Walk, walk, walk, walk, walk

I'm not sure how many miles my feet have clocked today, but they are sore and I am exhausted. I read about this great sounding Lebanese restaurant in my guidebook so I decided to hoof it over to the neighborhood where it's located. I checked out the map and thought, OK, so it's a little far, but I can do it. Well, a little far turned out to be quite far in reality and then when I finally got there, the place wasn't even open! The other place listed in the area that sounded interesting as well didn't seem to exist. Thanks, Lonely Planet, thanks a lot. Fortunately there are a couple of gourmet markets in the same vicinity so, starving at this point, I bought supplies to make myself a nice little European picnic - bread, olives, and cheese. Mmm. I'm currently in the other gourmet market across the street enjoying a latte before I figure out how to get back to my hotel. I'm thinking taxi.

I visited the Temple of Literature today. It was packed, mostly with Asian tourists on holiday for the new year. I had a few India flashbacks as a couple of tourists wanted to take their picture with me, exotic white girl that I am. Lots of people were buying Chinese art, either sayings or their names written in Chinese characters, I'm not sure. I walked by the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, which I've heard is cool, but I'm not sure I'll be going in. I've been to Lenin's in Moscow and really, once you've seen one embalmed communist leader haven't you seen them all?

This gourmet market is co-owned by a guy from Chicago, with whom I just chatted briefly. It's always interesting the people you meet while traveling, either ex-pats or fellow travelers themselves. There are lots of folks like me who quit their jobs to travel, others on vacation, others living and working abroad. Yesterday I met a couple of guys in the post office, one British, one American. I had a chance to talk to the American as he had to put a series of three stamps on each of his sixteen cards, so having time I decided to help out. This guy definitely ranks as one of the most interesting travel stories I've heard on this trip. He's 30 years old, lives in Chicago, and is an ER doctor. But not in Chicago... in North Dakota. He spends two weeks straight working in ND and then gets six weeks off back in Chicago, except he doesn't stay in Chicago. He travels. If anyone's got it figured out, it would have to be this guy, at least in terms of working the least amount of time for the most amount of money. Nice.


An artist puts the finishing touches on his piece.


They weren't kidding about the traffic in Hanoi. You could literally grow old waiting for a good time to cross, so you just take a deep breath, step out into the road and make your way across, slowly and carefully. If you're lucky, a Vietnamese person will also be crossing and you just walk next to them!