First Day of Hanoi

Alright, I'll be honest, I took a sleeping pill last night because I wanted a little "help" to get some much needed shut eye!

Still, it only meant 5 hours of sleep and waking up at 6:30am Vietnam time (1 day and 7 hours behind from Hawaii). Anywho, I went down to my complimentary breakfast at 7:30am with my Lonely Planet guide packed and walking shoes on. I met a French guy at breakfast also traveling solo who was headed on a Halong Bay tour that I am planning to also do next week. He gave me some great tips and I headed out to the Women's museum first that came highly recommended from him which documented and detailed the history, struggle, family life and more of Vietnamese women. 4 floors very well done.

As soon as I stepped out of the hostel, immediately a smirk appeared on my face as I started walking, listening, watching and embracing such a cultural adventure. One of my big thoughts was how it was going to be traveling as an "Asian" in an Asian country. I was still getting minor haggles to buy stuff and such but I really don't know if my appearance is making such haggling happen less....?

So, the exchange rate is about $1 US = 20,000 Vietnam Dong. I thought S.America was cheap...but boy this is just ridiculously sickening. Museums were on average 10,000 Dong which is 50 cents entry. I walked around the central Hoan Kiem lake of Hanoi and actually got to see the famous tortoise pop out of the water in the lake---I found out that this was kind of a big deal with legends going back in the Dynasty days with the tortoise. Camera crews were there and people lined up at the lake so I felt kind of lucky to see it.

I bought a ticket to the famous Water Puppet Show for tomorrow since tix were booked out today. Then found a local lunch place where a ton of people were seated. Why not I thought....I had NO idea what I was ordering because you sit down on a little stool and then they just give you food..so I had 5 small plates of food with a rice, chicken, egg, vegetable, and stuffed tomato dish..awesome! huge...and 35 cents...yup 35 CENTS...unbelievable!!!!

Walked some more and over to the nation's first historic university....my feet were sooooo sore by now but slowly made it back to the hostel and am now relaxing in my room, tired but content, waiting for my bag to hopefully arrive!

Tomorrow=the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum to see the corpse of the Great Northern Vietnam leader, Ho Chi Minh, puppet show and planning to head up to Sapa for some village trekking and culture leaving on a train at 8:30pm.

Fingers crossed for the bags xx :)