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Article: The night comes alive in once-austere Hanoi
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- December 18, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright (null) Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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HANOI, Vietnam It's Friday night in Hanoi, and the attractive
young woman in tight leather pants appears out of the strobe lights
and asks, "Do you want to dance?"
To a visitor, the question is unexpected in this austere
Communist capital, where night life, as one diplomat put it, has
meant "watching the rats run down the streets."
But there is a new and permissive (by Hanoi standards)
liveliness in this city of 2 1/2 million people. For those
Vietnamese who can afford it, Hanoi has scores of cozy cafes serving
Cognac or espresso, a dozen good restaurants that stay open late into
the night, several dance halls where rock bands play four nights a
week, and video cafes that show foreign ...