While you were sleeping...

It's Monday morning for me, but back home, it is Sunday night. At least so far, my body seems to be adjusting. The fact that I was able to slep for most of the night here unaided is pretty impressive. I'm glad I wasn't interested in "sleeping in" though, because everywhere is loud outside in the daytime.

I got here about mid-afternoon yesterday and was able to walk around with Lisa for a while, before we met our friend Karin for dinner. It has been unexpectedly warm recently and was sunny yesterday, but it appears likely to rain today.

In about an hour I will becollected by Tu, a friend of Lisa's who is going to play tour guide for me this morning. Then will meet Lisa for lunch before Lisa and I hop on a plane again (goody) to Cambodia.

Having not seen much of Hanoi so far, I have limited observations and not much new knowledge. I think I am close to mastering the art of crossing the street which requirs more trust in your fellow man than I ever imagined. With hoards of motorbikes and bicycles bearing down on you from every direction, you have to keep from looking at the big picture and instead take is row by row. You step out and get past the first row and then look for your next opening, trusting (at least hoping!) the whole time that the drivers will ultimately stop for you if needed (they don't move too fast, which helps!

The sidewalk of every street is filled with open shopfronts, spilling out with a wie array of products, and each street is known for what it primarily sells. For example, last night we walked down (among others) candy street, toy street, "offerings" street, and maternity clothes street.

A few additional odd things I learned:

• The Ho Chi Min mausoleum is open for viewing from Dec-Sept. After that, rumor has it that he sent back to Russia for re-embalming.
• home/shop owners are taxed based on what square footag of space touches the street. As a result, many placs look narrow, but they go far back, or have many stories.
• You have to be selected or appointed to be a member of the Communist Party, which makes it a very elite group. This seems very strange and extremely counterintuitive to me. Isn't teh whole point of communism about the "collective" and equality of everyone? I'm going to have to find out more.

I happened to luck out and I have free internet in my hotel room (I can't imagine that's standard!), but I'll be checking out shortly. Hope to get a hold of a connetion in Cambodia!