Hanoi: Viet-yay!

11-28

The flight to Hanoi was a short and comfortable 2 hours. Despite this, the airline served a full meal, and it was good.  I sat next to two spanish girls who were also backpacking and we were going to try to share a taxi to our hostel.  When I got off I found these 2 Irish guys that I had met in the elevator of my hostel back in Hong Kong and I got them to join our taxi sharing group.  Unfortunately one of the Spanish girls left a really important book on the airplane so they bailed, which worked out, because the taxi we got could barely hold me and the 2 Irish guys and our beefy backpacks.  

Everyone warned me about the Hanoi traffic.  They told me that there are going to be tons of motorbikes and that crossing the road would look difficult but that you just have to do it.  Sorry to be anti-climatic, but I was not surprised.  The traffic was heavy and it was mostly motorbikes.  They moved in packs like schools of fish and seemed to naturally part around obstacles and merge back together again.  It was all very fluid.  Intersections were tricky though--sometimes there is a "you or me" hesitation where you aren't sure who has the right of way.  I'm sure this results in some minor accidents (everyone at least slows down), but I have yet to witness.

The hostel was called "Rendezvous".  Me and the Irish guys checked into the dorm room.  It was on the sixth floor.  The building had no elevator either, which isn't so bad, but when you are downstairs and about to head out for the day but forgot something small upstairs, it takes a good bit of movtivation to go up and get it.  It was the most beautiful dorm room I had ever stayed in though--big beds, lots of space, and an lcd tv on the wall.  

I venture out for dinner with the Irish guys.  They did not like walking on the street with the traffic roaring at your backside like a starship dogfight.  There are no sidewalks and people drive wherever they can, and, of course, intersections on foot can be scary, especially when it is dark.  I just pumped my rear deflector shields to max power and cruised.

I left the Irish guys at a tapas place and went on my own for street food.  First dinner was a chicken soup. Second dinner was some Bun Vermicelli, or beef with rice noodles (I think).  The old man at the second street shop was very enthusiastic about showing me how to eat by acting things ou with 10 times the emphasis.