Well, I made it to Hanoi VN okay. By comparison to Bangkok, it is smaller, poorer and less developed. The cabbies, street venders and beggers are more pushy and more needy. Everything screams tourist trap so I've been pretty careful about buying things. If I see something interesting, I try to walk the entire block before coming back just to see how unique it is and to get an idea of the right price.

I met my friend that is going to be teaching english over here the other day. We had a nice daytrip wandering around town. Company was good so no complaints about that. Was pretty hot (38C) and humid. I must have lost a liter in sweat.

I met her fellow classmates later that evening and we went to see a Vietnamese film made incountry around the scenic Sapa mountain region. The movie was a drama which involved a woman in love with a guy who was in love with another woman who was in love with another guy. Not really my thing but like I said before, the company was good.

Afterwards we went to the night market to poke around and see what there was to see. There were hundreds of little kiosks selling all kinds of food, trinkets, jewelry and gadgets. It was packed with people, hot and humid.

After strolling through the night market, we hit the R&R pub for some drinks and live music. It was here that one of the girls in the group found out that her purse had been sliced and that her wallet had been stolen. She lost some cash, a few credit cards and a few other odds and ends, but luckily she didn't lose her visa or cell phone. She was able to call her mom and get the cards canceled almost immediately. Mostly it was just a big inconvenience.

Not allowing this to dampen the overall spirit of the group we went to "The Toilet", a hip hop dance club that one of the girls knew about. Not really my style since I'm more into trance and techno, but it was definitely a happening place with lots of bodies grinding together.

We could only stand the 3 digit decibel music for so long before bouncing to the next place called the Barracuda. The music was more mellow with a large outside riverfront area where we could all chat and BS over a few drinks. We stayed for about an hour or so before deciding to call it a night. I tried to get the girl I was visiting to stay with me but she was worried about the time and didn't want to miss her morning training. ::snaps fingers:: Will have to try again. Apparently, she and her classmates have intensive speech training 7 days a week in preparation for their assignments. It's not really a vacation for them, although they did decide to take this night out to enjoy themselves.

Tomarrow is a nice day trip to Ha Long Bay. It's the biggest tourist attraction in the north here. Will have stuff to write about when I get back.

More to come...