8/6 -- On the Road Again (or In the Air)

It  has been a really long day. We got up Wednesday at 6:30 am and landed in Hanoi at the equivalent of 8:30 pm on Thursday, except here it was 10:30 AM on Friday -- 14 hours difference. The overnight 12-hour plane ride was packed and neither of us slept  much, but we're still feeling pretty ok today. Our biggest worry was when our bags kept not showing up--I think they were the last two delivered and we were anticipating having to find someplace to file a lost baggage claim and hope their English was a lot better than our Vietnamese.

We will be in Hanoi for 3 days and then, weather permitting, will spent 2 nights in a junk on Halong Bay. On 8/13, we fly to Jakarta, visit several places in Java, Bali, and the Komodo islands before coming back home.

We have a truly lovely hotel room with good AC (very welcome since the temperature here is as hot and humid as the Guatemalan lowlands, but at least we are somewhat adapted to it). The overhead electrical wires look like a fire waiting to happen and horns are honking constantly outside the window. David (actually Dai, but with tonal variations, if we say it wrong there, are some unpleasant words it becomes), our guide, says drivers honk when they are angry, when they are happy, and if they can't decide which they are.

View from our  hotel, May de Ville

Mansion left from the French colonial period

Masses of wires everywhere - they call them "black noodles:.

Hanoi has a population of 6 million with 4 million scooters.
Various taxes more than double the cost of a car: a Camry is
about $85,000 here.

Interesting house --many are tall and skinny with
no side windows -- with another look at some
black noodles.

Apparently, this is a bird shop.

We went for a walk by ourselves around our neighborhood and then again covered more ground with David who bought us small samples of typical foods, none of which I liked. Maybe THIS will be the weight-loss trip! We followed that with a group dinner then back to the hotel by 8pm. Jim crashed, and I am writing.....