Hanoi

We have outgrown our bags. We headed to the Ben Thanh Market to haggle for a bag. We found a cheap duffel bag and worked our way down to $3us. Back at the hotel we packed our stuff up in preparation for leaving HCMC. We really moved into our hotel room. Now it was time to move out. I can’t say we were that sad to leave HCMC. I won’t miss constantly perspiring. We flew Vietnam Airlines to. It was a completely full 777. There were no less than 16 flight attendants on the 2 hour flight. On a domestic 777 flight in the US you would see half that amount of staffing. Much to our surprise Hanoi is much cooler than HCMC. Hanoi looks like your average quaint city in Europe with a big bucket of Asia poured over it. We checked into our hotel and it was a complete shit hole. It was not without its amenities. In the bathroom we found a complementary bar of soap and a comb. The comb was not wrapped in plastic nor was it new. It was a large, green, public use comb. Don’t worry... I took a picture of it. We decided to go hotel shopping. We have found a very nice, clean, well furnished hotel for twice the price of the dive. We are now paying $40 versus $18 a night. It was time for a beer. We found a nice bar with a rooftop patio. We relaxed and drank the beer of Hanoi... aptly named Hanoi. While getting our drink on a group of Brits sat at the next table. Before we knew it we were all in a big circle talking about our travels. We made fast friends. It began to rain, so we all moved next door to a small pub. We had a really great time last night. Thankfully the Brits were staying at the hotel next to ours so we all helped each other find our respective bases.

We just checked into our new hotel and we are starving. Off to find some good Hanoi Cuisine.