Hanoi – did it change too much or not enough?
Posted: August 17, 2011 Filed under: change, expats, Hanoi, Reflections | Tags: change, expats, Hanoi 12 Comments »During the two and a half years I spent in Vietnam during my VSO/KOTO era I can recall only ever meeting one person who claimed not to like Hanoi.
The fact that it was just the once makes it stand out. I was in a bar chatting to a backpacker and they asked if I lived here. I said I did and they were astounded.
“How could anyone live here,” they said. “It’s horrible”.
I won’t tell you the miserable hellhole they came from. Each to their own.
But lately it seems no one admits to liking Hanoi.
There’s no doubting Hanoi has changed. Nothing stays the same in Vietnam but did it really change that much?
I came here first as a wide-eyed backpacker and was overwhelmed by many of the things that people still seem to be complaining about today. I was scared to cross the street. I was ripped off repeatedly. I got sick from the food. I had cockroaches in my room.
And yet people still seemed to like Hanoi – we liked it in spite of these things.
We loved it because it wasn’t like Singapore – now people seem to wish it was.
There’s no doubting that my circle of friends has changed and shrunk. Back in my volunteer days I’d be a regular around Hanoi’s bars and now I’m more likely to go out for a quiet meal with the missus. Are those pubbing and clubbing still loving it? Is it just the olds who are less positive?
Perhaps young and old expats want almost the opposite of each other. Cheap beer, illegal drinking dens, motorbike madness and the complete absence of a nanny state – all good for young volunteers and backpackers. Meanwhile the marrieds worry about healthcare and education, air quality and having somewhere for the kids to run around.
But I’m tired of meeting people who talk only of escaping.
I wonder how much social media plays its part. In giving us platforms to criticise we forget the positives. Didn’t we we used to love Vietnam’s once-charming crapness? We’d giggle and order another beer and our Vietnamese hosts would giggle with us.
Do we expect more from the country now? Should Vietnam have grown up?
Did it change or did we change? Did it change too much or not enough?
For the record, I still love it. That’s not to say I wouldn’t one day welcome the chance to work somewhere else. I guess Hanoi now fits the role that Newcastle used to for me. It’s the place I’ll always come back to. And I know however much Hanoi grinds me down – I’d miss it if I left. Frankly I miss Hanoi during a weekend in Hoi An.
I sometimes think that expats are scared to love Hanoi. Loving Hanoi is for tourists. Being positive is seen as naive. You need to be brave to be positive.
I hear negativity from Vietnamese colleagues too. I hate that most. Is this something the more international, English speaking crowd have picked up from hanging out with tays? Did we do this to them?
So what did Hanoi lose? What stopped it being lovable? Is it just us? Do we ask too much?
I think it’s losing some of the charm that it had when we first moved here. The pace is speeding up, the basket ladies are disappearing and the cost of living is shooting through the roof etc…. Old Hanoi is being slowly replaced by a modern city. All well and good, except that we’re in the painful middle phase. It doesn’t quite have all the conveniences and cleanliness of a modern city, but that “Hanoi charm” is slowly disappearing as people’s priorities change and the general zeitgeist changes rapidly.
I still love it here too, and call Hanoi home, and still discover things to love about it. Although we have to give up some of the things we love about the old Hanoi, the consolation is that there’s things happening here now which weren’t in the past (Live music every weekend is a given now for example).
It’s a tricky question though…..
Oh don’t worry about us complaining about the city. It is just in our nature to complain about stuff but we won’t ever stand up and do anything about it. We have been complaining non stop about everything since a thousand years ago.
And I don’t really agree with your notion of expats hating this place. If that was the case, there would not be so many complain about thw new law concerning working permits for foreigners. Aren’t we all getting used to the negativity, but still feel comfortable enough to live in? It is like an acquired taste. So many cases out there where an expat just wanted to experience the country for a year, then before they know, they became a permanent vacationers.
So I guess Hanoi is a city that we love to hate, and hate to admit we love it.
I’ve been here longer than some, less than others. But for what it’s worth, I still love Hanoi/Vietnam.
Hang in there, my hubby and I are moving out next year for a 3 year stint – we’re neither looking for cheap beer and hostels and our kids have grown up so not worrying about space for them to play in (although we are bringing a lively dog so I do have some concerns on that front!). We fully intend to love our time there – we’re ready for challenges and frustrations, highs and lows but most of all we’re ready for the adventure of it not being here and in that sense it really can’t fail can it! Having spent a year recently in Egypt it cannot possibly be as bad, that was truly the worst experience of my life – partly perhaps because I was so unrealistic about what it would be like. Hope our paths cross once we’re out there
Nice insight – And living in Bangkok I know those exPat feelings.
When I used to hear this sentiment – it would make me feel sad and I would die a little – because it was like someone was taking away the oxygen of my secrete discovery from a happiness in a distant land – But I started to gradually understand why they were saying these things.
Its because they had stopped exploring the new – began to settle for the once explored and lost their wonder-lust for taking any of those risks that got them there in the first place……They find fault in the place rather than finding a fault in themselves.
The energy you portray is not about the place – or about being of a certain age of maturity – Its the person.
If you still have vibrancy and wonder for the place you are – You are in the right place!
Hanoi is changing for better, old part of the city is not replaced by modernity, most constructions take place on the outskirts of the city, Hanoi is a city in transition, it’s not totally like we used to know it, but it’s also not a ‘modern’ city yet. In next 10 years, I believe Hanoi will get better, when infrastructures are put in place, it will have conveniences of a modern city yet still maintain its old charm. Traffic, pollution…are what preventing people who haven’t liked Hanoi from loving it. Give it 10 more years and we’ll see.
I have lived in Ho Chi Minh City for over five years, so when I come to Hanoi, I am a tourist. Over those years, I think Hanoi has retained its charm with improvements to tourism infrastructure and an increasing variety in activities and commerce. What is probably changing more is the nature of expats. The western world seems to be suffering though a collective bad mood, so it should not be surprising the expats are bringing that negative cloud with them to Viet Nam.
– Mel
N’thing the sentiment “it’s not Hanoi, it’s me.” Of course we change, and the city changes too. In my case my life has changed with the addition of two small children. I’m no longer living for me alone, in fact I’m mostly not living for my sake. I didn’t choose to migrate to Hanoi because it’s a great place for kids, and I am choosing to leave it because it isn’t.
Abstract concerns over air quality become very real when your infant son has a cough regularly, and you are constantly hearing of other people’s kids being hospitalized with respiratory problems.
What used to be a devil-may-care attitude to the ever-worsening traffic becomes sickening thoughts of injury to your kids.
If Hanoi has changed I think it’s mainly in that it’s no longer an adventure. I moved here in 2004 because it had a romantic feeling of being unexplored, while retaining a calm that has long dissipated. When we started The New Hanoian it was an attempt to explain that unknown city, and I think that attempt has succeeded, perhaps too well. There isn’t much mystery left anymore.
But then again, perhaps it would be more of an adventure if I was in a more adventurous time of life.
“I hear negativity from Vietnamese colleagues too. I hate that most. Is this something the more international, English speaking crowd have picked up from hanging out with tays?” Only now I know that you might hate me coz I’m complaining about Hanoi all the time. We, Hanoians, also have same concerns as expats towards the pollution, noise, harsh weather, people’s unfriendliness, etc. (And I don’t think you never say any negative things about your Newcastle?
)
However, I have to admit that only when I’m away from Hanoi, do I know I love and miss it.
reminded me of my leaving blog post…
http://theexpatexperience.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-to-survive-vietnam-as-expat.html
I will always love Vietnam for it’s “Faults”. If you want Singapore then move to Singapore.
Jakarta on the other hand…. sucks ass.
Although it has definitely changed, there are still so many things to love about Hanoi. While we’re not technically expats, we have spent quite a bit of time in Hanoi. We’re looking forward to returning next month for visit number #20.
Great post!
Apologies for not adding my voice to this sooner – must get better at reacting to reactions.
MD – yes, agreed we’re in tricky development years. A couple of people have said to me that it’ll get worse for ten years and then it’ll get better. I know pretty much nothing about economics but I can’t imagine the ride lasting that long – surely something bursts before then.
VN – good point about work permits. Foreigners and local alike, anywhere are prone to nostalgia that somewhere was better before. The good times are so often in the past.
AJS – me too. I also think that problems I have with Hanoi are, in true expat style, just problems I have that I am, as ever, blaming on my location.
TCE – I envy you – this place looks wonderful with fresh eyes. There is a couple of days when it all seems like chaos and then after that you actually start picking out all the little bits that make it so special.
JW – there’s another blog post coming up about having that time to explore. Sadly I don’t. Also alot of the above may be end of the summer blues (common to Hanoi when you’ve sweatted long enough and can’t wait for the cool weather when you can be more mobile again).
TK – yes the hard part if keeping what makes it special while modernising it. I always wonder – just how do you even start to modernise the old quarter. Take out the dirt and chaos and illegal extensions and corrugated iron and what is there left. I am sure in the future it will be mostly saved, rebuilt like it was but ultimately, just full of coffee shops and travel agents for tourists.
MS – yes, yes, yes to the collective bad mood. I hadn’t thought of it that way but I think you might be right. Cynicism is in.
TL – Don’t disagree with anything there. I think the New Hanoian did de mystify the place a bit. The genie won’t go back in the bottle and that’s not just a Hanoi issue. As regards the adventure bit… same same here. I am less likely to go wild at weekends or go off on discovery walks around Hanoi. I used to take my camera everywhere but stopped doing that too. Somewhere along the way it became home rather than something to wonder at. But I miss the wonder.
PHM – no hate here. I love my home city of Newcastle but no longer feel I want to live there. Any problems with it are not too dissimilar with here – I am getting old. At weekends it is a party city – that used to be fun – now I find it a little naff and a little bit frightening in equal measure.
Coco – I agree – but maybe that comes with age too. I know families who love Singapore because they feel catered for.There is certainly a time when a lack of a nanny state is fun and later a time when you’ll miss it.
AMV – thanks for the comment. I love it too – it doesn’t take me long when I am out of the country to miss the place – and I return with wide-eyed wonder one more time.