Hanoi

This week finds me in Hanoi. It's a sudden business trip, so sudden in fact that I almost didn't have enough time to get a visa...of course with it being a business trip it means we're stuck in an office all day with very limited opportunities for sightseeing. Still, I've not been here before so I'll take what I can get.

The flight here was a swift three hours 55 minutes (but I think we had favourable winds) although we did fly right through a thunderstorm. The turbulence wasn't too bad but it was a tad unnerving having lightning go off right next to the plane...I had visions of us having a Lost-type incident and crashing on Hainan. Alas, we were saved from China's favourite tropical resort and arrived safely in Hanoi. I know next to nothing about Hanoi so you'll have to forgive the lack of substance to this post. I know it reminds me a lot of being in China back in 95-96. One thing I will say is that if China is the 자전거왕국 (Kingdom of bicycles) then Vietnam is 오토바이왕국 (Kingdom of Motorbikes). It is absolutely insane.
They ride in all directions at once and it is a miracle that there aren't more accidents than the one we saw today.

As I mentioned my lack of a guidebook and daylight hours makes sightseeing somewhat difficult but I did manage to get a picture of a temple that some internet sleuthing leads me to believe is the Tortoise Tower.