On my journey to Southeast Asia, I am writing this journal in a moleskin notebook. While many greats such as Ernest Hemmingway & Vincent Van Gogh have used similar moleskin notebooks to record their great works that lead them to infamy, I hope it at least inspires me to write every day on my trip. History shows I tend to detail the first few days of any great adventure I take and then I lose interest quickly.
So here goes.....
So here goes.....
January 24th 2009 & January 25th 2009
We left at the obscene hour of 5:30 this morning from Denver. After picking up Kevin and some terrible coffee....can't wait for Vietnamese Coffee....we were off on our trip. Here is the cliff note version of the next 28 hrs. 2 hrs to LA, 4 hrs at the cesspool that is LAX, 13 more hours to Seoul, sprint to connection, meet up with Jen, observe snow storm in Seoul, 5 more hours to Hanoi. We've arrived! 11:00pm on the 25th. Wow! If it wasn't for Ambien I don't know how I'd have made it.
I'd arranged for a pick-up from our hotel..so as we left customs a nice driver from our hotel, Iane, was there to take us to the hotel. Leaving the airport the roads looked deserted and the buildings very basic. However this changed quickly. As we got closer to the Old Quarter the traffic started to thicken. We had arrived at the beginning of the TET Holiday, which means everyone is out in the streets celebrating. In actuality it was just after midnight on the equivalent of New Year's Eve. What this meant was thousands of people walking, biking and motorcycling in the streets. It was so crazy! Hundreds of scooters everywhere, dodging in and out of traffic. Families of 4 on a mini-scooter cutting in front of an oncoming bus. It is wild. There are no lights or stop signs and everyone just goes. To add to what only looked like the riots of Boulder, it's tradition to burn paper money on Tet to honor your ancestors, so there were little bonfires every few yards on the street. So Crazy! As we moved forward every street became more narrow and crowded and the chaos increased until we reached our hotel, Hanoi Elegance. The hotel is very nice. It is a little boutique hotel on Ma May street in the Old Quarter. The hotel is modern and clean and the staff is very helpful and speak English very well. As we walked into the hotel Danny and Charlotte were waiting to meet us with Tet balloons! It was great to see them. They had been waiting a while since our flight was so late but hey...it's ok to make Danny wait for me on once ;) After hellos, we checked in to our room. It has a great balcony with a view to the street below. The old quarter we are staying in is also called the 36 streets. When the quarter was established in 1010, there were...you guess it...36 streets in the quarter. Each of them was named for the product that was made on that street. To date, the stores on each of the streets sell products based on their street name. For example, Hang Duang translated to "Sugar Street" has great bakeries and pastries shops.
Anyway, We chatted with Danny and Charlotte in their room on the 7th floor with the sound of Tet Fireworks in the background. Before we knew it, 3am had come so we called it a night.
We left at the obscene hour of 5:30 this morning from Denver. After picking up Kevin and some terrible coffee....can't wait for Vietnamese Coffee....we were off on our trip. Here is the cliff note version of the next 28 hrs. 2 hrs to LA, 4 hrs at the cesspool that is LAX, 13 more hours to Seoul, sprint to connection, meet up with Jen, observe snow storm in Seoul, 5 more hours to Hanoi. We've arrived! 11:00pm on the 25th. Wow! If it wasn't for Ambien I don't know how I'd have made it.
I'd arranged for a pick-up from our hotel..so as we left customs a nice driver from our hotel, Iane, was there to take us to the hotel. Leaving the airport the roads looked deserted and the buildings very basic. However this changed quickly. As we got closer to the Old Quarter the traffic started to thicken. We had arrived at the beginning of the TET Holiday, which means everyone is out in the streets celebrating. In actuality it was just after midnight on the equivalent of New Year's Eve. What this meant was thousands of people walking, biking and motorcycling in the streets. It was so crazy! Hundreds of scooters everywhere, dodging in and out of traffic. Families of 4 on a mini-scooter cutting in front of an oncoming bus. It is wild. There are no lights or stop signs and everyone just goes. To add to what only looked like the riots of Boulder, it's tradition to burn paper money on Tet to honor your ancestors, so there were little bonfires every few yards on the street. So Crazy! As we moved forward every street became more narrow and crowded and the chaos increased until we reached our hotel, Hanoi Elegance. The hotel is very nice. It is a little boutique hotel on Ma May street in the Old Quarter. The hotel is modern and clean and the staff is very helpful and speak English very well. As we walked into the hotel Danny and Charlotte were waiting to meet us with Tet balloons! It was great to see them. They had been waiting a while since our flight was so late but hey...it's ok to make Danny wait for me on once ;) After hellos, we checked in to our room. It has a great balcony with a view to the street below. The old quarter we are staying in is also called the 36 streets. When the quarter was established in 1010, there were...you guess it...36 streets in the quarter. Each of them was named for the product that was made on that street. To date, the stores on each of the streets sell products based on their street name. For example, Hang Duang translated to "Sugar Street" has great bakeries and pastries shops.
Anyway, We chatted with Danny and Charlotte in their room on the 7th floor with the sound of Tet Fireworks in the background. Before we knew it, 3am had come so we called it a night.
No comments:
Post a Comment