With my ear troubles slowly subsiding and my mood greatly improved, it's time to recap the last chunk of my journey. My time in Hanoi was all too short, but that's the way it had to be in order to catch up with Nicole and Sophia. I got to see them for one night and a half day in Hanoi before they took off, but at least I've caught up enough now that I can meet them in the south of Laos and keep travelling with these two awesome people. That being said, my short time in Hanoi did provide some cool moments and sights. First the sights: I didn't get to see much of the city, but what I did see, I loved. Hanoi has a great mix of older french-styled architecture, beautiful public spaces and the kind of densely packed, super-vibrant streets you expect in a major souteast Asian capitol. My kind of place. Spent a lot of time haging around a beautiful man made lake that gets swarmed with locals during the day, including a lot of kids who go to meet travellers and practice their English. Kids like these:
The funny thing is, when I first sat down on that bench a guy approached me and asked where I was from. I waved him off and said no thank you and he proceeded to start admonishing me for being rude, and asked me if it looked like he was trying to sell anything. I had just come off the night bus, in pain due to my ear, and was exhausted and sweating like mad in the heat while I waited out the few hours before check in at the hostel and the bed that I was craving, so my cynical side had taken over and I just shooed him away saying that everyone who asked me where I was from in vietnam was trying to sell me something. He left in a bit of a huff and it asn't until these kids came along with their obvious list of questions their teacher had assigned to ask foreigners that I realized I had been a real ass to the first guy. Felt terrible about it, but that's what weeks of harrassment will do to you. I also told these kids not to start with 'where are you from', which they appreciated. Later the next day I spoke with another guy, an IT student learning english in his downtime, dor about an hour. Great guy, was a lot of fun. Here are some phtos of the lake and of a couple of other nearby sights, as I didn't have time to venture far.
And that's where I'm going to end it for today, as apparently there's a problem with my phto card and I can't scroll through the photos as per usual to pick out the best ones to upload. I'm on Cat Ba Island right now and the scenery is a big part of the story here, so I'll save it until I get this sorted out. Here's a preview though:
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