Gay night life in Hanoi*

It may surprise my fellow readers but i am not what you can call a expert of gay night life in Hanoi, nor in general :p, but i was an expert for night life before (when i was young and bald yet... joking...for a few years :( ).

Anyway, let's start with inescapable place :

• Solace (End of Chuong Duong Do):  a common night club with ok music to shitty one (depends on the dj and you) but it is a nice place as it a boat on the red river
• Lighthouse (formely barracuda) (51 Phuc Tan): the music seems to be a bit better and seems also to be less closed by police (you understand when you live here). this nightclub is located close to solace. I read some rumor it is/was gay friendly but i don't think so as it has a broad audience.
• Dragonfly (15 Hang Buom): one of the biggest "late" bar for expat. Several rooms with different athmosphere, the old staff is friendly.
• Tet bar  (formerly maquis) (2a Ta Hien): french crowded place so it has a different athmosphere compared to other bar.
• Funky monkey (31 Hang Thung): expensive and noisy place with a mix of trash-posh young vietnamese and tourists. You can forget it though i went there a few times with friends and had a few good times (taking all the dance place for us only)
• FM3 (2D Duong Thanh): same owner as the previous (but the number 3, the 1 is no more and the other is the 2 obviously). More expensive, more noisy (loud), damn cold, no space to dance and no westerners... some mafia with their money girls. Nice place! Anyway if it was a bit more friendly and with some space to dance it would be similar to the place à like in Bangkok.

Gay-friendly

• Mao's red lounge (7 Tạ Hiên): Oi gioi oi, it took me a few weeks to get in! I read on some website it is gay-friendly but actually when i get in, it was normal. Since then i read it is gay owned. Anyway the athmosphere is good (westerner only almost :/) but it's good ol' 80's 90's music!
• Apocalypse now (no adress): how not to mention it? Well it's down now but i heard it was a damn great place (i read a blog describing a gay kiss in front of everyone!!! Incredible here).. RIP with XXX (i will find the name again i promise :p)

Gay-oriented:

• GC bar (5a Bao Khanh Lane): i let you gues what GC stands for! Quiet place with a snooker and good music during the week... H.O.T. place on friday and especially saturday evening! Ultra crowded, nice modern shitty music :D. As you can imagine i like very much this place though it's a damn cruising bar...
• VTN (72 Nguyen Du): I read it's a gay place i saw nothing when i checked during the week... looks even a bit shitty though, GC is the same during the week.
• Connect cafe (So 8, Duong 2, Khu Tap The F361, An Duong, West lake ): i didn't check this one but i read it's like 'the place where to be'.
• Adam Sauna (92 Ngo Tho Quan, Pho Kham Thien): I am not ready yet to go there, i have a too bad idea of gay sauna...

Ressouces:

newhanoian.com: a general expat-in-hanoi webportal, damn useful!

utopia-asia.com: some info but not up  to date.

*: I know i am in contradiction with a previous post, let's say i am less paranoid.

How to meet a guy (who loves guy) in Hanoi?

It's quite simple:  come back to your country! ;)

In fact, it's not so extreme... depending on what you want.

The first idea (as a tourist) would be to hang around in the tourist district and thanks to utopia-asia you would know that a few years ago you could have a "quickie" in some gloomy toilets. That was a few years ago and I think it's not the idea anymore (the cited toilets have been destroyed).

Result: Forget it!

Second idea: the bars!

Good idea... and cool bars are pretty rare here so it won't take you too much time! Here comes the problem. As Vietnam is quite unfriendly with LGBT people you won't find it easily (and forget your lonely planet). Let's say you found it (sorry I won't tell you the name of the only one I know to protect them from too much advertisement... I am sure police knows but as long as it's not well known they don't care... asian culture). First, you have to arrive at the right time so forget during the week, or you have to be much more lucky than me. Actually I went there a long time ago during the week with a hetero vietnamese friend who had no idea of it and it was like a quiet euro bar. So you are there, it's the week-end, around 10pm, the bar is totally crowded.  Congratulations the hunt can begin!... but people seems to be so hungry ;)

Results: 

• You want to ***: welcome! 
• You want to party with some of the "best partying people" : welcome!
• You want to find the one... good luck! 

Finally, you have the incredible internet world!

That's the way I found my boyfriend (as knows those who pay attention :p). Well, I think it's like any dating website. Depending on what you want you will find easily (fun) or it will take some time. Unlike other dating website (as far as I know) you may find some money boys.. beware!

Result: Welcome to the big supermarket but if you look for a special product you will have to search for it!

Can it be cute?

Yesterday I was looking at my flatmate's last excursion pictures. He was with his (vietnamese) girlfriend and they were really cute on photos... like teenagers. Obviously, they get along very well and are in love.

Concerning my relation with my boyfriend, we have no photo of us together and almost none of each other (I got 2 of him). Although the point of this post is: i can easily think heterosexual couples are cute together but not homosexual. Am I stupid to think that? Or am i not in love enough to see that?

Actually, we were listening to music and comparing taste. He listens a lot to good ol' english songs, especially love songs (and probably Vietnamese ones but not with me) and I can appreciate but I feel it's quite a silly situation because from a artistic point of view ... it's shit. In addition, I guess that I should not say that.