Dec. 21, 2012 - Hanoi, Vietnam

Dec 21, 2012 - Hanoi, Vietnam

I woke to the phone ringing at 9am.  This, apparently, was our wake up call so we didnt miss breakfast. After 30 hours of travel and a 5 hour change in time zones I just wanted to sleep.  I think  I was still asleep as I ate my breakfast.  On the breakfast buffet was rice, noodles, fried eggs, toast and assorted fruits.  Along with tiny tiny cups of coffee.

It was back to bed for a little morning nap after breakfast.  I finally woke up after a nice shower though.

The hostel staff is super nice.  Every time you go down to the reception all of them say hi and bring you a glass of water.  They are also very helpful in helping you find good places to eat, fun stuff to do, and to book tours.  We, first thing, booked a tour to Halong Bay for 3 days and 2 nights. One night on the boat and one night in a bungalow on Cat Ba Island.

We then ventured out for some lunch.  Eating in Hanoi is epic.  A giant bowl of noodle with chicken, called Pho Ga, and a soda cost me 40,000 dong. That's less than 2USD.

After lunch we went to book tickets to a water puppet show for that evening. This cost 100,000 dong or about 5 bucks.


We wandered around the Old Quarter the rest of the afternoon.  We visited a pagoda   on a little lake for a dollar.

We sampled Bia Hoi, the local "fresh" homebrew at the street stalls for 25cents a glass.  That's right, 25 cents!  This was an adventure as all the food and drinks stalls are basically on the sidewalk.  If you stop in for food or drink they pull up a child size plastic table and tiny plastic stools.  You can see in the pic below how low I am sitting compared to the bikes and cars in the background.

Then it was off to our water puppet show.  It lasted about an hour.  It was a little strange. It was a waist deep pool of water in a theatre where people controlled puppets that danced to local music.  The show had a them but it was all acted out by the puppets through dance and with out words.  They did have screens to the side of the stage giving a description and meaning of the song and dance in English.

After the show we all went out for more Bia Hoi and dinner.  Dinner was $1.75! I super love the Pho.  This time I had Pho Bo, noodle soup with beef.

It was kinda of an early night for us as we had to get up for our Halong Bay tour the next day.

What  I have learned:
There are about 6 million motorbikes in Hanoi.  Its a never ending stream of bikes.  To cross the street you just walk out into the road and all the motorbikes just go around you.  It's terrifying at first but you kinda get used to it.  I can now cross the street without screaming. :-)