We had a great morning today... Woke up and got packed just in time to skype into a Norseman clan party - it was great to see everybody! We strolled around between our hotel and Causeway Bay and grabbed some breakfast - we learned that we could spend a lot less on good food after our Foodie tour yesterday (though grabbing Starbucks after kind of made that a moot point!).
We cabbed it to Hong Kong airport - the place is amazing. After a short 2 hour flight, we were landing in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. I felt like our real Southeast Asia trip was about to begin. We won't see another big modern 1st world city until Singapore in a month. We met our driver (prearranged with the hotel) and puttered off to the City. I say puttered because (you were right Papa) they drive extremely slowly, even on the highway (about 50 km/h). As we got closer to the capital, we noticed the mopeds and scooters and bikes beginning to mass. It's a very cool organized chaos that I will have to capture on video to to it justice.
Our hotel is in backpacker alley - it seems like a good area and the room is huge and clean. Our receptionist, Bella, gave us a warm introduction and gave us all a welcome drink... Kind of nice! Things seemed pretty cheap off the bat when we gave her our laundry which she weighed and pronounced that it would be $6 to clean. We headed out for Pho on her recommendation and landed at a spot where we all had vegetarian pho - quite good.
Sunday is the day for the night market in Hanoi. Getting there was..... Interesting. You really have to trust the local way of crossing the road - just start walking, slowly, in a direct line and make sure you don't make unpredictable moves - kind of like riding in a peloton! Beth and Abby were pretty unnerved at first, but they seemed to get the hang of it.
The night market was actually fantastic - something for everyone and way more interesting than the markets in Hong Kong. Unfortunately the reason we suddenly started getting cooler breezes to relieve the heat on the streets was that a short monsoon storm was blowing in. Within 20 minutes of getting to the market, we were huddled under a tarp trying to figure out what to do. Beth saw a woman selling rain ponchos so we paid the outrageous price of 40,000 Vietnamese Dong for 4, quite a ripoff but we were desperate... Wait... No.... That's only $2.40 Canadian.... Total!
We made it back to the hotel (the streets were almost dry by that time), and now we are all catching up on our iPads! My initial impressions of Hanoi: chaotic scooter craziness, beautiful night scene around the lake, super friendly people, backpackers aplenty, memories of SE Asia circa 1997!
We cabbed it to Hong Kong airport - the place is amazing. After a short 2 hour flight, we were landing in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. I felt like our real Southeast Asia trip was about to begin. We won't see another big modern 1st world city until Singapore in a month. We met our driver (prearranged with the hotel) and puttered off to the City. I say puttered because (you were right Papa) they drive extremely slowly, even on the highway (about 50 km/h). As we got closer to the capital, we noticed the mopeds and scooters and bikes beginning to mass. It's a very cool organized chaos that I will have to capture on video to to it justice.
Our hotel is in backpacker alley - it seems like a good area and the room is huge and clean. Our receptionist, Bella, gave us a warm introduction and gave us all a welcome drink... Kind of nice! Things seemed pretty cheap off the bat when we gave her our laundry which she weighed and pronounced that it would be $6 to clean. We headed out for Pho on her recommendation and landed at a spot where we all had vegetarian pho - quite good.
Sunday is the day for the night market in Hanoi. Getting there was..... Interesting. You really have to trust the local way of crossing the road - just start walking, slowly, in a direct line and make sure you don't make unpredictable moves - kind of like riding in a peloton! Beth and Abby were pretty unnerved at first, but they seemed to get the hang of it.
The night market was actually fantastic - something for everyone and way more interesting than the markets in Hong Kong. Unfortunately the reason we suddenly started getting cooler breezes to relieve the heat on the streets was that a short monsoon storm was blowing in. Within 20 minutes of getting to the market, we were huddled under a tarp trying to figure out what to do. Beth saw a woman selling rain ponchos so we paid the outrageous price of 40,000 Vietnamese Dong for 4, quite a ripoff but we were desperate... Wait... No.... That's only $2.40 Canadian.... Total!
We made it back to the hotel (the streets were almost dry by that time), and now we are all catching up on our iPads! My initial impressions of Hanoi: chaotic scooter craziness, beautiful night scene around the lake, super friendly people, backpackers aplenty, memories of SE Asia circa 1997!
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