Hanoi, Vietnam

 We flew from Madrid to Hanoi, with a stop in Abu Dhabi along the way today. It was the girls' first time to fly business class for an international flight so they were very excited. Given that between three flights we flew over 16 hours, it made sense for us to do this so we could all get a nice rest as we traversed the globe. We landed in Hanoi in the early afternoon and our guide, Dat, picked us up at the airport for a quick transfer to our hotel. Dad arranged for dinner at Hanoi Garden, a Michelin rated restaurant but before that we wanted to check out train street. We mentioned this to our guide and he arranged for two rickshaws to pick us up and transfer us from our hotel in the French Quarter to the Old Quarter where train street is. We met our guide outside a shop and he guided us through to the back where there was a beverage restaurant and seats right on the tracks. There were two trains that came through while we were there, one North and one South. They passed so closely that we had to turn our bodies to the opposite direction of the train to avoid our legs, arms or heads getting hit! It was quite exhilirating, although the girls didn't exactly share our enthusiasm! We left beer caps on the train track so the were flattened during the process. We tried doing the same thing with American coins but we couldn't find them after the train went through. After train street, Dat dropped us off at Hanoi Garden for dinner. At dinner we tried all the things Dat recommended and enjoyed all of it! Our hotel was really close to the restaurant so we decided to walk home. We did NOT account for the rain and it poured on us almost the entire way home. We stopped at a few shops to buy trinkets and art but overall enjoyed the walk around old Hanoi, even with the rain. At the hotel we went upstairs to check out the roof top bar and enjoy the view. It wasn't open very late which was good because we're heading to Ha Long Bay tomorrow morning. Our trip to Hanoi wasn't nearly long enough but we're so glad we got to experience a piece of this city. 

Much Love,

Moises & Jennifer