Day 11- Final Day in Hanoi

I woke up to the sound of a jack hammer outside my window at 7am and decided that I might as well wake up and get my day started. I wandered out of my first floor room to the adjacent kitchen setup and sat down for the complimentary breakfast, which was measly in comparison to the feasts I had been eating in Cat Ba. The Vietnamese workers were sitting next to me and talking loudly and laughing and making me feel very uncomfortable, so I decided I would take that as a sign that I should head elsewhere to eat.

I wandered the city, and was taking in the sites looking for the lake when I came across a hair salon that looked reputable and made and 11 am reservation to get back to blond with some fresh highlights. For the meantime I wanted to wander Hanoi and find a place to settle down and get a decent coffee by the lake.

As I was walking I felt that Hanoi had a really strange chaotic charm to it. I know that does not make perfect sense, but it was as though the city is always hectic with motorbikes, construction, noise, but the people seem to ignore it all and if you look carefully you can see the beauty in the way old women carry the fruit through the street, bicycles are loaded with birdcages for sale, and every street corner is a make shift restaurant with small plastic chairs just surrounding a pot of hot Pho soup and cheap beer.

I went to the cute cafe by the lake and then headed to my 11 am hair appointment. I brought along photos of how I wanted my hair to look and explained in detail to the hairdresser who spoke English. Helen (the british friend Robyn had met traveling) had a terrible experience in a Vietnamese hairsalon and ended up with a very unique style.... instead of the blond highlights she wanted updated she ended up with black streaks throughout her hair! Fortunately, Helen had a good attitude about everything and took it with stride.

Anyway, 5 hours later and my hair, eyebrows, and nails were complete! I had gotten the works! The staff had been amazing and at one point I think I had 5 people surrounding me and pampering me. It was also quite funny that while this was all going on they had on a cd with about 10 songs on repeat... one of which was "Short Dick Man". If you haven't heard it, the lyrics pretty much go, "I dont want no itty bitty teeny weeny short dick man" and so forth! Anyway, only in Vietnam I guess!

But, when I looked in the mirror I resembled G Dragon the korean pop star who bleached his hair white! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHGGG! I paid $100 to look like a white tiger! NO no no no! I had no idea what to do but at that moment, I just wanted to get out of the hair salon.

"Robyn, does this really look ok?" I kept asking her.
"Yeah, it isn't that bad... it looks like you normally used to get it," she replied.

Shit! I thought. I don't know what my hair used to look like but everytime I looked in the mirror I felt scared. I know that Helen could handle the black streaks but I am not going to be able to live with white stripes in my hair. I looked really ridiculous!

Anyway, I tried to make the best of it and Robyn, Mark, Andy and I went out for a last dinner in Hanoi. We went to 2 different restaurants in the Old District and had some drinks and then headed back to use the internet and relax. Robyn and I decided that we needed a last girls night out so we went for a magical bicycle ride through the city and then walked through the night market and sat down for our last dinner together.

Robyn was at the end of her journey and mine was just getting started. She was feeling sad to have to leave to Bangkok in the morning and didn't want her traveling to end. She felt like she had grown so much and wasn't sure how she would be able to handle the end of her travels. I asked her questions about where to go and what was her favorite parts and she gave me some tips for Cambodia and told me how much she loved volunteering for the school and seeing all the sights.

I went to bed and thought about how much I will miss Robyn, but I am ready to venture on my own. I am a stubborn one, so it is good when I can go off on my own and not piss anyone off. I will definitely never forget the fun times I had with her so far and I can't wait to see what lies ahead of me.....