Social outings are a huge part of an ex-pat's life. With your family and friends 12,000kms away, a close bond is developed with the people you meet despite only knowing them for a few months. Your close network of friends quickly becomes your family and your family grows every time you go out for a drink. Getting together at a local bar or bia hoi also becomes a customary gathering where you match stories about the strangest thing you saw that day or vent about Hanoi annoyances ("Hannoyances" for short). Meeting for dinner and drinks after work becomes a necessity for a temporary escape from the insanity of living in a city where nothing makes sense and everything is strange.
There are lots of places to visit if you're looking for an after dinner drink (or ten). Lots of watering holes, dance clubs and chill out bars. All are good depending on your mood and how you feel like spending the night. I especially like the chill out bars were you can sit and chat with friends over some cold beer. On a good night, your night can consist of combination of all types of bars; bouncing around from place to place to see what feels right and to find your groove for the night. The prices and crowds don't vary that much from place to place and most are located on the same streets, which makes a bar crawl take on a very literal term.
However, nightlife in Hanoi is not all it's cracked up to be. All restaurants and bars have a curfew of 12am, meaning a packed club filled with good folks having a good time must be cut short. Some of the more law biding establishments will start shutting down at 11:30 and provide plastic cups for you to take your beer home or for a walk down the street. There are other bars that stay open later to convenience the ex pat community but these places are subject to routine "raids" by the police after hours. The police are often given a bribe by the bar owners that provides them to stay open for another hour or whenever the police come around for their next nightly round.
The ultimate Hanoi nightlife experience is going to one of the popular after hour bars. When you arrive at the bar it appears closed for the night, but as you approach the door, the lookout stationed outside will let you in provided that the police are nowhere to be seen. Once inside, the bar looks like the inside of any club, with music playing, drinks flowing, people being loud and having a good time. However, when the police show up outside, the music is cut and the staff quickly tell everyone to be quiet. Standing in a crowded room filled with cigarette smoke and the smell of spilt beer, we wait in silence for the police to go away so we can go on with our night. It feels eerily like a junior high party in your parents basement when you hear someone stirring upstairs. Only this time, it's not dad telling you to be quiet and go tos sleep, it's the Hanoian police with bats and guns. A true Hanoian (Hannoying) experience!
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A year in Vietnam can be a life altering experience. You're invited to come along for the ride as I travel on the back of a motorbike, zig zagging in and out of traffic down the busy Hanoian streets. I might die in the process but think about all the stories if I make it out alive!
