Hanoi, Vietnam

[caption id="attachment_153" align="alignright" width="150"] Aerial View[/caption]

I arrived in Hanoi Tuesday night after a one and half hour flight from Phnom Penh.  The airport is way across town, so I was glad that I had arranged for airport pick up with the hostel where I was staying, it made the transition so much easier.

I love staying in hostels, when I can book a single room.  I am not so much of a person who likes to share a dorm room, and I have a bit more money than the average backpacker.

But sitting in the hostel, allows me to meet some of the most interesting young people, and not so young who are travelling around for extended periods.  They have wonderful stories to tell and info to share on where to go and what to do, and the approximate costs.

The Little Hanoi Hostel has proven to be a hotbed of info and stories.  When I travel often it is by myself so this is a time of good interaction, because I do not speak Vietnamese so the interaction with the locals is limited.

[caption id="attachment_155" align="alignleft" width="150"] Lake in the center of Hanoi[/caption]

Hanoi is surprisingly low rise.  It reminds me of Phnom Penh when I first came in 2000.  I would say the typical building is 5 stories tall with a few beyond that in the business center.

I am staying in the old quarter and it is filled with skinny buildings that house businesses on the bottom floor and homes above.  However they are even narrower than the buildings in Cambodia.   There is no consistency in architecture, so there are really nice buildings intermixed with literal shacks.

It has been awhile since I have been anywhere that I did not have some of the language, so the inability to communicate is frustrating.  I constantly want to respond in Khmer, but no one here will speak that language because we are approximately 1000 kms north of the Cambodia border.

[caption id="attachment_157" align="alignright" width="150"] Me at the Happy Coffee Bean - doing some writing[/caption]

Today I took a cyclo ride.  This is one of the many things the French introduced to French Indochina.  We are seeing less and less cyclos in Phnom Penh, because Tuk Tuks have taken over, but here I have yet to see a Tuk Tuk so the cyclo is alive and well as a transportation option.  We used to call them the Cambodian pick up truck, because they can haul just about anything. (including entire dining room sets)

One of the things I am enjoying is the amount of Vespas on the street. So many old ones intermixed with the new ones.  I finally found a shop and was able to buy a few accessories for my Vespa in the States.

I am off on a 3 day 2 night cruise of Halong Bay, will check in again after that portion of my trip.