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I didn't do anything yesterday by wait in airports and play on-line. After leaving my hotel in Lhasa at 740am, I didn't get in to Hanoi until late evening, after a 4 plus hour layover in Kunming, China. We got in a bit early, and I was able to clear customs quickly after I got my visa on arrival. The process was very simple, and I had no wait, as I guess I was the only one on my flight who used the service. I'd recommend it to future travelers to Vietnam, as it's less expensive and less time consuming than going through an embassy or consulate. Especially good for when you are already traveling and it's inconvenient to surrender your passport for several days.
Before I realized the time difference and that we were early, I had a little bit of a panic moment. I left my cell phone in my hotel in Tibet and someone stole it, and I found myself wondering if my friend had received my e-mail and knew my flight details and that I was phoneless. She did, of course, and she showed up at muy flights scheduled arrival time.
Anh is one of
the first friends I made on my study abroad at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. She's a 20 year old Augsburg College student (Minnesota) who grew up in Da Nang, but who's family now lives in Hanoi.
Anyways, her grandparents where visiting, so they had no spare room at their home. Her dad felt bad, and paid for my hotel in Hanoi, where Anh stayed with me. It was pretty humid the night I arrived, but I realized the next day that the temperature had dropped from 99F the days before, to 88-89F my first day there.
Still pretty hot though, especially coming from the lovely weather in Tibet!
Anyways, too tired to do anything but go to bed early last night. Which was a shame, since it was my only Saturday night in Hanoi...
Spent Sunday wandering the old town and shops and visiting a temple and walking by a lake. We went to the Ho Chi Minh museum after it reopened from lunch (guess all the museums here close for lunch). It was a pretty cool museum, and I was surprised at the amount of art and sculpture there. Probably the most visually engaging
history museum I've ever seen.
Then we went for an early dinner/late lunch by the biggest lake in Hanoi, where I got to meet some of Anh's friends. They also go to school in the States but are home for the summer and I made the executive decision we should all go for swan boat rides. They're just your traditional peddle-boats, but in creepy swan form (the eyes reminded me of Clockwork Orange). It was supposed to rain any minute, so they weren't too excited about it, but I convinced them 😊
It never did rain, and we enjoyed our hour on the water. The weather was actually quite nice, a little overcast, and cool enough to not be miserable peddling around. Anh and I maybe went a bit far, and were giggling as we pulled alongside a small island. As we bumped our boat off the concrete wall, giggling, I realized there was a a temple there and people enjoying a quite moment of meditation or prayer (or trying to at least). I quickly composed myself as Anh looked around. "We should probably get out of here." "Yeah, there's people trying to pray, and we just showed
up in a swan..."
After we laughed our way back to shore playing bumper swans with a boat with a man and his three young daughters (they started it). The sun was setting and we were tired. So we headed back to the hotel, where Anh dropped me while she goes home to shower and change. Tonight is a "girls night out" and I'm quite excited 😊 Need a nap though...
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