Life This Week in Hanoi, Vietnam: Aug 31-Sep 6, 2026

Monday, Aug 31

Today was a sort of productive (?) day.

My main goal was to look at a used laptop. After six weeks of renting, with another 6 to 9 months of travel ahead, I realized I was eventually going to spend more on rentals than I would just buying one.

Originally I thought I could find something for $300-ish. HA. Between needing a touchscreen, enough power for Photoshop and 40-megapixel photo files, plus video editing, my options got much more expensive very quickly.

ChatGPT and I spent a few days looking at used laptops around Hanoi and finally found one that seemed promising for under $700. I convinced myself this wasn’t an “in the meantime” laptop. This would be my laptop for the next five years or however long it survives me.

Then came the fun part: paying for it.

The seller couldn’t take U.S. credit cards or a U.S. bank transfer, and most ATMs here only let me withdraw about $115 at a time. I needed about $700.

I spent much of Sunday trying to move money through Wise, including doing my first-ever cash advance from my credit card. That eventually worked, but afterward my credit card completely DISAPPEARED from my bank account online.

Cue three hours of panic.

That card is basically my travel safety net. In my mind I immediately went from “Where did my credit card go?” to “I’m going to have to swim back to the United States and I’ll never be able to leave again.”

THE SHEER PANIC.

Eventually the card reappeared and everything was fine.

Which is basically anxiety in a nutshell. You can spend hours suffering over what COULD go wrong, regardless of what actually DOES go wrong.

Anyway. Monday.

I went to see the laptop seller, who I thought had a shop but actually worked out of his apartment. He was testing the computer and installing extra RAM while I sat on the sofa trying to figure out how to transfer his money through Wise.

And surprise!

Wise does not work in every country.

Guess which country it doesn’t work in.

Yup. Vietnam.

So there I was in this stranger’s apartment while he had my potential new computer opened up and I had no way to pay him.

Fortunately, I had enough cash for a deposit, and he agreed to hold it for me.

Later I found an ATM with a much higher withdrawal limit, so PROGRESS.

Across the street was a little steak place I’d been wanting to try. Do not envision Outback. This was a steamy little hole in the wall with wooden benches and trash on the floor.

The steak arrived sizzling on a hellfire-hot stone with truffle sauce, a tiny baguette and pâté. It was about $8, and honestly pretty good.

The stone was so hot that five minutes later I picked up the bread that had merely been sitting NEXT to it and immediately dropped it because it burned my fingers.

And if the food was hot, I was hotter.

By the time I finished eating and spent another ten minutes unsuccessfully trying to get someone to bring me the check, I was completely depleted. Any thought I’d had about walking around afterward disappeared.

The streets were packed because of the holiday, and my Grab driver couldn’t even get down my street. Luckily I recognized where I was when he dropped me near the church.

I went upstairs, lay in the AC until my hair stopped dripping, then somehow rallied enough to take the laptop downstairs to the café and work for two hours with an iced latte and cheesecake.

So that was my productive (?) day.

I didn’t actually get the computer.

I didn’t actually get all the money for the computer.

But I made progress.

And tomorrow is another day.

Tuesday September 1

We started out strong. #irony

I took a 35-minute Grab to the coworking space. The one that’s open seven days a week. The one that specifically said it would be closed TOMORROW for the holiday.

However, when I got there, it was closed. TODAY.

Padlocked. Dark. Empty.

SIGH.

Back into the heat to wait for another Grab, this one with no AC, which in this climate is a crime against nature.

New plan: Starbucks near the high-limit ATM. Cool off. Get a grapefruit honey iced tea and something to eat. Maybe work. Then get the rest of the laptop money.

Except somehow my driver dropped me at a completely different Starbucks.

I didn’t realize it until I got out and checked Google Maps.

I was on the wrong side of the lake.

Of course I was.

This Starbucks only had seating upstairs, and I Did Not Have It In Me to tackle stairs carrying a drink-and-snack-laden tray. So I found a tiny bit of shade and ordered another Grab.

17 minutes til pick-up.

I might be dead by then, but okay. ACCEPT.

I watched my driver inch toward me. 17 minutes became 15, then 13, then 9…

Then 11.

WAIT. We’re going the wrong way!

Meanwhile, a Grab motorbike driver pulled up and tried to whisk me onto his trusty steed. I was like WHOA NELLIE.

He basically convinced me my car was never getting through the traffic. But HE was here. Come away with him!

And because I was about to pass out from heat and hunger, I gave in.

He helped me clamber aboard (#gracefulNOT), and off we sped through Hanoi, zipping between cars and pedestrians by mere inches while I hung onto his shoulders for dear life.

Once we escaped the worst traffic and I was no longer actively fearing for my life, I even managed to pull out my phone at a stoplight and video about 30 seconds.

I needed proof this happened.

It was terrifying and exhilarating.

But mostly terrifying.

We somehow arrived in one piece, and he helped me slither off the motorbike.

It cost about three times what my original ride would have, but I was in no position to argue. He had gotten me where I needed to go, ALIVE, and I wanted an iced tea immediately.

Two hours, two honey grapefruit iced teas and one slice of coconut chocolate cake later, I felt revived enough to venture back OUT THERE and go to the ATM.

And good thing I hadn’t gotten there any earlier, because the cashbox guys were JUST reloading the machines.

I got the first shiny new bills from the Barbie-pink ATM.

In the words of Chit:

“SUCCESS.”

The rest of the day is a happy haze of heading home, taking a cold shower, and reading in the AC.

Wednesday-Thursday, September 2-3

The holiday, Vietnam’s 85th Independence Day, was in Full Force, so I opted to stay inside and recover from the previous days mayhem and adventure.

I walked down the street at some point and it was a ZOO. Everyone In The WORLD was on my street.

Friday, September 4

After my first failed walking tour back in Ho Chi Minh City, I knew better than to book anything that reuired much walking in heat. So this looked perfect – being chauffereued around the touristy locations in Hanoi in old open-air Jeep.

A clean-cut young man met me and brought me to the jeep down the street from my airbnb…introduced me to three fellow travelers from Australia…and we were off!

We visted the Tran Quoc Pagoda, the oldest Buddhist temple in Hanoi, dating back to the 6th century. The red flag with yellow star is the Vietnamese flag; the 5 points of the star represent Workers, Farmers, Intellectuals (Vietnamese writers, thinkers, and philosophers), Business people/Merchants, and the Soldiers protecting the country. The red background stands for revolution, bloodshed, and the sacrifices made for national independence. The yellow star represents the soul of the nation and the skin color of the Vietnamese people. The colors in the Five Color Flag represent the five elements of traditional East Asian philosophy. Red: Fire; Green/Blue: Wood; Yellow: Earth; White: Metal; Black or blue represents Water.

Offerings.

We had bun cha at a local restaurant. Bún chả is a Vietnamese dish of grilled pork and noodles, usually served in a bowl of light fish saucy broth into which you can put herbs, garlic, hot sauce, etc.

Saturday, September 5 – SHE IS MY BIRTHDAY!!!

And as a 66th birthday treat to myself, I’d booked an overnight cruise on Ha Long Bay, about three hours outside of Hanoi. We were picked up in a swanky van…and somehow even though I was at the pickup spot 15 mintes early, everyone else got to the van ahead of me, so I ended up having to sit up front with the driver. Which has its pros and cons.

Cons: awkward much? I’d wanted to be invisible and just listen to an audiobook with headphones, eat my car snacks, take pictures out the window, and nap…but that felt too…something…while sitting up front with him.

Pros: Front row seat (literally) to the air conditioning. Didn’t have to make small talk with other passengers. Got a front windshield view. I rarely get that anymore and always get a sore neck from looking to the side to see out the window next to me.

Anyway, that’s enough talk for me…enjoy the cruise in pictures…

Ha Long Bay is a really stunning karst-studded bay. Karsts are those limestone islands that appear to be popping up out of the water. Very dramatic and sort of other-worldly.

I’d had more side trips planned for my time in Hanoi…but I had so many unanticipated computer expenses – two months of rentals ($150), the almost $200 return shipping on MY “new” computer back to the US…and then the purchase of this used machine ($700!)…(oh crap, I never added all that up before, that’s $1000!!!) that I had to let them go. But I kept this one for my birthday. Cuz it was my birthday!!!

And I’ll come back to Hanoi, for sure. I have a return to Vietnam roughly planned for Jan-Feb-March 2028 (I am tentatively planned with travel up to 2030!). And I’ll do all the things I didn’t get to, or couldn’t afford to do, next time.

Okay, this got crazy long. And I don’t know what is wrong with things but the blog hasn’t gotten very hard to control – like the formatting of it. Things won’t go where I want them – I can’t always control spacing or bolding or italicizing…so please excuse those inconsistencies. I don’t know what the solution is.

Sadface.

But…I’ll see you again next week with my final week living on this charming street that I’m going to miss so so much.

And oh! I don’t know if I told you guys I rearranged my schedule a bit to stay two additional weeks in Hanoi. I’ve shortened my time in my next two destinations (Hoi An & Da Nang) cuz I can’t stay in Vietnam longer…and Hanoi is a known entity that I’m really loving…so I’ll pass on the longer times in those two places. I have to leave Vietnam by October 12 no matter what. So. Yeah.

See ya later luv ya bye!