Holy Guacamole it's Hanoi

  Hanoi, Vietnam
Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Steve here. Yesterday at this time I was not that impressed with Hanoi. We had landed at the airport which was about 45 minutes outside of the city and it was not new and modern like the others we had been to in Asia; Bangkok, Singapore and Hong Kong. As a matter of fact it was definitely out of style and date. Then as we entered into the airport we had to go through Immigrations which was as pompous as US immigration with out the efficiencies. The Immigration people were all soldiers who appeared to be very young and on a power trip. They handled their jobs with the typical flair of bureaucrats trying to do as little as possible. Finally, Ginger and I cleared Immigrations and were given our visas and sent on our way. At least we weren't stopped at Customs to add to the aggravation. We walked into the waiting room and there was Hung, our guide for the four days that we will be in Hanoi, he brought us to our driver and we all climbed into the car and off we went to our hotel.  By this time I was pretty aggravated and everything that Hung said sent me further into my gloom. As we were driven into the city we found that the traffic conditions were awful and no road rules seemed to be followed at all. Speed limits ignored, stop signs not there, red lights no way, yielding right of way, you got to be kidding me. Ginger and I had the rear seat brakes on constantly. Outside of the city of Hanoi the look of poverty ran rampant and as we crossed the Red River into City it did not improve. By the time we got to the Zephyr Hotel , where we were staying, I was very happy to arrive so that I would be out of the automobile and be pissed off on my own.
But alas as the night wore on and I found out more about the Vietnamese people and the City of Hanoi my attitude really improved. That and Ginger told me she was going to kick my butt if I didn't straighten out.

More positive vibes to come.