Good Morning Vietnam

Hanoi is colder than we expected but it is also much more interesting than we imagined. Lots of scooters. Lots of people. Hardly any stroller space on sidewalks.

When a rooster crowed at dawn this morning, for a fleeting second I thought I was in Ethiopia. When I heard the distant voice of a man yelling over a loud speaker, I was almost sure I was sleeping in my bed at my parent's house.

But this is Vietnam.

How lovely I can relate to it in this strange way!

It is also wet. It gets wet the way Addis Ababa does. Muddy, cloudy, dark. Cold that can seep into your bones slowly and stay there.

We packed light. Imagining warm tropical beaches with white sand and warm blue sea water. Thank god we had the good sense to throw in some fleece. Because Buchela has all his non-beach clothes on right now!

Brrrrrr! It is cold, y'all!

So here is the lesson we have learned so far. When planning at trip, check the weather and NOT two weeks before you are due to arrive. It apparently is a fickle fickle thing! It changes on you when you are not looking.