THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT
What counts for social life in Hanoi? There’s always the local bar where you could hang out with friends and try to decipher which item in the menu is edible or not.  Hotels usually provides the night life here with discos and bowling areas. Some restaurants have live singers and bands to entertain you while you drink beer and eat noodles. I joined some of my friends out for a swim at Guiang Vo, a sport center similar to our Rizal Sports Plaza. We were joined by Filipino entertainers Al and Cherry.  Cherry was a petite yet spunky singer while Al, who was equally hyper in his own way, was the sythesizer man. When we ate at the sport center’s restaurant, they decided just for kicks to borrow the live band equipment and play a number for us. Together they put up a mean combo that had us jumping to the beat along with the rest of the patrons.  Another great nightspot would be the Century Disco. I must admit I wasn’t expecting much of what this Hanoi Disco house had to offer, but as I got inside it was like being inside Wuzzup (the former Euporia in Intercon Hotel Makati). This disco had killer bass music, laser lights and a small mechanical stealth fighter that occasionally swoops down at the crowd complete with ear splitting sonic screech. An hour before that I attended a birthday party by one of the Embassy staff whom I call Kuya Manny. He treated me by making me drink four kinds of beer: Foster’s Beer from Australia, Halida Beer from Vietnam, 333 Beer from China and Asahi Beer from Japan (yup, it’s the same company that brought us that electric fan). Then we went to Century Disco where the next morning my head FELT like an electric fan. I couldn’t totally recall what happened that night at dancing but I began to hear rather colorful side stories from the staff when I showed up again at the Embassy office. ^_^;;;