Hanoi- The Beginning

I was very fortunate to be able to go on a "Girl's Trip" to Hanoi, Vietnam. No kids, no husband- just two good friends. It was new experience to be able to wander around the airport bookstore and grab a cup of tea without having to worry about entertaining children.  On the plane I was thankful that the girls weren't with me because we had to sit on the runway for quite awhile. Instead of playing I-Spy or telling stories or hold a screaming toddler, all I had to do was read my book and wait. :)

We arrived at night and were welcomed by our driver who took us to The Hanoi Elegance Ruby Hotel. It was this wonderful hotel tucked into an alleyway in the Old Quarter of Hanoi. We went out to dinner down the street at The Green Mango (?). I had spring rolls- yum- and then we walked down to Hoan Kiem Lake.

 Around the lake people had their "shops" set up- a basket filled with nuts or seeds or fruit, etc and little stools. They were everywhere. This seems to be part of "normal life" in Hanoi. People would circle up the stools and use one as a table as they hung out.

 

I'm not sure if you can see the ground, but there are shells all over the place. I think people were eating sunflower seeds and then just drop the shells on the ground. They were everywhere. In the morning, most of the seeds were gone- swept away.

 Scooters, scooters everywhere. This picture is only a glimpse of how many scooters/motorcycles there were on the road at one time.

 People carried so much around with them on their scooters. This lady was selling balloons.

The following morning after being able to get up at a leisurely pace, we headed down to breakfast. We were about to push the button the the elevator when the power went out! We were so close to being trapped in a tiny (did I say tiny?) elevator! We walked down the dark staircase by the light of Gillian's phone and found out we could still have breakfast since they were cooking with gas :)The electricity turned back on after a little while but in the mean time we had breakfast by candlelight:

After a great breakfast we were off to explore the Old Quarter...