Part 2: Hanoi

We stepped off the plane at 10:20pm and followed the people in front of us past baggage claim. There was a crowd of men holding up signs with various names on them. My fingers were crossed that our hotel would come through. I was worried no one would be there for us, even though I reconfirmed a few days before. Sure enough I see my name on a sign. I practically jump into the man's face out of excitement and relief. He tells us to wait on the side walk and he goes and gets the car.

"Were you waiting long?" I ask. He doesn't answer. Ryan and I spend the rest of the ride looking out of the windows into the darkness trying to catch a glimpse of Hanoi as we sped down the road. Every now and then a motorbike would whiz by. As we got more into the city, our driver pulls up to a corner and other man jumps in the passenger seat. "My friend." The driver says, without looking back at us. The "friend" turns around and looks at us. I smile as I pray we don't get robbed in out first 15 minutes in the country.

We start to drive down increasingly narrow roads and alleys. Eventually we come to a truck parked in an alley blocking our way. The friend gets out and directs the driver through. We had less than a centimeter to spare on each side of the car as we slid by the truck. And then, just like that, it was over. Out hotel appeared before us, the driver helped us with our bags, and away he went.

So there we were. The hotel staff were friendly and showed us to our room. Room 104. I have to say, when we walked it I was a bit disappointed. It was hot and humid inside, and the bathroom was teeny tiny. The shower was hand-held, and basically right on top of the toilet. As I got ready and showered for bed, I ended up soaking an entire roll of toilet paper and nearly filling the little trash can with water. We learned to remove those items before showering for the rest of our trip.

We were both exhausted and got into bed. The whole room had a dampness about it, and for some reason I didn't feel comfortable putting my face directly on the pillow. I used the leg of a pair of capri's I brought to lay over it.

The next morning (around 3 or 4 am to be exact) I woke up, wide awake. Hell0 jet-lag. I layed in bed playing with my ipod and listening to a rooster perfect its crow somewhere outside. Eventually Ryan woke up too and we got ready for the day.

We booked a guide through "HanoiKids," a not-for-profit organizations in which students at a University in Hanoi volunteer to share their knowledge about the city and its culture. At 9am we met Phoebe in the lobby. She spoke great English and she quickly called a cab to take us to the Temple of Literature.

She told us all about the symbolism and landscaping of the temple, and quite a bit about the history of the Chinese universities in Vietnam. At one point we walked by an area where people were playing music on traditional instruments. We walked up just as they had finished. Some German woman, also a tourist, looked at me and said "Give them money!" while pointing at a box on the ground. I was stunned that this stranger picked me out of the crowd and told me to fork over some dong. I threw in a 20,000 (a dollar) and we kept walking.

We saw some paintings, sculptures, and impressive temples. We eventually made our way back to the entrance where we took a taxi to a silk handicraft village. Before leaving we did stop in a fair-trade souvenir shop and got an ornament for our tree.

After a somewhat lengthy cab ride we were at the silk village. At this point Ryan and I were starving since we'd had no breakfast. We split a Cliff Bar in the cab, but we were ready for lunch. We walked in and out of a few shops, and quickly realized they were all essentially the same. We weren't in the shopping mood, but we were interested to see a big wall of silk works at the entrance to the factory filled with looms.
After looking around a little more we headed back to the cab. I spotted a stand on the street and bought us all a coke, and Ryan and I spit a banana.

We sucked down our drinks and asked Phoebe to help us get a SIM card for our phone. We had brought a cell phone with us from home, so that we could by a SIM card there and get a Vietnamese number for our parents to call, and us to call home. She helped us buy one, along with a ancient bag of peanut m&m's (I was in survival mode, as I like to call it when I overeat on vacation.)

Next we stopped to buy tickets for the water puppet theater the following evening. Finally it was time to eat.

Pheoebe took us to the coolest restaurant of our trip. It was a very large corner of a city block, all open-air with large tapestries providing cover. There were many long tables, so you sat with other parties. It was packed. Ryan and I got some bottled water, Phoebe got a drink, and we ordered some appetizers and entrees. Phoebe got snail soup. I got some watermelon for dessert and Ryan ordered a coffee. Phoebe got some strange looking drink with what seemed like different layers to it. We say other people ordering them too. As we looked around dozens of people were drinking them. We were really curious, but there was ice in it, and at this point of the trip we were being really cautious about the water. There was ice in Ryan's coffee, so he didn't end up drinking it. The entire meal for three only ended up being around 10 bucks!

We called it a tour after lunch. Phoebe took us back to our hotel and we snapped a picture before saying goodbye. It was a great way to get our bearings in Hanoi. She helped us with the phone, helped us get tickets, and even showed us which cab company to trust.

To be continued...