Hanoi

Wow! After wrapping up our much anticipated and super-successful (I may be biased) wedding on the weekend of August 24th, Ngoc and I made the painful 24hr+ journey to Hanoi in northern Vietnam for the honeymoon. I say painful in light of the 4 hrs of sleep we were running on after we closed up shop on our wedding night at 4am after an awesome Monday morning of part-ay-ing.

The fun times started without delay, as we were picked up by our hotel, the Sofitel Metropole, by their car service. Fresh cold towels, purified mineral water, today's paper, and an ipod plugged into the stereo from which we could make our music selection for the ride back (we rocked out to Elton John and "Benny and the Jets", by the way).

Immediately the magnitude of just how different this country is from the States hit me. Traffic laws are basically non-existant. The lower class is essentially the entire country, and everyone is trying to sell ANYTHING they can just to make money for basic necessities...things sold on sidewalks and street corners range from bottled water to cages of ducks to packaged rice crispy treats to 750 ml bottles of liquor. Also, there must be 50,000 motorbike taxi drivers in Hanoi! At literally every corner, there would be 2-4 guys sitting on parked scooters calling out to us "hey! moto-bay-ek?!"

Our hotel was just about the opposite of all this. It was a good place to stay the first few nights while I made the transition out of my "comfort zone" and adjusted to crazy vietnamese life. The hotel manager had arranged for a bouquet of flowers, a box of chocolates, and a note for Ngoc and myself giving his sincerist wishes for our honeymoon. What a stand-up place, that Sofitel...even though they charge a ton for any sort of amenities beyond the standard set of services (we washed an armful of laundry and it cost us $46!)

Our time in Hanoi involved some basic sightseeing and eating, along with shopping around to book our Ha Long Bay tour on day 2. We would have tried to be more ambitious, if not for the jet-lagged sleeping at 8pm and waking up at 3am. If you're ever in Hanoi, eat at Club Opera and order the Lemongrass Chicken. It's this restaurant across from the Sofitel that is pretty much as classy as you can get in Vietnam, with excellent food, drinks, and service. Oh yeah, and did I mention your bill will not exceed $30? Besides Club Opera, I don't think we paid more than $10 combined for a meal while in Hanoi. Yay for the dollar!

Next up, Ha Long Bay and our trip to Cat Ba!