We landed in Vietnam a few hours ago. Just enough time to get to the hotel, shower and get ready for our first traditional Vietnamese meal! Hanh our WUSC contact and my translator Hom took us to a nearby restaurant and ordered oodlels of noodles! Yummy spring rolls and lots of other Vietnamese treats. It was absolutely delicious! They were wonderful hosts. Lots of laughs as well as valuable information!
I’ve been up since about 4am on the 15th so I’m getting pretty groggy... Tomorrow we meet at the WUSC office for our orientation. We then have the weekend for site seeing before we start our workshops. By we, I mean Dorota, Linda and I. Dorota and Linda both are from Guelph University. At the beginning of the week we will all go our separate ways to complete our various assignments. I’ll be in Hai Phong, Linda in Hai Dong and Dorato here in Hanoi.
The weather is hot and humid as you can imagine. It was raining pretty hard when we landed and many of the streets were flooded. We saw some beautiful rice fields on the way from the airport and the architecture is amazing.
Here are a few photo from the sidewalk of our hotel. The streets are crazy busy, almost everyone has a scooter or a motorcycle. The only thing I am nervous about is crossing the street!
Hi Crystal. This is Dave (Lisa's dad). You are bringing back memories. We travelled from Choi doc in the South to Hanoi last winter. Noticed the Dong is one to 16,000. If I can remember correctly Hai Phong is a sea port city about a 3 hr drive from Hanoi. We arrived by ferry to that city, on a cruise from Halong Bay. You must try to find time to do that cruise. Also you should make a visit to Hoi An. A Beautiful quaint city on South China Sea with beautiful beaches and resorts. If possible you should see every bit of country. Look forward to following your time there. Never had a bad experience- BUT crossing the street is a challenge. Never change your walking pattern while crossing the street. The motocyclists will base their path on your walking speed. Never stop until you get to the other side. One of our travellors did stop and got run over (broken arm). Enjoy! Dave.
ReplyDeleteHi Dave, Thanks for the tips - I will try to do as much as I can. My new technique for crossing the street is to wait for an elderly lady or gentleman to cross and stick to them like glue. You are very right, you cannot change your pace or you take your life into your own hands!
ReplyDeleteI have to say I am really enjoying the food! Everyone else has been sick but I'm fine. I pile in the probiotics each night and eat on the street all day. mmm it's delicious!
I am going to book my Halong Bay cruise right now!!