Win Hotel Hanoi

Weather: Hot on arrival then turned to winter the following day Sights and activities: Walking tour of old quarter, Temple of Literature, non for profit restaurants to enable young people from the streets in to work, water puppet theatre (originated in northern Vietnam on rice paddies), night out with Mark from work, Ho Chi Minh Museum, Ngoc Son Temple on Hoan Kiem Lake Favourite restaurant/bar: Koto Baguette and Chocolat Hostel/Hotel:Win Hotel (very clean and friendly + lent us adapter plug!...

Hi Folks! The last time we talked to you we were riding elephants in the rather pristine(?) northern forests of Thailand. Well, right now we are holed up in our hotel in the god-awful city of Hanoi, The Peoples Republic of Viet Nam. In all our travels in 20 years in Ltin America and Europe I have never been in a more depressing, surreal, and filthy city. It reminds one of the scenes of East Germany or better yet the photos of the areas of Rumania and Serbia during their wars. In looking out t...

Hi Everyone, It is Saturday afternoon 2:40 p.m. I have just order a silk suit jacket to be made, it will cost me $45, custom tailored, very dramatic, red and Chinese black. I just bought another silk jacket but that one already fits me. There is a whole street of tailors, from which you can choose to have clothing made for you. I am recovering from a horrible cold and sore throat which I got while flying here. The flight was an indication of what we were coming to, there is no comparison to T...

Hi Everyone, It is Saturday afternoon 2:40 p.m. I have just order a silk suit jacket to be made, it will cost me $45, custom tailored, very dramatic, red and Chinese black. I just bought another silk jacket but that one already fits me. There is a whole street of tailors, from which you can choose to have clothing made for you. I am recovering from a horrible cold and sore throat which I got while flying here. The flight was an indication of what we were coming to, there is no comparison to T...

As soon as we touched down in Hanoi and bundled into the taxi, we knew we had stepped foot in a city that would be both hectic and crazy. Ev**y vehicle on the road, be it car, van or one of the millions of motorbikes in the city drive p**manently using the horn - th**e are no rules apart from the bigg** vehicle gets right-of-way! We knew we w**e in Vietnam straight away; even the highway from the airport to the hotel featured dozens of paddy fields, work**s in conical hats and loads of free-r...

Hanoi Hanoi is a bit of sensory overload and it took a minute to get a hang of things, my first impression wasnt all that great, but it grew on me somewhat and helped me learn a few Vietnam survival skills for the rest of the trek south, first.......... the hotel. The hotel After being picked up from the airport we maneuvered through the city streets to the glorious "Win Hotel". Upon arrival I immediately got bad vibes cuz there were too many people hangin around outside and it didn't look l...

The country of Vietnam and the Vietnam War are, to this day, tied together in the American psyche. My hope upon landing in Hanoi was that I would be able to change that for myself, and maybe for others reading the blog. Arriving in Hanoi wasn't quite the defibrillator shock to the system I had been expecting. The pace of life was faster than Laos, yes, but it's not exactly breaking the sound barrier. I suppose being a city boy most of my adult life has sort of desensitized me to bustling citi...

5 AM and here I am at a computer in our Hotel lobby, waking up the staff sleeping on the floor beside a 1/2 dozen scooters that have been brought inside overnight. Hopefully I will adjust to the 15 hr time difference soon. Back to Hong Kong for a minute. What a great place to start this adventure. Thanks to our British ancestors for bombing China in the 1800's. We learned that it was over opium. The Chinese and Brits were trading partners, but the Chinese weren't too interested in anything th...

When last heard from the V Man and Mini V were preparing to board a Vietnam Airlines jet. Destination: Hanoi, Vietnam. A week prior to the trip, Mini V gave the V Man a short-do, i.e. a near crew cut, with the V Man's brand new hair cutting apparatus. As the hair slowly dropped to the ground the V Man saw his new image in the mirror opposite: an unintended American GI look just days before arrival in Vietnam. Yikes!!! Save meeting an Australian bloke by the name of Ryan, the short flight to H...