Hanoi

In travel, as in life, there are ups and downs, it ebbs and flows. Yesterday was just one of those days.

It started off well enough... we got all our clothes, everything fit, we picked up our cute little silk flats with matching handbags and they were adorable, I was admiring a pair of tweed flats in the shop and amazingly they actually were my size (which is unheard of here since, by local standards we are both enormous), we got to the airport on time, our flight was uneventful, etc.

However, I was already a little out of sorts because I realized that I had somehow lost (or had stolen) one of my favorite new silk purses, and then I thought I had lost jewellry I had bought (but it turned up in a pocket of a bag).

Anyway, we are leaving the airport in Hanoi and this guy tries to shove past us. Rude, but hey--there's just a different concept of personal space and a lack of respect for, you know, lines and order here. No big deal. Then we're climbing on the mini-bus, and this woman shoves right past us to get on. Again... annoying, but I let it slide, until I realize that the woman speaks perfect English and is probably an American on holiday. She's obviously integrated better than we have.

Then the driver collects money for the bus. The airline magazine and our guidebooks said it should be 20,000dong. He charges us 30,000 ($2) but he asks where our hotel is and it appears he's going to take us there instead of just the main stop.

When we arrive at the stop however he says some gibberish about how he was going to do us a favor, but since we had to wait so long at the stop (?!?!? nonsense) it would cost another $2 to take us to our hotel (which, it must be noted, was less than 1km away).

We say no, and we ask for the extra money back and it becomes clear that the price really IS 20,000 dong for Vietnamese (or anyone who looks Asian) and $2 for "foreigners" even if you pay in dong. There is a sign to this effect. And the guy is just a jerk. We were mobbed by taxi drivers and people trying to explain why it was okay we were being charged more and I just snapped.

I stubbornly refused to get in a cab that was only going to charge us a dollar, and started off down the road carrying my backpack, my shoulder bag, and the ENORMOUS duffle bag that I bought to hold all the stuff I've acquired.

I'm struggling down the road, I trip and skin my knee, and JoAnn continues to handle the situation beautifully and lets me have my tantrum. We go into Vietnam airlines where I complain about what happened and the woman was not sympathetic at all and launched into some BS explanation about exchange rates. Which was as far from a valid point as anyone could have at that point. You can charge 2 prices in 2 different currencies... but that fact that people actually prefer dollars here, and the fact that we paid in local currency, no dice.

Anyway, we bumble around some more, trying to find out hotel. It didn't help that Vietnam air had offices caddy-corner to each other, and only one was on the map, so we took an unscheduled detour. Twice more we tried to get a cab, and the drivers asked for ridiculous amounts. We were seriously 2 blocks from our hotel and the guy wanted $5. We finally arrived, and there was a miscommunication so we ended up with a room that is roughly the size of 2 twin beds, with a foot in between. The shower is over the toilet. But it's clean, and cheap ($10 night, total), so we went with it.

We showered, I collected myself and was able to laugh about how ridiculous it was to get upset over $1, and to try to explain the principle of the matter to a booking agent at an airline (though I am going to write a very stern letter to the airline about the impropriety of an officially sanctioned double rate, that is not explained in the airport information). We decided to head out to see the water puppetry shows and grab dinner.

On the way, however, JoAnn was the victim of a balcony phlegmer. She's walking behind me and all of a sudden she starts screaming. I turn around and there is spit/phlegm (we hope) dripping off her arm and hand. This was the first time during the trip that neither of us was carrying anti-bacterial wipes (an oversight that will NOT occur again), and we had the hardest time finding a place where she could clean up.

We ended up in this big building that had a German restaurant on one level, and a fancy coffee shop on the 2nd. We decided to skip the water puppets and retreat into air-conditioned westerness... I had spaghetti and a green salad. She had steak. We drank pints of German lager.

I feel on-kilter today, so hopefully yesterday was just an aberration. However... we're waiting for our city tour to pick us up and they are very late. Hanoi just isn't winning me over.

I realize that most of this is ludicrously insignificant, and just a result of travelling for so long. It's just lucky that this wasn't our first experience with Vietnam...

Unfortunately I think we have to drop Laos from the itinerary. Due to flight schedules--when we can leave Hanoi and when we need to get to Bangkok--we would basically pay at least $300 extra to spend maybe 1.5 days in one town. Since there are so many great things to see up in the north of Vietnam, we're probably going to stay and go to Sapa for 2 days (in the mountains), and Halong Bay for 2 days as well.