Hanoi Stories

Since I didn’t find any, here are some modest suggestions, just to get somebody’s juices started.

During a visit to Ho Chi Mihn’s mausoleum, Vong, a gay tour guide, is thunderstruck by the vision of a tranny in traditional Vietnam woman dress. Vong changes style, becomes Hanoi’s more sought after guide, is quickly imitated by others, only to appear dead under Ho Chi Mihn’s house on stilts. Who did it and why? Possible title: Ho Chi Mihn’s Ho.

Stacey, a naïve American, is reunited with her husband, John, on a romantic cruise of Halong Bay. John has been working with an NGO in Hanoi and an important contact is also on the cruise. After dinner, she goes to their cabin first and is surprised to see a great full moon rising over the peaks in the bay. She can’t believe the beauty, the peace. She looks down at the silvery reflection and she’s jolted by all the rubbish floating in the water. Suddenly, the boat rocks and she hears a faint splash, probably on the other side. More trash, she wonders? When she wakes up the next morning, her husband has disappeared and no one remembers his business contact. Is John dead? Her journey of discovery will take her to the multinational that is dumping illegal waste on the protected bay. Possible title: Halong Dung.

Nguyen Hung chokes while eating a Pho Bo (beef soup), on a street stall in front of a Hanoi backpacker’s hostel, knocking down as he falls a family of four traveling by motorcycle. Hung dies. In the confusion, the two girls in the motorcycle are lost. Local policeman, Philip Dat, investigates. The intrigue will take him from Saigon, to places where Hung had interests, mainly the UK and France. Dat is a big reader, likes to quote the classics and hates it when women talk too much. He is also appalled at the corruption in his precinct. Some want to accuse the transient hostel population and close the case. Philip knows the case is linked to a dangerous international sex ring, currently branching out into selling young girls into prostitution. Possible title: Dat Hung.

Truong is the most beautiful girl in the Huong pagoda. She greets visitors from her boat. She is happy. Suddenly, a Valentino-wearing monk keeps showing up, someone messes with the Choco-Pie Buddha, and man-sized bats take residence in the caves. A clan of vampires has just landed on the sacred site and its leader, a thousand-year-old Chinese princess who can’t stand Truong’s beauty, threatens to destroy the temple and the community for good. Will evil triumph over good? Possible title: Mihn Fang. 

Five days ago, Clara arrived in Hanoi and thought she might have made a mistake. So busy, so crowded, so not what one would expect. But quickly the city warmed its way to her heart, and on her last night she wishes she had more time, not particularly to visit another tourist attraction, but to enjoy the crazy charm of this vibrant city. She is having dinner on a terrace, contemplating an extraordinary electric storm in the distance. She’s fighting tears. Perhaps she had too many Hanoi beers. Among the cacophony of sounds she hears pops, like from a gun. She looks at the street below. Nothing. Suddenly, the noise is on her, coming from atop. Someone jumps from the next building and runs. Jumps again, and falls to his death. Immediately, two armed men also fall on the terrace. After looking down to confirm the first man is dead, they notice Clara. One hits her in the head with the butt of his gun. She wakes up two days later in a hospital, without money, credit cards or passport, and without a memory of who she was. Thus begins a journey of self-discovery in a place where the only unknown is herself. Possible title: Hanoi Confidential

...A good writer, with a love and knowledge of the place, could do much better. But if anyone should take up the task, I for one would read the books.