Hanoi.
A city with over 1000 years of history.
The capital of Vietnam.
And home to over seven million people.
And in that number, there are also thousands of Westerners.
They come here to teach foreign languages,
do business,
and do a lot of other work as well.
They mostly come from places that are, simply to be honest,
quieter, more organized, and more developed than Hanoi.
So this raises a question among a lot of Vietnamese people:
"Why do they choose to live here?"
I decided to go interview some of my Western friends to find the answer.
I guess it wasn't always on my radar, but I had a lot of friends that were here,
and saying, "You should come out here, it's great," you know, "It's a good life."
And I had a friend who was in Hanoi as part of his world tour, and he was like,
"I think you'll really like this place. You should come."
And within a week I had a job, I had an apartment, and I was here.
We had a Skype conversation and he told me about Vietnam,
and it sounded interesting, so I thought I'd come for a bit.
He left about two years ago and I'm still here.
Vietnam . . .
It wasn't necessarily in my mind.
I had not, you know, thought about living there,
but, you know, I found a good job online, and then . . .
Yeah, as soon as I came in I was . . .
I was hooked, I suppose.
I was really interested, because it was—
Thailand was my only, like, Asian experience, and it's totally different to Thailand.
This was much more the Asia I kind of envisioned when I first moved to Bangkok.
Bankok's a very modern, big, sprawling city.
And then I get out here and as soon as I'm leaving the airport,
I saw chickens running across the roads and piles of bricks everywhere and . . .
I don't know, it was a little more disorganized, a little bit more a . . .
more the energy I was envisioning when I moved out to Asia.
There's that certain sort of drive and buzz, I guess, about Hanoi
which has always been there whenever I've lived here.
Even though Hanoi is huge by population—there's lots of people here—
it still kind of has . . .
a more relaxed feel to me.
There's just like a . . .
I don't know, like an energy that's happening in Hanoi.
There's a lot of young people here.
Like, if you look around, the Vietnamese population is quite young,
so it seems like this is a country that is . . .
you know, going to . . .
keep improving.
Things are going to get better here.
I actually found Vietnamese people and culture quite refreshing after Thailand,
because it's more similar to British, in a way.
And in Thailand they're very smiley and open immediately.
And in Vietnam, they can . . .
you know, they're not as smiley or welcoming at first,
but, actually, I find once you speak to them, they are more genuinely interested.
That's another thing I like about it, like, the people here are so real.
It's a little bit shocking at first,
but it's refreshing that you know they're not being fake. They're going to tell you how it is.
Like I remember when I first came, going into a clothing store around Hoan Kiem,
and I walked in and the woman just took one look at me and she was like:
"No!"
"Too big! Fat!"
And I was like, "Ok. Well . . ."
At the time I was really insulted, but then
you know, I was like, "Ok, those are the words she knew, and I didn't have to waste my time looking the shop."
So when you came here and started riding a motorbike around, how did you feel about it?
Terrified.
Yeah, that's actually one of the draws about living here,
is you get a big sense of freedom from having a motorbike.
There's a certain independence about it, which is really nice.
There's just that freedom which is different from driving around in the UK.
It's this sense of freedom that if I just want to travel 5 km,
I can just jump on my bike, go to exactly where I want . . .
and I'm there.
Also, Hanoi is probably the best food city I've lived in.
Yeah, the food is probably the first thing that I remember.
And I hadn't really read about the food much or been told about it much.
And that's probably—yeah, that's probably one of the main things I still enjoy about it now.
I think Vietnamese cuisine is my favorite in the world.
I love Thai food, as well, but I think Vietnamese food wins on variety.
I pretty much like everything except for . . . "mam tom?" "Mom tam?"
What are some of your favorite spots?
I don't really want to give them away.
It's definitely the most enjoyable place to teach that I've been to so far.
Firstly, the students.
I find here there's a real . . . there's a really good attitude towards education.
I work with kids back in America, too, and just . . .
their attitude towards education here makes it a lot easier to be a teacher.
I think most Vietnamese students are quite motivated.
They're definitely harder working than English students.
And I also find there's quite a natural curiosity.
They want to know lots of things about the rest of the world.
Yeah, I see this kind of, like, thirst for knowledge,
which obviously is really satisfying when you're in a classroom teaching a bunch of people.
I still really like Thanh Nien—that, that road . . .
That street is just one of my favorite places.
I still love the Old Quarter. I know it's not a lot of people's favorite,
just because all the tourists and all the traffic.
For me, like, the Old Quarter is a lot of what Hanoi is.
I still like riding around Hoan Kiem Lake sometimes,
you know, if it's that time of night when there's not nearly as many people around or something,
I might take a slight detour from my trip just to do a quick round.
I cycle every morning around West Lake,
and that's the highlight of my day every day.
So I love Hanoi at 5 a.m.
I love being surprised by, like, these beautiful temples that are just tucked away.
It's just like, "Wow, like, this is where I live. This is so beautiful."
I just feel very comfortable here, as well.
In fact, I almost get, like, a reverse culture shock when I go back home.
Back home is boring. It's predictable.
Whenever I go home I'm astounded at how quiet everything is.
That's part of the beauty of Hanoi, is the chaos.
It's like anything is kind of possible.
Living here, I—still, even though I've been here for around two and a half years in total now,
I still can walk out of my house and see something happening that I've never seen before.
I think I'll always come back to Hanoi.
But maybe I'll . . . leave, explore something else, realize that I miss Hanoi again, come back.
Yeah, that may keep happening.
For the rest of your life?
Yeah.