And on to Hanoi

We left late afternoon on Monday, and with various and sundry confusions, cancelled flights, rebookings, flew from Minneapolis to Chicago, to Seoul, to Hanoi, arriving Thursday morning at midnight. It was an adventure!

We had a 13 hour layover at the Seoul airport which boasted art museums, and traditionally dressed parades of musicians and dancers sauntering through the shopping crowds. A jarring counterpoint to this was the recognizable eateries; McDonalds, Quiznos, Dunkin Donuts, etc. The airport is a lovely building, which is quite well designed for weary travelers, boasting no cost sleeping areas, free internet, polite people, and even a hotel where we had the option to stay for 10.00 an hour, not including taxes or fees. Being cheap skates, we found a sofa and rested most of the day.

We arrived in Hanoi this morning and climbed five flights of stairs with our packs and were nestled in a delightful room where we promptly went to sleep. After 6 hours of sleep, rose to breakfast of a huge baguette along with eggs and tea. We were then asked to move our belongings to our real room on the second floor and after doing so, took a major walk around town. While I am sure the distance was not great, managing the traffic was a challenge. Traffic, mostly motor scooters, was unbelievable, with seemingly few stoplights, hectic turners, and we learned there is never a break. We learned by observing the locals that one just looks for a decrease in intensity and cross, the scooters, bikes and SUV's skirt around you. It was quite harrowing! We walked along hom kien lake, met a couple of very friendly young folks who were practicing English, and explored.

We went out to lunch at a cook it yourself hot pot restaurant, where we were the only ones who did not know what to do with our setup. We ordered too much not recognizing when I pointed out what a group of five were eating I therefore ordered a meal for five. When we finished what we could eat, we gave the rest to the servers, who had shown us what to do and who we saw finishing up the left overs from other patrons. This must be a substantial portion of their salary.

Following lunch we explored a lovely 13th century temple which is on an island in the lake we had walked around earlier. Following the lovely temple, we strode through some of the older parts of town where we saw street venders, and very enterprising salespeople, who were willing to polish our sneakers, have us buy donuts, fruit, or crafts. Alongside were shops of various varieties selling silks, shoes, crafts, mechanical equipment, plants, flowers and such.

The excursion highlighted our jetlag, so we returned to the hotel, rested, went for a short stroll and came back to blogging, reading and soon to bed.  new pics here