There are times when I visit a city that I don’t know much of, and try to feel it the way it presents itself to me. So, it was such that I was in Hanoi for a few nights this week. Before leaving Singapore, I was already struggling to calculate their currency in my head (500,000 VMD = S$32)–– how do I even convert?!?). Because the trip was at really last-minute notice, 24 hours after booking air-tickets and accommodation at a newly opened boutique hotel, my plane took off for Hanoi. Now, I’d been to Vietnam (Mui Ne) once, few years back, for a beach holiday. My impression about Vietnam was – it’s very difficult to communicate with the locals because they can’t speak English. Houses at Mui Ne are old with grey concrete/stone as the flooring so I don’t think it ever feels clean. Children play outdoors and didn’t care that their clothes have been dirtied. Vietnam to me felt like a place still stuck in time. I knew there’re many motorbikes in this city, but I s...