The flights coming in were uneventful, which is about the best compliment I can make about air travel anymore. Left Columbus on time at 9:50 Friday morning on an absolutely full flight for Atlanta. Most of the plane was packed with family vacationers, many heading for cruises out of Miami. After almost a mile walk between the domestic and international terminal/concourse/whatever, I got to the gate just as boarding was to start. But, the gate was packed with news crews and TV cameras….supposedly some mucky-muck trade delegation was boarding this flight to Seoul. That set us back about half an hour, giving me time to have an unpleasant discussion with a TSA rookie about getting a new boarding pass. We left late, but easily made up the time on the 15 ½ hour flight over the polar ice cap to Seoul. On the bright side, my section was just over half full, so I could spread out my laptops and work, and burned thru a battery starting to watch season 1 of Walking Dead (thanks, Jaye!). We were fed twice but I have no memory of the meals, so they were apparently in line with the culinary delight we call McDs. We arrived about 5 p.m. local time Saturday.
After killing an hour in Seoul airport (sorry – my phone battery was also dead, but I will get photos of the beautiful airport on the backhaul), and after clearing security and their usual questions about my mass of electronics, we left for Hanoi about 7:30 Saturday night. The 4 ½ hour flight, with another time change of 2 hours, got us here at 10 Saturday night. While first class and business class were full on this flight, my section was less than ¼ full. I could get used to this. Another unremarkable chicken dinner (at all 3 meals, the choices were chicken, beef, and fish, and I have learned to avoid the latter two on Asian airlines). The immigration lines were fully staffed but long – we are apparently in a tourist season. But, it took a long time for the baggage to be delivered, so the net time loss was probably zero.
The customs inspectors didn’t even glance at me as I walked right by (apparently old Celtic dudes don’t look suspicious); my driver was waiting for me, and I made it to the hotel room just before midnight. Unpacking, checking in online, and snacking took me to 1:30, and it was time to crash after getting (maybe) 2 hours of sleep during the trip.
BTW, Vietnam doesn’t observe daylight savings time, so I am now 11 hours ahead of the east coast of the U.S. DST would make it an even 12 hours, which would be SO much easier.
Despite the lack of sleep I was up just after 7 this morning (both sunrise and sunset here are just after 6:00). Hit the fine breakfast buffet at the hotel – the same one I stayed in last Sept./Oct. Most of the staff seems to be the same, and they seem to remember the guy who is always pounding away at the keyboard during meals.
I’m writing this over a beer at happy hour on the hotel patio. A bus full of Aussies just pulled up to disgorge its load. I remember about 1/3 of them from breakfast…about half of the population of Australia is in the hotel this week. At least it is easier to eavesdrop on them than on the Germans and Cantonese who were predominant last fall.
Today I walked about 8 miles, determined to score a couple of Viet caches for Nancy and me. There are about 20 caches in greater Hanoi (which extends to Ha Long Bay, over 150 km. from here), two of which are within a mile of the hotel. But, I crapped out.
The first cache is a 7- or 8-stage one, with each stage in a different area around Hoan Kiem Lake. You have to solve the clue for stage X in order to find point X+1, which makes it difficult if you can’t even find the location of the first clue. It is supposedly across the street from the local Calvin Klein jeans store, but damned if I could find it in two tours around the lake. I had a photo and the coordinates, but got nowhere. I’ll check more dutifully, and take another crack at it next weekend.
The next cache was an “easy” one…on the grounds of the National Military Museum. It was supposed to be on a captured American tank, right side, rear wheel, under the tread. Well, the photo clue was of a howitzer, not a tank, and when I couldn’t locate it I decided to look at the same location on a real American tank. Still nothing. Of course, pawing around a dirty tank wheel and tread, looking for a cache the size of your thumbnail, with a bunch of “muggles” (non-caching humanoids) wandering around doesn’t make it easy. But, I got photos of the two points where it could be, so I will try to claim credit for finding it.
Beyond that, the museum was quite interesting. Of course, most of it was focused on the wars against French and American aggression (they have much more loquacious names for each), and I got some decent photos of the millions of dollars of still-whole and crashed equipment we left on this countryside. Also climbed to the top of a 35-meter tower from the 1800s that was heavily used as a lookout post during the war against the French during the 1950s.
That’s it for today, other than a trip to the mini-mart for nuts, cheese, and bread. I converted $200 into just over 4.1 million dong, so I am feeling quite rich right now. Prices seem to be about the same as last fall, despite an unofficial inflation rate of about 17%. As I wandered today, the upscale stores seemed deserted but run-of-the-mill shops are reasonably packed with customers. Construction seems to have slowed a notch, which makes sense since the federal government will not allow any bank to increase its loans by more than 20% vs. 2011. At best, that keeps pace with cost increases.
And thus endeth my day. I’ll catch up with online work tonight, and do a little prep for tomorrow’s battles. Saturday is a national holiday, so offices are closed Monday and I should have a 3-day weekend. But people are expected to travel heavily, so I will stay put. Hopefully the following weekend I can book an overnight trip to Ha Long Bay or the mountain highlands (and eat some squeezel…ask Nancy to explain) and get a different perspective on this beautiful country.
More later in the week…take care, all.
BTW, today’s photos can be found at:
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