Hanoi

I wish I had more time, but Sam and I are about to head off to the train station to take a sleeper train to Sapa.

Yesterday and today were totally surreal!

Hanoi is a very busy city, which appears to get busier and busier as the day wears on. Before noon the streets are busy, but calm in comparison to what it's like at 6:00/7:00 pm. Crossing the street is a major event, but we were fore-warned of this challenge before we arrived. No one abides by street signs, they just plow right through red/green/yellow lights. Their mode of communicating that they are going and to get out of their way is to honk.

Last night, when I couldn't sleep. I determined that there were 4 different types of honks. There is the quick; beep. There is the double quick; beep beep. There is the extended; Hooonk. And, there is the "super deluxe, get the fuck out my way" HOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNKKKK. Every time a scooter passes another scooter, they honk. Think, NYC in the 70's?

Today we had an AMAZING lunch of Cha Ca (traditional Vietnamese "grilled" fish... it's really more like oiled and fried...). Sam and I walked into a restaurant and a woman came over and explained that they only served one item in the restaurant. Sam and I said, "great!" A guy came over and lit a stove on our table, and then he prepared this small bowl of food (since we obviously didn't know what we were doing). It was great! We took pics, but they are all super big and I don't have time to upload.

We spent the day walking around Hanoi. We went to the equivalent of Best Buy, and Sam was delighted to discover that he could get better deals on electronics than they were selling for here. The temperature is hot and humid and we find ourselves having to stop regularly for iced coffee.

By the end of they say we were pooped, so we decided to get Vietnamese massages. This was an experience! For the amazing price of 180.000 DNG ($10) we got 1.5 hour massages. It was total culture shock. For those of you who have never been to an Asian Spa, it is a strange experience. They are not bashful about anything! I had to strip down in front of a room full of ppl, shower, sit in multiple hot tubs (one that smelt like green tea and one that smelt like Good Earth). When it got down to the actual massage this little Vietnamese lady was crawling all over the table--she was gettin down! Toward the end they rub this burning towel on you... When I walked out I guess I was supposed to sit down and drink this green stuff, but I looked at Sam and said, get me outta here! It wasn't the Four Seasons, that's for sure (and this was one of the fancy ones!) I shudder to think what the non-fancy ones are like.

Sam's ready to get massages daily. And I'm all set. I'll see him at the pedi place.

Off to Sapa! Sorry this is written SO badly! Not a great writer to begin with, let alone under the time constraint!