How to sum up my first night and day in Vietnam? With difficulty. I've been in Hanoi for less than 24 hours but it would be hard to do it justice in words. There's no harm in trying though.

After a hop over from Busan to Seoul I arrived in Hanoi last night around 11:00pm local time. Both flights were fairly short and pretty good. A little turbulence but nothing too out of the ordinary. From Seoul to Hanoi I was somehow bumped up to business class. I didn't realize this until I was at the back of the plane looking for seat 10E only to be directed up front. No complaints from me. I had a fully reclining aisle seat with my own video monitor and wine and beer on demand. Too bad it was only a 4 hour flight.

Perhaps due to fatigue or maybe naivete I ended up spending a fair bit more than I had planned to for the taxi into town and the hotel for the night. Had it not been the middle of the night when I got to Hanoi's Old Quarter I would have searched a bit more for a cheaper hotel but I just settled for the 25$ US Hang Mai hotel and got some rest. In fact, it was worth the price having a double bed, air-conditioner, sunroom, balcony, and cable TV. Regardless, this is intended to be travelling on a budget and one night there was enough.

I found a cheap guesthouse this morning, dropped off my pack, and took a rest. The accomodations are a little more spartan now but I'm not complaining. In the apartment across the alley I watched a cat cleaning itself in the morning sun on the balcony. When I looked back across about five minutes later the inhabitant of the apartment had gotten up and was cooking soup which apeared to have some bones and meat floating in it. I couldn't see the cat anymore. Was there a connection? I can only speculate. Even though this hostel was only 7$ a night they still had cable TV. I kicked back for an hour, flicked it to MTV (EmptyV), and watched Bam Margera mindlessly harass his parents then watched Xhibit 'pimp' some girls 'ride'. That was enough for me. It was time to detach from the idiot box and go suck up some of Hanoi.

Time to stop the detailed narrative. To fully convey the day would take longer than I, and probably you, really feel like sitting infront of a computer. Point form time. Here's some of what I did and saw:

-ceasless rivers of motos (scooters)
-sidewalks lined with lush drooping trees and countless beautiful examples of French Colonian architechture
-rode around on the back of a moto taxi(xe-om) for 3 hours checking the sites
-among many attractions I visited the Ho Chi Mihn museum and infamous 'Hanoi Hilton'
-was offered the chance to smoke opium (which I declined)
-had an amazing meal for about $1 US.
-learned how to negotiate the insane traffic (walk slowly across the street in order to let oncoming motos see you and maneuvre around. Sounds crazy but it works)
-got ripped off

That last one deserves some elaboration. Mostly it was my fault I dropped more money than necessary today. My first mistake was not counting the number of zeroes on the currency. More than once did I pay 100,000 dong for something that was actually 10,000 dong. I can't blame the lucky vendors for not informing me of the error. I'll just have to make the most of my 9$ postcards and put it in the past. My other mistake was not confirming the price of my moto ride around the city. That's something I'll be sure to do in the future. All in all I ended up spending about 30$ US more than I really should have but it was my first day on the road and it's better to discover that now than in a week when my money prematurely runs out. I guess mistakes are the best way to learn and in the grand scheme this was a fairly minor learning experience. I've learned its just necessary to say "No thanks" and keep moving. Unless you're seeking something out or are completely comfortable with the situation it's best to just decline and not look back. Wether it's a ride around town, drugs, prostitutes, or postcards, if you don't want it just turn it down and don't feel bad. I was consoled by an Indonesian guy I met named Bob. He related a story of drinking a drugged Coca-Cola in Singapore in the late 7o's and being subsequently relieved of all his money and belongings. "Learn from your mistakes," he said "just don't make the same mistake more than once." There's a mistake I don't plan on making the first time. I'm switching to Pepsi (just kidding, Pepsi sucks!)

On the back of a moto is the cheapest, fastest, and certainly most interesting way to get around Hanoi (watch for my cameo appearance at the end):