God Bye Hue and Hello Hanoi

Mellifluous Perfume River in Hue

Dining room at Jenny Li's home

Dinner is served

I spent my last days in Hue with new friends I met at a travel agency near my hotel. My new friends from the agency Hong and Jenny Li were happy for an opportunity to practice English.

What started out as coffee at a very local and very chic coffee shop turned into a lunch invitation at Jenny Li's. I stopped by a bakery and took a cake for dessert. Later in the day as the agency was closing at 9PM, I stopped by to thank everyone for their hospitality and we decided to go out for a few beers which we had in an open air restaurant next to the Perfume River. One would expect a sweet smell from a river so named but I never detected any scent at all. That was a little disappointing.

I arrived this morning in Hanoi after a very uncomfortable sleeping bus ride. Previously my sleeping bus trips have been quite satisfactory, but on this bus I was assigned a bunk in the back of the bus right over the wheel well and my much too close next door neighbor snored all the night. I was ready to get off the bus long before we arrived at our destination.

I remember the horror and anger that the name Hanoi used to inspire. Hard to believe that I am here. I have forayed only briefly out of the hotel because I still feel rather wiped out after my overnight bus trip. Near my hotel I spotted what appeared to be a theatre so I went in to inquire about shows. The cast was just leaving rehearsals as I walked in and so they gave me a ticket to the performance tomorrow night. From the publicity shots it looks like Chinese opera, but you know it's all Greek to me. If there is any resentment of Americans here, I surely have not experienced it.