Good Morning, Vietnam!

10/7/2006

This morning we had an early flight from Vientiane to Hanoi. Goodbye Laos, good morning Vietnam! (trite but true). The airplane trip went smoothly. Visas took some time, but there were no problems, fortunately. Hanoi is a huge, extremely developed city. It's pretty much a smack in the face compared to the laid back Laos. The Hanoi streets are insane. Motorbikes are everywhere. I honestly don't even know what side of the road they drive on since it's so chaotic. You just have to look for gaps through which to walk in order to get across streets. There is a constant din of horns being sounded for no apparent reason, and you basically have to walk directly on the streets since the sidewalks are essentially motorbike parking lots and extensions of people's homes. A lot of people cook, eat, and play games on the sidewalks (see right). It took a while to get oriented to the map, but after that navigation was fairly straightforward.

For lunch I went with Richard and Brendan to this great Vietnamese place called Bun Bo. We were a bit confused when we got there since only Vietnamese people were there and nobody speaking English. Eventually somebody motioned for us to go upstairs where we found tiny tables and chairs. We kind of waited there for somebody to give us a menu; instead, a lady just walked up and gave us three bowls of food. It was a noodle soup with beef, and it was definitely one of the best meals I've had. Plus it only cost 16,000 dong, the equivalent of about 1 US dollar. The establishment itself is really cool. You had no choice since they only offer one dish, Bun Bo. At the front of the restaurant they have big bowls of all the ingredients. Then they put out like 10 smaller bowls at a time and fill them like an assembly line. It was great.

We just explored the city for the rest of the day. Later that night the entire group went out to dinner in celebration of Travis' birthday. Travis is the one in the picture to the left.