Ha Noi
Just finishing up some thoughts on Bangkok... When I went to the U.S. Embassy, there were some really interesting people waiting for service. I recall thinking the same thing in Amsterdam. There was an 80 year old American guy with his newborn Thai infant (he was getting her a passport). Another American woman had a lovely 7 year old half-thai girl in tow. The girl was the daughter of an American friend of hers. She was trying to get the girl a passport. In order to do that, she was told, the girl's father needed to come to the Embassy as well as the girl's mother. The friend/guardian fretted that the girl's mother would not be willing to come and was told in no uncertain terms that meant no passport. Sadly, the little girl heard all this. A guy on death's door was getting a will notarized, whatever good that did. Another guy was trying to get some property transfered from the estate of his American ex-wife to his Thai daughter, a few people had lost their passports (2 week replacement wait!) and a few, like me, needed extra pages added. I got my pages in ten minutes and moved on.
Leaving Bangkok was uneventful, save for the $57 overweight baggage charge levied by Thai Air Asia for the trip to Vietnam. Snap! The flight itself was only $80!!! Come on, who has a 33 pound total limit on checked baggage for an International flight? Oh, wait, Thai Air Asia, that's who! Good thing they didn't weight ME.
The flight to Hanoi was nice and the airport new and well-organized. I pulled out my fax for the Visa pre-approval expediter, filled out a form, and Voila! Oh wait...I forgot to get a passport photo for the Visa. Panic. No problem, the immigration officer took a picture for me and it cost $2, and he was very nice about it as well. Breezed through customs and the hotel had a car waiting for us. Sadly the driver started the hard-sell on having him take us around everywhere. It was distracting and after five minutes we just stopped paying attention to him and talked to each other or not at all. The hotel is nice, just off West Lake, with a charming view. Here's a shot from the hotel website which is a good idea of what our room is like:
After settling in, we headed out to "Le Tonkin", a popular restaurant built in a renovated French villa. Got there by cab. Traffic in Hanoi is a frightening ballet of cars and scooters. I'd love to have the horn repair concession around here. People ride three-deep on a scooter, grandma, newborns, etc. Helmets are extremely rare. In Bangkok the ladies ride sidesaddle...here only a few do. The weather is very nice - cooler than Bangkok with lovely nights. The food at Le Tonkin was pretty good. The more experimental fare was not that interesting. The great dish was the Pho! I cannot wait to get into town today and look around. Hopefully we can do that soon. I've got some gifts to buy (didn't pick up anything in Bangkok). Our waiter last night:
Our taxi driver from the hotel (a new one) waited for us outside while we had dinner. That was really convenient. Seems like there might be a taxi glut or else I am off by a factor of 10 on my USD-VND conversions. Before calling it a night we went to the hotel bar/disco called "Nutz."
The band cranked out a very weird mix of Donna Summer, Bill Haley and the Comets, James Brown, The Bangles, Labelle, etc.
Sorry about the "Blair Witch Hanoi Nutz Project" video quality...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8952584062084452651
Off to shop and sightsee!
Leaving Bangkok was uneventful, save for the $57 overweight baggage charge levied by Thai Air Asia for the trip to Vietnam. Snap! The flight itself was only $80!!! Come on, who has a 33 pound total limit on checked baggage for an International flight? Oh, wait, Thai Air Asia, that's who! Good thing they didn't weight ME.
The flight to Hanoi was nice and the airport new and well-organized. I pulled out my fax for the Visa pre-approval expediter, filled out a form, and Voila! Oh wait...I forgot to get a passport photo for the Visa. Panic. No problem, the immigration officer took a picture for me and it cost $2, and he was very nice about it as well. Breezed through customs and the hotel had a car waiting for us. Sadly the driver started the hard-sell on having him take us around everywhere. It was distracting and after five minutes we just stopped paying attention to him and talked to each other or not at all. The hotel is nice, just off West Lake, with a charming view. Here's a shot from the hotel website which is a good idea of what our room is like:
After settling in, we headed out to "Le Tonkin", a popular restaurant built in a renovated French villa. Got there by cab. Traffic in Hanoi is a frightening ballet of cars and scooters. I'd love to have the horn repair concession around here. People ride three-deep on a scooter, grandma, newborns, etc. Helmets are extremely rare. In Bangkok the ladies ride sidesaddle...here only a few do. The weather is very nice - cooler than Bangkok with lovely nights. The food at Le Tonkin was pretty good. The more experimental fare was not that interesting. The great dish was the Pho! I cannot wait to get into town today and look around. Hopefully we can do that soon. I've got some gifts to buy (didn't pick up anything in Bangkok). Our waiter last night:
Our taxi driver from the hotel (a new one) waited for us outside while we had dinner. That was really convenient. Seems like there might be a taxi glut or else I am off by a factor of 10 on my USD-VND conversions. Before calling it a night we went to the hotel bar/disco called "Nutz."
The band cranked out a very weird mix of Donna Summer, Bill Haley and the Comets, James Brown, The Bangles, Labelle, etc.
Sorry about the "Blair Witch Hanoi Nutz Project" video quality...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8952584062084452651
Off to shop and sightsee!
posted by Free Buffet at 5:43 PM
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