Holy Hanoi...it's cold!

Ted and I bought toques and mitts to help us survive the boat trip and tour to Halong Bay on Monday! Yep, it is that cold...only 11 degrees! We arrived on Sat. and instantly put on everything we owned - even socks (that was a first for me!). Hanoi was a ghost town on Saturday because it was the end of Tet - Chinese New Years - Happy Year of the Rat!

When we arrived on Sat. we struggled to find something open for lunch - we almost ate at the street vendors but since Ted and I were both getting over the stomach troubles and it would be our first meal in Vietnam we decided something a little less exotic may be slightly smarter. We had our first amazing cup of Vietnamese Coffee at a little cafe on Hoan Kiem Lake.

This city is noisy, fast paced and very chilly! It is really cool though. There are millions of motocylces, vespas and such whizzing around. Everyone honks to tell others to get out of the way. The town really celebrates the new year so there are a lot of red flags up and stores closed or only selling "New Years" gift baskets. We spent Sat and Sun. wandering around, drinking coffee and admiring the colonial buildings. oh, and cuddling to stay warm at night! We stayed in a little guest house that was facing the alley (no good window seals) with no heat! Every morning around 5 am you can here the old ladies chopping vegetables in the alley outside our window. We are staying in the Old Quater. A lively part of town. It is fairly easy to navigate. There aren't as many services (ie., convenience stores, internet places etc) but you can definitly feel the "socialist", french feel to this place. It certainly is "cool"! We haven't found any yoghurt but I guess if that is our biggest problem we are in good shape!

We've also had a bit of a Visa problem. We only have a 15 day visa. So we had to hand in our passports to the Guest House guys to get an Visa extension (b/c we could only get special 15 day passports in Bangkok - due to New Years). But here we find out that we need an entirely new visa and they say it takes five days! We are a bit skeptical but I guess we'll have to trust them. We have spent a lot of money to stay here - it better be worth it!

On Monday we headed up to Halong Bay for 3 days - We'll put pictures up tomorrow and update that component of the trip!