted. I was just praying that I was reaching the right apartment and it wasn't suddenly in another building, because I probably would have stayed there sleeping on the stairs.
I reached the right apartment. The initial view was pleasant and looked exactly like in the pictures. I felt slight relief, until I opened the bathroom door.
"Bathroom" is the exact description, because it's a room with a shower, so the entire room is a shower.
"What is this? Am I supposed to shower here?"
My brain couldn't comprehend the idea. I tried to breathe for a moment, turned off the cameras, tried to plan the next step.
Okay, I'll go to the bathroom, shower, and go to sleep. Tomorrow we'll start a new day.
I'm probably a princess, but if growing up with values of cleanliness makes me a princess, SO BE IT. Anyone who knows me knows I'm Monica from "Friends," only she probably wouldn't have gone to sleep until everything was sparkling clean. The toilet was disgusting, the sink was revolting, the shower room feels like I don't want to touch anything.
And of course - there's no toilet paper.
This is the first time I've arrived at an Airbnb and there was no toilet paper. I think it's audacious, and I made sure to point this out to the owner who sent me a message the next day.
The conversation with the property owner was a particularly enlightening experience. When I mentioned the cleanliness situation and the lack of toilet paper, she reminded me that I'm paying only $10 per night, and that if I'm not satisfied, I should look for another place. It seems that basic standards are a luxury in her eyes.
I spent the next day recovering from trauma. I started by ordering basic products from the supermarket - toilet paper, food, water, and cleaning supplies. I cleaned the entire house, went over every corner in the bathroom, and felt a little better.
It's not that the place is sparkling now, because there are things you can't clean, and once a place disgusts me, it just disgusts me. I'm trying not to go into descriptions, but even the body towels weren't clean, although I tried to convince myself they were. I only realized this after I sent them to the laundry, and probably because of that I got an eye infection.
So what did I learn? That cheap comes at a cost. That my budget of 1,000 NIS a month for rent is indeed possible, but is it worth it?
I reminded myself that I'm in East Asia, and things work differently here. I'm used to Western customer service, to polite people, and encountering experiences that teach me about myself and my boundaries. You can't wander the world and meet only good people it seems, so at least learn from those who come to teach us.
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