Patrick and Mary Go Round

Yesterday, we woke up in Vang Vieng, Laos, hopped on the morning VIP bus to Vientiane and arrived in time to grab lunch, walk around and find the airport. Our flight from Laos to Vietnam took a mere 47 minutes, but it seemed like we were transported to another land (literally and figuratively). We arrived safely into the Hanoi Airport and cleared immigration then customs without so much as a raised eyebrow. Contrary to the claims of several travelers and the Lonely Planet South East Asia on a Shoestring guidebook, you are allowed to purchase a Vietnamese visa upon arrival. We had picked ours up at the Vietnamese consulate in Luang Prubang, Laos, and think we’d had the cheapest possible option ($35 for 3 day processing). No idea what a visa upon arrival would cost in Hanoi.

So then, we grabbed a shuttle bus from the airport to Hanoi’s Old Quarter and immediately tumbled into the insanity that Hanoi calls traffic. It’s insane… imagine cars, buses and taxis everywhere, weaving in and out of lanes as if each one is carrying a pregnant women nearly ready to deliver. On top of that image, add in the constant honking of every horn on every vehicle with an added bonus of having literally thousands of moped scooters driving FROM every direction TO every direction, all the time, everyday. It truly makes New York City look as timid as a newborn kitty cat, in comparison. On our way into town, I marveled at the huge sign that displayed very useful information like time/date, air quality, yesterday’s and year-to-date number of traffic fatalities (0 and 210, respectively).

The bus door swung open and we were surrounded by the hustle [when everybody selling anything assumes that you want to purchase their service at an inflated rate, right away] and immediately put up our defenses for the deluge of “special for you, very nice, very cheap, where you go” offers. Once free of the madness, we were able to walk to the Catholic cathedral, which has many nice hotel options, nearby. We settled into our room, clicked on the A/C and had beef noodle soup (Pho) before snoozing out. We just slept and slept after travel-day-border-day, woke up late and noticed some rain coming down. Today marks the trip’s 18th week anniversary, the 6th week in SE Asia and the first rain we’ve seen since January. Considering all the smog and the heat, we were glad to finally see some real morning rain. I think we’re gonna mix well with the Vietnam weather, which seems a bit cooler and more variable than the hot and humid places we’ve been in Thailand and Laos.

We spent the rainy day at the Museum of Ethnology and laid down plans to head to Halong Bay (tomorrow) and then take the train up north to Sapa, next week. Other sights we’re planning to see in town include Ho Chi Minh’s Mosseleum and the infamous POW prison, formerly referred to as the Hanoi Hilton. [Side note: I did see the Hilton shuttle bus at the Hanoi airport and was curious if it's a nice place to stay... I guess to avoid any confusion, they refer to it as the Hilton Hanoi Opera Hotel.] We’ve also discovered that Vietnam is covered with limestone, which is a new obsession after we spent 3 days learning how to apply limestone to defeat gravity. Lots to do in our 2 weeks in Vietnam!