So how did we get from leaving Sarasota Tuesday night at 7 pm to arriving Thursday afternoon in Hanoi?  It was due to 20.5 hours of flying time (3 legs), 10.5 hours of layover, and a loss of a day due to the International Date Line.  And, of course, we slept the rest of Thursday due to jet lag.  Dinner was at Le Beaulieu, the French restaurant in the hotel.  My wonderful lobster bisque soup was only $30.  Don’t ask about Tom’s salmon.

But we were ready for Friday, starting with a gorgeous buffet (we’re at the Sofitel Metropole in Hanoi) and a taxi to the Temple of Literature.  On the way we saw the mass of motor scooters and the lack of traffic signals or apparent rules of the road.  Even at major intersections that had lights, many motor scooters didn’t bother to stop.  Scary!

The Temple of Literature is one of the oldest in the area, and well maintained inside.  Our next stop was The Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts.  Only Vietnamese paintings, very dark.  But the sculptures were fine.  Nearby was the Military Museum, so we walked there via Lenin Square only to discover that the museum is closed on Fridays.  We’ll try tomorrow.  Instead we stopped for a coffee at a park serving coffee and sweet drinks.  Tom had an Americano, and I had a peach tea, costing $1 total.

Back to our hotel to find a razor and a different purse.  Apparently pickpockets are very common, so our backpacks are discouraged.  I found a travel purse in a multi-story mall for 413,000 dong ($18).  It’s wild looking at prices when there are 23,000 dong per dollar.  A Gillette razor was found at a Circle K, and all was good.  Tom tried the traditional Vietnamese Pho (thin noodle soup) for lunch, and we got our leisurely afternoon nap.

Dinner at Angelina’s in the hotel and organizing photos and catching up on the news completed the evening.  A lovely first day.

Cheryl