Beep Beep

The sound of motorcycle horns is the soundtrack to Hanoi. We arrived yesterday via Bangkok and have been overwhelmed ever since we hit the ground! It didn't help that our first taxi ride, did just that, took us for a ride. We pointed to the hotel that we wanted him to take us to in our guide book before we got into the taxi, we agreed on a price and thought "ok, we did everything the guide book tells us to do". Then between dodging cars, motorcycles and buses he honked his horn constantly and was on his cell phone the entire ride. We arrived at a hotel and someone opens the door for us (I was thinking in our American standards, oh a bell hop!) this guy shows us the card of the hotel that we asked the taxi driver to take us to and says the hotel is full but that he will take us to another "good hotel." Ryan caught right on, (thank god!) that the taxi driver had called his friend to meet us at a random hotel with the card from the hotel that we wanted to go to and was going to swindle us somehow. We promptly got our backpacks, paid the taxi and walked briskly away from that hotel and the guy who I thought was a bell hop! Wow, we are really in a different country! We walked around until we found the hotel we had in mind (thanks Frommers!) and settled in, of course, spending more than we wanted but at this point we didn't care. We then walked around Hanoi, what a city. Envision a see of people on motorcycles and bikes filling the streets, no space to walk on the 'sidewalks' as that's where they park the bikes and where the store owners put their goods. You are constantly walking carefully and with eyes everywhere, no time for gazing at each other! We read in Frommers that we should "walk, don't run" across the street (your first instinct is to run as fast as you can across the street and out of the tires coming towards you) so I think we might have the hang of this now! (insert Ryan's comment: honestly, it truly is playing HUMAN frogger.)

Today we took a cyclo (a bike with a buggy in front for the two of us to ride together in) to the Literature Museum, Fine Art Museum and the Army Museum. The Army Museum was interesting as it had a lot of weapons, downed aircraft and bombers from the US Army that made us realize how recent the war with this country was and made us wonder if 30 years later we could imagine ourselves touring through Iraq as we are touring through Vietnam. All of these sites were very interesting and different, but the most fun was the cyclo ride as we had some protection from the motorbikes and got to see more of the city without fear of being run over! (insert Ryan's comment: again, our cyclo driver tried to get more money out of us, telling us we agreed on a different price, therefore making for a spirited encounter for Ryan and ... o wait, Julie walked into a cafe...there goes my alibi!)

We decided to take a break from the walking and dodging of motorbikes and sit at a cafe balcony. . . 2 hours later we were fully entertained but just watching this bustling city go by. We head to Hoi An tonight on a train (13 hours) and then will enjoy a new city tomorrow.

Love to you all, keep the comments coming we love seeing them!