In Hanoi
35 km from start
Hanoi Backpacker's Hostel
Hello everyone:
I'm sitting in the lobby of this hostel, about to turn in for the night. I flew in this afternoon from Kuala Lumpur on cheerful, friendly Malaysian Airlines (a welcome change from recent flights on dour, gloomy, cheapskate airlines like Northwest and United). I'm pretty excited about the fact that I won't see the inside of an airplane for the next two months. For someone who likes travel as much as I do, I really don't like flying very much at all.
Or taxis, for that matter. I was very glad to be able to reassemble my bike, repack my luggage and ride to Hanoi under my own power. It was a pretty dull ride (pancake-flat, along a charmless expressway clogged with motorbikes), but at least I was riding. I'm a bit concerned about my knees, which have been tenderized by learning to telemark ski this winter, so this was a perfect intro to cycling again. I found my way through the incessant waves of motorcycles that wash over downtown Hanoi to this spot in the Old Quarter, signed up for a dorm bed and went for a wander.
Each of the streets here seems to specialize in one kind of shop; I wandered along Paint Street, Sheet Metal Street, Plumbing Street, Motorcycle Repair Street, Silk Street and Clothes Street to Lock Street, where I bought a stout chain and padlock to secure my bike. Tomorrow I will wander around some more, see the Ho Chi Mummy and a museum or two and eat more yummy food while trying to get a handle on a few words of Vietnamese.
So far Vietnam reminds me strongly of China: the look of the restaurants and shops and signs, the people's faces, the faintly Communist layout of some of the streets (grand processionals a la China and the ex-Soviet states).
Stay posted for more (and, I hope, more interesting) updates from Vietnam.
Hanoi Backpacker's Hostel
Hello everyone:
I'm sitting in the lobby of this hostel, about to turn in for the night. I flew in this afternoon from Kuala Lumpur on cheerful, friendly Malaysian Airlines (a welcome change from recent flights on dour, gloomy, cheapskate airlines like Northwest and United). I'm pretty excited about the fact that I won't see the inside of an airplane for the next two months. For someone who likes travel as much as I do, I really don't like flying very much at all.
Or taxis, for that matter. I was very glad to be able to reassemble my bike, repack my luggage and ride to Hanoi under my own power. It was a pretty dull ride (pancake-flat, along a charmless expressway clogged with motorbikes), but at least I was riding. I'm a bit concerned about my knees, which have been tenderized by learning to telemark ski this winter, so this was a perfect intro to cycling again. I found my way through the incessant waves of motorcycles that wash over downtown Hanoi to this spot in the Old Quarter, signed up for a dorm bed and went for a wander.
Each of the streets here seems to specialize in one kind of shop; I wandered along Paint Street, Sheet Metal Street, Plumbing Street, Motorcycle Repair Street, Silk Street and Clothes Street to Lock Street, where I bought a stout chain and padlock to secure my bike. Tomorrow I will wander around some more, see the Ho Chi Mummy and a museum or two and eat more yummy food while trying to get a handle on a few words of Vietnamese.
So far Vietnam reminds me strongly of China: the look of the restaurants and shops and signs, the people's faces, the faintly Communist layout of some of the streets (grand processionals a la China and the ex-Soviet states).
Stay posted for more (and, I hope, more interesting) updates from Vietnam.
posted by xuanzang @ 9:17 PM
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