Greetings young Grasshopper!

The weather outside has not changed on this, day 9 without sun. It rained yesterday and remains cool in Hanoi. The great new, exciting news is that Sunday night we began the bike tour across Vietnam. We have booked with a small company called Grasshopper Tours. They booked us into a swankier hotel than we were accustomed (ie. it has heat).

We met up withour tour group last night over a Hanoi Beer (very good I must say). After being in 2 larger tour groups in the last month we were concerned about the large number of people and what that will be like on bicycles. It was no need to worry as the group is Jen, me, Andrea (a nice lady from Melbourne, Australia) and our leader Adam. 4 people total plus our local vietnamese guides.

Today, we got on bikes and rode around 4 villages around Hanoi, away from the honking and insane traffic. We crossed the Red River by ferry and rode on the narrow levees through rice fields. It was an awesome 27 km ride and it was great to see local agricultural practices up close. Followed by another great meal above a travel agency to warm up afterwards.

Because there have been some "train broken" issues, we are flying to Hue instead of taking the overnight, Reunification Express. The group is of mixed opinion on experiencing the train (possibly sleeping on a noisy, cold train) vs. flying and staying in another heated hotel. Guess we'll see.

Also had the good fortune to run into my old friend Rocky Boyko and Kurt Gibb for a beer in Hanoi. Rocky lives in Regina and happend to be in the neighborhood. It was cool to run into someone from home so far away.

Should have more pics up in a few days as there is no working USB port here today. "USB broken" issues are common here.

Hope the deep freeze at home relents soon!