Leaving Hanoi felt as disorienting as entering it. We had been told to wait on one side of the road, and so when the bus came, it passed straight by us on the other side without even seeing us. It was only through Rose’s quiet clarity that we realised what had happened and moved to the correct side, where we waited in a small café for another two hours before finally flowing out of the city. Once we crossed that threshold, the density loosened almost immediately, and the land