Ha Noi, with wide eyes

A few days into our Vietnam trip we've adjusted to jetlag and have gotten into a bit of a rhythm. Ryan's fallen sick with a cold, which is lucky, considering that it isn't a crazy gastrointestinal ailment. He's done a better job than me of slurping up pho first thing in the morning. (Up here it sounds to my ear like "fur"). I can eat some meat, but something about huge chunks of fatty beef or pork within an hour after I wake up just doesn't work for me. Luckily, there are sticky rice vendors everywhere. Glutinous white or purple rice plopped into a banana leaf with either boiled peanuts or egg, seasoned with fish flakes and salty ground peanuts really hits the morning spot. That and the uber strong coffee with condensed milk. It ain't a vivace latte (gotta love ya for that Seattle), but is some surprisingly potent and good brew.

We woke up this morning to walk around Hoan Kiem lake in the center of Hanoi and came across the entire elderly population working out. There were energetic aerobics moves, old guys splayed across benches doing bizarre leg lifts, 80s looking joggers, badminton players everywhere (including a net set up in the median of a very busy street). The coolest was this pair of dudes that were playing badminton with their bodies and a different birdie. They were incredibly flexible! Crazy roundhouse kicks, complex hopping moves and a couple times they kicked it over the net with the sole of their shoe. Just watching them made me feel extremely uncoordinated.

The hardest thing to get used to in my opinion is bargaining for EVERYthing. We've gotten ripped off a few times (ahem, Ryan's flip-flops that cost more than a night in our hotel), but most of the time it is subtle like paying a couple 1000 dong more than folks for our morning ca phe, or double for our bia hoi (cheap cheap beer that tastes like 1/2 strength pabst). But then again, this represents about 20-50 cents, which makes you feel like you can't get too miffed. You just gotta be on your toes. And, it is hard to complain about cheap beer. Our 2nd afternoon was spent hanging out at the nearest bia hoi outlet with some degenerate English teachers where we each put away 4 bia hois in an hour and a half for about $1 total. It has taken us about an hour to upload our first set of photos and now the website is down, so we will post photos soon. Thinking about poor Seattle in the depths of winter as we hang out in a sweet 80 degrees...