Sunday, October 20
Halong Bay cave in the morning, the first really touristy thing we've been brought to. . Seemed like hundreds from all over docked at the foot of endless steps which Larry and I chose not to climb. Reports of what we missed didn't trigger regret.
We picked up our stuff from the mother boat and, after a lunch on land, boarded the bus back to Hanoi and our home base hotel. It was a pleasure to be greeted by the lovely staff and get back out into the Old City streets with the now familiar crazy hustle and bustle. We have become adept at crossing the streets filled with hundreds of scooters and occasional cars, no traffic lights, no rules, just walk a straight line and the vehicles veer around you, on all sides. You can't change course in the middle, or hesitate, or even look at oncoming traffic. Just slow, steady, keep walking, and the dance proceeds. Stranded on the sidewalk when we first arrived, we were now like Moses parting the water, easy, relaxed, like we'd been doing it all our lives. I love Hanoi. What other city feels like home in five days!
We picked up our stuff from the mother boat and, after a lunch on land, boarded the bus back to Hanoi and our home base hotel. It was a pleasure to be greeted by the lovely staff and get back out into the Old City streets with the now familiar crazy hustle and bustle. We have become adept at crossing the streets filled with hundreds of scooters and occasional cars, no traffic lights, no rules, just walk a straight line and the vehicles veer around you, on all sides. You can't change course in the middle, or hesitate, or even look at oncoming traffic. Just slow, steady, keep walking, and the dance proceeds. Stranded on the sidewalk when we first arrived, we were now like Moses parting the water, easy, relaxed, like we'd been doing it all our lives. I love Hanoi. What other city feels like home in five days!
Sunday night was our chance to see the Water Puppet show, a little hokey in that the audience was all tourist, mostly Asians, but fun all the same. Wonderful music, singing and unusual traditional instruments. We found a cafe for dinner and were unexpectedly joined by our favorite Halong Bay passenger, then ran into two guys we had met in our hotel, felt like the city was ours.
No comments:
Post a Comment