Day 1: Hanoi (Friday, June 27)

We flew from Hong Kong to Hanoi on Friday morning, with a day to spend checking out the city before heading northwest to Sapa. Immigration was remarkably quick, and we were off to the Sheraton to drop our bags (even though we weren't staying there for another four days). The Sheraton is in the West Lake district (supposedly the Beverly Hills of Hanoi... we didn't notice the similarities). We made our way around the lake a bit to grab lunch at Hai San Ngon, a nice seafood joint, and thanks to the lovely humidity we were sweating by the time we got there (about 5 minutes).

After a tasty lunch, we went back to the Sheraton and grabbed a taxi out to the Museum of Ethnology. Museums are a great refuge from the heat, right? Not here. No air conditioning, but there were a couple of well placed fans. The museum does a very nice job of chronicling all of the ethnic minority tribes that live in Vietnam (about 15% of the population), showing their way of life, clothing, etc. It was quite well done, though after a while it was hard to keep the tribes separate in our minds (sorry). The other exciting aspect of the museum is the collection of houses that they have reproduced to show how the different groups live. Each house was constructed with money from a foreign embassy. Here's a picture of Matt in front of the tall house.

In addition to the tall house, there is also a long house which was used as a common building in the village. The most "popular" building, though, was probably the tomb - complete with rather provocative adornments. Let's just say that fertility is an important part of the afterlife.

After the museum, we made our way back to the Sheraton, scammed some internet (more on that later) and grabbed our bags for the trip to Sapa. We arranged our trip through Handspan, and everything was quite smooth. After checking in for the trip, we went to Green Tangerine for dinner. Our LUXE guide highlighted it's gutsy dishes, and we'd agree. Great food in an old colonial villa. We finished our dinner and then it was time for our overnight (8:40p-5a) train from Hanoi to Lao Cai (right on the border with China) and then a one hour drive up into the mountains to Sapa.