Intro to Vietnam 101

So...we're here. And tired. And flying by air may be more comfortable than many options, but not when you're on the inside and the guy in the aisle is large, ancient, handicapped (as in can walk, but barely barely), and sleeps the WHOLE trip. My small bladder wasn't overly thrilled about that, and we did have to wake up the poor guy a couple times, but tried to suffer in silence for the most part.

Getting through immigration wasn't actually as bad as we'd have thought. Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam, but the airport is tiny, and there were only bored soldiers at the exit, no machine guns in sight. And the female soldiers were wearing heels with their uniforms! Which seems to be typical of urban Vietnamese women, but a bit startling nonetheless.

I think we missed the "official" airport bus to the city, and landed in an unofficial one, but it still got us there uneventfully, aside from a GIANT bug (do cockroaches fly?) thwacking us in the backpack and freaking me out a little.

Hanoi is pretty stunning, with its heavily French-influenced architecture and food. Also stunning how many people are so ready to take your money. We keep hearing, "hey you, motorbike? You, where you go?" The economy is booming, and everyone working hard to market their skill (driving/cycling) or product (knock-off name brands, photocopied books, and fantastic fruits).

We had a true tourist rip-off experience with our first taxi driver, who tried to charge us 830,000 Dong (about $60 US) for a cab ride that should've been about $6. We argued to no avail, so finally just got out of the cab, handing him a bill that was too large (but he wasn't about to give us change!) Now we know (from other tourists and locals) that only certain brands of taxi have "real" meters!

We also got dumped in the wrong part of town by another taxi driver - he took us to the address we had written down for a massage school for blind underprivileged kids (got good reviews!), but we never could find the right place, so ended up wandering around in the rain in the diplomatic quarter of Hanoi until we finally found another cab. Now we know we should call first for directions!

We also managed to eat fantastic food squatting at low tables in a hole in the wall place with no Westerners in sight. However, after the lovely meal of "bun cha, we noticed our sullen waitress taking our leftover greens, and dumping them back into the big bowl where she'd gotten them from! How many people had already been offered these particular leaves, I wonder? Now we know to maybe observe a little closer first!

So far, Montezuma's Revenge hasn't hit us yet, though we have our Immodium and antibiotics packed and ready...