Tired in Hanoi

After one month, we had seen much of Hanoi. Feeling tired of the traffic and pollution, it was time to move on.

Hanoi is a fantastic city - endlessly fascinating and full of amazing things to see, eat, and do. It's also exhausting. Getting around is much, much harder and more taxing than in Bangkok. The weather has also been miserable - so hot and humid lately (hotter than I'm used to, even compared to Thailand).

I'm so glad we started our journey here. Hanoi is a great place to visit, but it's time to move on. For the next month, we will be living around central Vietnam. It will be quieter and much less hectic than in Hanoi.

We've hit most of the city's tourist destinations; seen the museums, temples, and monuments. We've also been trying to live like locals (or as close to expats as we can be after just a month). We've been to the cafes and shopping malls.

We even went to see a movie (because I can't not see a Star Wars movie in the theater!). That was a fun experience. We went to see Solo on the day it came out at a very small cinema near the lake. It was noon on a week day, and we literally had the entire theater to ourselves! We had to climb to the fifth floor of the narrow building where the cinema was located to find our theater. An attendant had to manually switch the lights on and off  before and after the movie. We ordered popcorn, but instead of salty it was weirdly sweet. It was an unusual experience all around, but a lot of fun!

We got to witness the everyday life of the Hanoian people, even various rituals and festivals that we knew nothing at all about.

And we spent a lot of time around the old colonial-era buildings of the Old Quarter and the French Quarter. My favorite was St. Joseph's Cathedral, which is so packed on Sunday evening that people have to pull up their motorbikes outside the church to listen to the service over loudspeakers.

That does cause even worse traffic, though!

We said goodbye (via iPad!) to our host, Mr. Tung, then, as rain fell over old Hanoi, dragged our heavy suitcases and luggage across town the bus station, where the next chapter in our adventure would begin.