Is that $2,700,000 Dong In Your Pocket Or Are You Just Happy To See Me

Hanoi, Vietnam
April 4, 2009
7:30 am

Traveling can suck sometimes, especially when you have to be on planes for 24 hours straight with no sleep. I pushed through and despite the rank smell from the guy I had to sit next to on my last 4 1/2 hour flight, I finally arrived in Hanoi. I was smart enough to book ahead with my hotel at the Hong Ngoc 2 for a taxi. Despite not being able to communicate with my driver (remember a nod and a smile goes a long way) it was a great trip in. Surprisingly the city is incredibly dark at night. I went past miles of housing with not so much of a speck of light except for the small row of red light whore houses that I saw right outside the airport. Incredibly, people actually turn off the electricity at night here. I was only afforded the luxory of light in my hotel room, the TV and A/C had been turned off for the night. So far I am finding that Vietnamese people are very nice and am looking forward to venturing out after I have breakfast. I also feel pretty safe here as well (this may be because I am a lot taller and larger than most of the small Vietnamese people).
And so my trip begins. In a couple of days me and my group will be going on a hill tribe trek to meet up and stay the night with some of the tribes. This should put me out of communication for about 3 or 4 days but I will be sure to have some rich tales to post when I do. Until then, I will still post tomorrow and tell about my trek through the center of town.
Peace