Golden Sun 2

We safely arrived in Hanoi yesterday afternoon. The “visa on arrival” scheme at the airport worked smoothly and a car from the hotel that Mercy booked was there to pick us up. It took about 45 minutes to drive to our hotel in the Old Quarter. The kids fell asleep in the car, they were exhausted! We had been on the road for 24 hours, but they didn’t complain once. In fact, they’ve really picked up on the spirit of the trip and have been having a lot of fun.

The drive into Hanoi was typical Asia with a Vietnamese twist. There are tons of trucks on the road carrying steel (rebar, extrusions, etc), there are large billboards advertising construction companies, and there are loads of unfinished buildings along the way. The Vietnamese twist is the number of scooters on the road. The closer we got to Hanoi, the more there were. It’s pretty crazy but you’ll have to wait for pictures to get the real feel for it.

The Golden Sun 2 hotel (on Hung Hom) has been great so far and was just what we needed after the trip here. The people have been super nice tooand I think that arriving with two sleepy kids helped gain their sympathies.

I’m not sure what today will hold for us. The water park may not happen because it is cooler and rainy today. Mercy and I are pretty excited about wandering around and checking out some tasty Vietnamese food. The streets are full of action and things so I think the kids will be kept entertained. Wee will probably hit the water puppet show tonight, it is supposed to be really neat and great for kids.