Indochina Day 12, Laos to Vietnam

Wednesday June 8^th

I woke up this morning with a bit of a foggy head. I spent part of the morning typing and then I went for a short walk back to the riverside to see it in the daylight. It's not very beautiful but it is interesting in that it is the Mekong River, the opposite shore is Thailand and the steps that the men are standing on are the newly built dike to project the city from flooding during the rainy season.

Then back to the hotel to meet the group and take a short drive to the airport. Today we flew for 1:20 to Ha Noi, (yes it is two words here) Vietnam. We caught a new van for the hour long drive to the hotel. We checked in and then went for an orientation walk and then an restaurant for dinner.

Ha Noi is a large bustling city. It has more people in it than Laos has people! (six million). This is a vibrant city with lots happening and lots of traffic. There are over four million motorbikes. Crossing the road is interesting. You have to cross into traffic because there will never be a break. So, you step off the curb and walk at a slow steady pace and everyone goes around you. You daren't stop or back up, as you will get hit for sure. There are sidewalks, but they are used for business or for parking bikes, so you have to walk on the road and again the bikes go around you. This is also another country that uses their horns continually. We had a nice dinner in an old restaurant in the old part of town. I had a green papaya salad and cinammon chicken.

After that Richard, Sinead, Victoria and myself headed back to the hotel, while the other five went looking for evening entertainment. I'm tired and need to get some sleep.