The heat is on

I met Ron and Bruce for breakfast. I was introduced to a friend of theirs who is a local and had a short visit. I then headed out on my trek. The setup I used to protect my valuables worked well. I turned right then a quick left as I left the Hilton and found myself in a waking-up bustling part of Hanoi. The only shops open were small grocery corner-store outlets and they were already ramping up for yet another warm and humid day. I took the first right fork in the road and quickly found myself buried in busy narrow streets that reminded me of basse ville in Quebec City. The best skill one quickly learns here is to watch out for and dodge the sea of scooters. I named the traffic here "organized chaos" to the delight of a local.

I walked and walked for about 2 hours, passing busy food outlets cooking a wide assortment of soups and other fare. The sidewalk vendors sold everything from apples to yellow crusty sea food. The breads and vegetables they were vending looked exquisite. I saw lots of famous Vietnamese wicker hats that look like lamp shades, pointed with the sides of the hat forming a wide circle at the height of the wearer's ears. I saw lots of 2-sided basked contraptions supported by a rod on the carrier's shoulders. There were eviscerated chickens with their feet sticking up in the air begging you to chow down on that delight. A number of stalls had small aluminum shallow buckets with fish swimming feverishly around what little room they had.

Some of the fruit was purple and prickly and I am sure quite delectable. Some streets were only wide enough to allow 2 scooters to pass and there was a veritable ocean of crazed scooter drivers everywhere. I was greeted by one out of every 100 people with a warm smile and nod or hand gesture. I ended up on some very large streets and then my sandals started to irritate my upper toe so it was time to pack it in. My arms were beaded with sweat, and I purchased some sun block from a local apothecary.

I grabbed a cab back to the Hilton and ended up discussing the destination with the dispatcher. The ride back was a whopping 32,000 dong or $1.75 so I gave my navigator a tip rounding the fare up to about 2 USD. I booked a day trip for tomorrow, 6 hours starting at 8AM around Hanoi and including lunch. The tomb of Ho Chi Minh is on the schedule so I will carry long pants and a shirt with sleeves to get into that famous building. I went to the pool when I got back and lasted about 30 minutes. The water must have been close to 95 degrees and that would have probably even been too hot for my ST. There is some World Cup on today. They are into day 9 of the tournament and already Argentina seems to be on top. Messi has no goals yet but lots of shots.

I am meeting Bruce and a friend in JJ's about 7:30 for dinner. I will watch some Sopranos and read this afternoon and venture out for a quick bite early afternoon.