Hanoi, Vietnam Day 1

heres a story for ya:

    I wake up this morning to the sound of my cell phone saying "its 4 am, time to wake up. its 4 am, time to wake up." this is after a girl came into the hostel last night at 1 am wrinkling every bag she could possibly find while proceeding to "organize" or whatever for an hour. 4 am to catch my flight to vietnam has come WAY too soon. 

     I arrive at the airport, waiting for my flight to find that im sharing a flight with a whole flock of asian travelers all wearing red hats from some tour company.  they are snapping pictures of each other left and right....so apparently they dont just do it when they are in the United States. 

     I arrive in Vietnam where I have to obtain my visa upon arrival to get in the country.  I have already been pre-approved, but just need to pay and get my stamp in my passport. I arrive at the visa office to find that I am the first of many in a line that is forming rapidly and no one is moving.  Come to find out that we had to wait for an hour because "the boss" wasn't at work yet. "So, you mean to tell me that I have to stand here and just wait for your boss to show up to work?!"  Good start to vietnam, eh?

      After the visa experience, I catch a mini-bus to Hanoi.  It is PACKED full of people.  I notice (since I am squished next to two men) that men here wear their fingernails long, especially the thumb nail. kind of a turn off...

The ride takes about an hour, but as we enter into the city by highway, I have never experienced such a shit-show (excuse my language) in my life. There are a tone of motor bikes around asia, but in Vietnam, there seems to be a ton more motorbikes than cars, and some of them go SO slow!!!  But since they can drive on the highway with normal traffic, you have cars winding in and  out of the motorbikes, some broke down on the side of the highway, people driving in the middle of the two lanes.  Point being, there are NO traffic rules and its a free for all!!!  And everyone is honking in the meantime, as if it actually does something. 

      As you come into Hanoi, its very much what you would picture Vietnam to look like; kinda misty/foggy, lots of rice paddies and you see all these people wearing those bamboo tent-like hats. Its got more of a european feel to it with smaller streets and cafes (makes sense being that they were colonized by the French).  Its very different than Thailand, but the people are very friendly. So friendly in fact that I had a guy come up to me today in the park first asking me to take a picture of him then proceeding telling me how beautiful I was and how he wanted me to meet his family.  The least it does is put a smile on my face for the next hour! and since i will be here for the next 10 days, I am sure I will be smilling from the many more adventures to be had...