Arrival in Hanoi

After almost exactly 24 hours in transit, Angela and I have arrived safely in Hanoi, Vietnam.

It was my first time stopping in the Taipei international airport. I give it two thumbs up! Clean, efficient, multiple art displays and photo cutouts for dorks just passing the time. 

Oh, and did I mention we found Dance Dance Revolution in the airport! After figuring out how to navigate it in Taiwanese, we busted a move to Starships and something by the Biebs. And were exceptionally sweaty for our next flight.

Through customs and immigration and with our bags, we were off for central Hanoi and our first hotel. This hotel is SO NICE!! Maybe it's the difference between a yolo-style and essential level trip through G Adventures, but this bathtub has a floor and the doors close all the way and there was a freakin' bath robe!

The hotel was not nice for long though as it suffered a local weather phenomenon known as a bag-nado. This often closely resembles a bag-splosion. 

Oh the humanity!

I'm not sure we'll get up to much today except stretching, showering, and sleeping. I do have one general observation of Hanoi so far from our drive to the hotel. The usual SE Asian road rules seem to apply, where signals aren't used, horn honks replace shoulder checking, and lanes are for chumps. What I've found to be different is that all of that was taking place at a nice, slow, controlled pace here. And pedestrians were given the right of way even when walking slowly across the highway. It's kind of a few rules apply, but let's all get home safe thing. 

A few hours later...

So we did actually end up going out to explore for a few hours to try and get on local time. After taking us in the wrong direction for 20, I finally got us on the right street and toward the water puppet theatre. (Before you judge me based on my snarky prior comments that I'm good at directions, I didn't have a map!) 

No, YOU'RE lost.

When we arrived, the theatre was inexplicably closed and a security guard kept saying "tomorrow". So we will try again tomorrow. 

We wandered our way back through old town and sat down at a tiny outdoor restaurant to eat. And by restaurant, I mean small plastic table and toddler daycare stools on the street by a grill. I am GIGANTOR! That seat was made for one of my ass cheeks. But the garlic grilled seafood on noodles was delicious. 

We also stumbled across a heritage street performance with dancing and music. 

And Angela found her sole-mate. 

And was cheated assiduously on a bag of fried dough by a happy and crafty street vendor.