Weirdness @ Hanoi airport

Weirdness @ the airport. When I arrived I arranged for a pick up as the airport is about 45 minutes from the city. So I see the guy with the pancart with my name on it
and we go out to the lot and the dude doesn't even know what car he is
driving... then there are these young girls looking kinda hip but
homeless, and these guys looking like pimps or hipsters but real
sketch are all loitering in the parking lot. I can see that they are
all eyeing me and the driver guy... then I get my stuff in to the trunk
of the car and a bunch of the whatevers not exactly swarm, but
congregate around the car... then they start talking to the driver and
all of a sudden he declares that he has to wait about 10 - 15 minutes
for another pick up... so one of the guys comes to the window and
starts chatting, asking where I'm from and all that stuff. So I step
out of the car and start small talking with this guy and about 15
meters away this cop or security agent pulls up on the scooter and
just stares at us... The dude I'm with starts getting a little edgy
as do all the others. Talk, talk, check out the cop... talk... check
out the cop... and then after about 5 minutes the cop just drives
away. Then the driver just declares that the other person isn't
showing up... but he didn't even get a call or anything... it all just
didn't feel right. I'm feeling pretty sketched out right about now... is this my real driver? Is he going to take me to my hotel? am i going to die or get arrested?!! So then we take to the road and we are driving on
the most godforsaken road ever with tractor trailers swerving all over the road; scootes do 10km/h, other drivers completely oblivious to anything else on the road. "Many new drivers in Hanoi" spurts the driver.
Then the driver points out one of the most troubling things I've come across. We've all heard about the zones that 3rd wolrd governments give to coroprations which are kind of international autonomous tax free zones in which they set up their factories to produce all the shit we buy in the west... well we drove bye one of those... man was it surreal. It was this huge huge gated area at least a few square kilometers surrounded by some of the poorest shanty towns I've ever seen. Real depressing; it just makes all the things you read so much more real and so much more upsetting. It's hard really concieve of the real humanity that is affected by our western consumption until you drive right through it. I saw a Canon factory, a Nikon factory... Panasonic... everything was there... anyhow. Not sure I can really convey it all. I'm sure that there was a Nike factory in there somewhere... it's all the same shit.

Next post... happier stuff from Hanoi or is it?! ;-p Those of you who got some emails from me, know what I'm talking about.