2/17 Hanoi

Rich and Gayle in their sleeper car

Wating at the train station.

I think they're all playing GO.

Here's the old city wall and gate.

At the Laotian Embassy

Lunch at Bun Bo Nam Bo.

At the Peace Monument

For Mike, just because!

We spent mosy of the day criss-crossing Hanoi trying to do two things at the same time. First, Luis and Chio needed to get their visas for entry into Laos later in the trip. I found the address for the Lao embassy which was only about 1/2 mile from our hotel. We got there and found out that there are two locations and the one where you get the visas was NOT where we were. We raced over to that address and just missed (by 2 minutes) their lunch break! Now we had 2 hours before the embassy reopened.

We started to do the guided Frommer's old town walk. Along that way we ate lunch at Bun Bo Nam Bo - highly recommended (rightfully so). They only serve a single dish, Bun Bo and you put the number of fingers to request that number of bowls. It's a dish of fresh rice noodles, garlic, bean sprouts, peanuts, basil and beef. Delicious!

Now we back-tracked back to the Laotian Embassy and having paid a expidition fee told to come back in 2 hours. We went BACK to try and pick up the rest of the Frommer's guided tour specifically to see "the only remaining gate of the city's once-formidable fortifications". It was ok, but quite the effort was made to see it! We then headed BACK to the embassy and collected the visas.

Back to the hotel, met up with the Redikers and Steingarts (newly back from Halong Bay) had some appitizers and coffee and then a light dinner.

Transferred to the train station for our overnight trip to Sa Pa. I probably won't have access to the internet until tomorrow night. So, here's a few images from another walk in Ha Noi. By the way, while at the train station Rich and Gayle's kids started texting to see if they were all right. Apparently a boat on Halong Bay sank and 15 people died - the same time that our four friends were on THEIR boat on Halong Bay. Pretty sacry, but luckily our friends are safe and sound and with us on the train to Sa Pa.