Saturday 17 March 2007

First impressions


Speedy through customs and passport control, taxi pick up waiting for us as arranged, mad traffic, giant billboards, vivid green lush paddy fields, ramshackle buildings.
Checked into Hotel Golden Sun Room is nice and clean and the welcome from Mrs Moon very fiendly after the 3 S's and a nap we went out into the old quarter of Hanoi.
We walked down Sunglasses Street then into Toy Street and then meandered through the streets until we came to Bag Street which is near the Lake.
Paul and Mimi bought Lumbar bags (North Face brand) for $7 and $5, Mimi asked in the shop about a massage and the lady took us down the street to a massage place, after much discusion we all booked in for a 1 hour massage for $10.
After a meal at the top floor restaurant (City View I think)overlooking the busy roundabout junction ($20 for 4 inc drinks) we went for our massage (but that is another story)tbc.

By the way it is 3am local time and my experiment to combat jetlag by drinking beer and coffee in equal ammounts appears to be a failure! NB to self, next time try more beer and less coffee (;>)

4 comments:

snakefisch said...

Sounds crazy!
I love the names of the roads.
You said it's 3am local time, and you're 7 hours ahead, but the blog says you posted at 11, how does that make sense? :O I'll just assume it's some american time, and then i think that adds up...
It's raining here :(
Lazy sunday afternoon

snakefisch said...

Ps. Are you going to Halong Bay?
I just saw a picture on Wiki and it looks A mazing.
"170 kilometres east of Hanoi. "Vịnh Hạ Long" — Halong Bay — means "Bay of the Descending Dragon"
and how much is $?

maz said...

don't forget to try the quan an ngon restaurant- fabulous atmosphere and good food.

can you believe the tooting?

Phil said...

Thanks Maz, forgot that one, went last night superb.