March 31, 2018 - Hanoi - A few brief observations. It is 12:30pm local time. We have still not made it out of the hotel since we arrived late last night so no pictures yet. I wanted to put down a few notes.
We have spent the morning doing laundry. It was surprisingly hard to keep clean in Cambodia. It is the dry season, red dust is everywhere, and it is indeed a jungle climate. You attempt to bathe with a low pressure water system only to walk outside and within minutes you are sweating head to toe. For some reason, the humidity and heat tends to suppress your appetite as well. Despite being vaguely hungry you tend to eat a lot less. Hanoi is higher in the mountains still has considerable humidity, but for now it appears less than our last two legs.
So being here Hanoi at a nicer lodging that has laundry and a good shower is a real luxury. I have only had a few hours here so far and there are noticeable differences. Hanoi is cleaner (less trash) on the streets and seems to have more modern infrastructure than Cambodia or even Bangkok. Despite being a communist country, there appears to be quite a bit of capitalism going on. Although there is no real mass transit and no Tuk Tuk’s that were so ubiquitous at our other stops. It is no Singapore, but definitely is more upscale than I expected. The roads are well paved and have lanes, but these are more a suggestion that really followed. And we saw a crowd standing around what looked like a dead body on the taxi ride in last night. So that was fun.
More to come. Need to put in another load of laundry. Lord it is nice to have clean clothes again.
Before we leave Cambodia - We have to say goodbye to this wonderfully enthusiastic busker on our last night there -
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