I will resist temptation

I went to visit a little temple in the middle of the lake here in Hanoi today. I was sitting there just enjoying the scenery, and this Vietnamese lady came up to me and asked me the time in English. I answered, then she asked if she could sit down, and i said okay and she introduced me to her boyfriend. They didn't want anything other than to chat, practice English. She was 28 and it was her first time in Hanoi, she comes from a small village close to the town of Sapa, she's been in her own province and the province of her boyfriend (who by the way was refusing to marry her unless she got a proper job). She asked me where I had been, I listed China, America, Russia, England and Thailand. She looked at me and her eyes moistened, she said, you know you are so lucky, I am too poor to dream of doing this, I have not the money or the time. It really did humble me. And it reminded me again, that I am a guest here, and more importantly I am an ambassador for western people.
Hanoi is crazy! I have never in my life seen so many motorbikes, they are like a swarm of beeping bees coming toward you. They are supposed to drive on the right, no shit. They drive on any available piece of road.
I thought that I had master the road crossing issue. The trick, according to both my friend Bev and the Lonely Planet, is not to stop, not to run and just to keep walking slowly and not to run not to stop, not to run or stop, not to hesitate and whatever you do don't stop. And do not show fear. So it was to my embarrassment when as I was standing on the side of the road, mentally counting up to 10 to psych myself up that a little old Vietnamese lady came over to me, took me by the arm and guided me through the traffic. Oh the shame.

I have booked another two days in my hostel and then I think that I am going to go to Sapa it's in the mountains in the north. (note: don't throw away all your warm clothes the moment you see the sunshine!). There's hikes and treks you can take or there's just the little tours for the cowardly. The couple I met today told me to go there and go to Dalat, which is closer to HCMC. Oh what to do when i don't have a guide to boss me around?

Nini's first flight ...I've decided that flying makes me crazy. Not the actual being up in the air in a big metal tube, with 200 strangers being propelled along at a couple of hundred miles an hour at 36 thousand feet, breathing in stagnant air bit: it's airports, being stuck in such close proximity with other people and the waiting around. It's just so much easier to go by train.