Hello from Hanoi

Well we're here, in Hanoi! We survived our flights (really, they weren't that bad) and we had no problems getting our visa or going through customs. We got a ride to our guest house (Tung Trang I), which was a good first taste of the city's haphazard traffic and crazy honking. The guest house is run by a lovely woman who has already been very helpful. Our room is also quite lovely.

After settling in we had our first taste of street food. I wasn't too hungry so I thought I'd just go for a drink. Erik pointed at a few things on the menu (which was actually just heaps of food sitting out, ready to be dished onto plates) - shrimp, pork, tofu - and then we sat down. They brought us TWO plates of what he pointed at... so I passed the pork on to Erik and ate my rice and tofu and some shrimp too. Oh the good old language barrier - I'm sure this kind of miscommunication will happen many times over :) Also we must remember that $1 = 18,000 Vietnam Dong (because we think we were overcharged just a bit). Anyhow, it was tasty! And we got to eat sitting out on the street with the locals.

Our meal at the Hong Kong airport (Ramen noodles with pork/with Veggies) was our first non-airplane meal. It was a fast food type of thing, but delicious! Just for fun, here's what my almost fully eaten meal looked like:

It really is nice here. Loud, humid and a bit dirty - but beautiful and somehow calm despite the noise and traffic. I'm sure we'll get a better idea of the city over the next few days... and now it's time to relax.

BIG P.S. Just realized there is no facebook in Vietnam. Communism = facebook blackout.