We're in Hanoi, Honk your Horn!

We got to Hanoi airport and our taxi driver was already waiting for us with another passenger to our hotel.  Since we needed some Dong (Vietnamese currency), Frank rushed to the ATM, couldn't quite remember what the currency conversion was, and withdrew 200,000, what he thought might be around $100.  What seemed to be a lot of Dong turned out to be just a little more than $10!

Motorbikes everywhere in the streets

  The streets of Hanoi seem more congested than we remembered in Cambodia.  The streets seem narrower as there are parked cars and swarms of mopeds everywhere.   And they honk nonstop, from before the sun rises through the entire day and night.  However, unlike Cambodia, we rarely see 3 or more people on mopeds.  Also, there actually are traffic signals with pedestrian "walk/don't walk" lights here, but we found out that some mopeds seem to disregard the lights and plow straight through the intersection... So we need to really be on our toes walking about here.  Aside from the fact that everyone honks their horn non-stop while they're driving, there are loudspeakers everywhere in the city and start blasting wake up calls from 6am or so.  Hoan Kiem Lake starts buzzing with people doing their morning exercises.

Chili peppers galore!

The Temple of Literature was pretty cool in as it was the first university in Vietnam established in 1070.  And honestly the poor air quality and noise held us back from walking to explore the entire city.  All in all, Hanoi wasn't super inspiring, and we really used it as a base to jump to other places around North Vietnam - Halong Bay, Sapa, and Tam Coc. 

Flower Lady

Loved the bun (noodles!)

Frank at Hoan Kiem Lake