Taking a bus downtown

The air conditioner has changed my mode of life. Until last night, terrace door and window stood wide open—funneling in sunlight, moonlight, street noises, disquieting odors, mosquitoes, and hot, humid air. Now my room has become a cool, dim cave smelling faintly of Yardley soap, where socks and blankets have a purpose, where car horns are faint and distant, where hundreds of microscopic ants will either starve to death or start in on me during the night.

Whenever I start to miss my old pre-AC Hanoi experience, I can just step out onto the terrace. I did that just now and was reminded of how different things can appear when you take a second look at them. I told you earlier I could see five or six silver "beer cans" from my balcony. Looking again today, I saw no less than thirty-one.

I took a bus downtown this morning. It was pretty much like taking a MUNI bus in SF, with these differences: 1) it costs 18 cents, 2) the driver never really comes to a complete stop—you have to board or disembark while the bus is moving at 1 or 2 mph, 3) you can bump your head on the ceiling if you're taller than 5'10". The purpose of my excursion was to track down a computer accessory I need to transfer photos from my camera to my computer. (Seriously, how long are you going to stick with my little travelog if I never provide any pictures? Those six hundred pounds of National Geographics in your basement would have been recycled ages ago if they were text only.)

I found the store I had been directed to and bought the item I needed (pictures coming your way soon), but the store didn't have the Ethernet cable I also wanted. For that I would need a computer store. Okay, where is one, I asked. Nobody at the camera store had any idea. Nobody at the tourist info kiosk down the street knew, either. Or anybody at the local Highlands Coffee shop, although I did find out the Olympic event in which Vietnam won a silver medal. You're going to think I'm joking, but I swear this is true: Vietnam won silver this week in…weightlifting! Vietnam's only previous Olympic medal was a silver in taekwondo in 2000.

Eventually, I found somebody who knew where there was a computer store in Hanoi. He directed me to Vincom City Towers, the modern highrise shopping mall where I've been buying peanut butter and mouthwash. I was skeptical because I've explored that mall in some detail, but nobody else had any suggestions at all. So now the problem was how to catch a bus back to where I started. The guys at the tourist info kiosk didn't have a clue. I stopped into an upscale hotel across the street from Hoan Kiem Lake. (This, by the way, is tourist central in Hanoi. Caucasians practically outnumber Vietnamese in this neighborhood. I figured anybody connected with this particular hotel would be used to speaking English and giving directions to out-of-towners.) The desk clerk assured an incredulous me that no bus went anywhere near Vincom Towers.

I just came from there by bus, I said. Surely I can return there by bus.

He shook his head. No, that bus comes on a one-way street. You have to take a cab back.

You mean, I said, bus after bus comes up here from Vincom Towers and then all the buses just stay here?

Yes, he said. You have to take a cab back.

I left the hotel and found a bus stop about fifty feet away. Ten minutes later I was disembarking (at about 2 mph) across the street from Vincom Towers. I found the computer store on the fourth floor of the mall. It's actually a TV/stereo store that also sells laptop computers. The sales staff had never heard of an Ethernet cable, didn't have one, and had no idea where one could be found in Hanoi.

My sore throat is still worrying me, I've been a little nauseous all day, and as usual, the pain in my ribs lessens in the AM and then worsens in the PM. I've decided to revisit Language Link when I'm feeling stronger.

I read today in a newspaper that Vietnam has adjusted its poverty line upward in response to inflation. Two years ago, the poverty line was 6 million dong per year. Now the poverty line is 10 million dong per year in rural areas, 12 million dong per year in the city. For reference, I just paid 6 million dong ($361) for fifteen days in my air-conditioned lodgings.