Lily’s Excellent Visit to Hanoi
Well hello to you all.
This post will be my first and last on roseandsamsexcellentadventure. I am now at the end of this truly excellent visit. I have been in Hanoi now for just under 3 weeks and have thoroughly enjoyed it.
It has been a delight being the first visitor, I have felt very appreciated and I have had all of their time and attention. So sucked in the rest of you who will simply fail in comparison. I am sure you will still manage to have a wonderful visit though:)
Hanoi is simply a wonderful place. There are obviously a great deal of cultural differences that are a little hard to get used to at first. For example the terrible customer service, where you feel truly bad for interrupting their day and perhaps maybe it would be better to come back another time. Also the pushing and shoving everywhere, tiny people just barging into you to get passed. The traffic has also been an adjustment, walking into a wall of heavy traffic takes a little while to settle into. I cant believe I have lived through this whole visit. But in truth, they are much better drivers than we are and after a while it feels perfectly normal.
The heat has been pretty intense, I don’t think I have ever sweat this much in my life!! I walk outside and it’s like an instant shower. This appears to be a weak western trait however, as the Vietnamese all engage in rather strenuous physical activities. Apparently it is not enough to just walk up a million stairs, here they like to do it with weights on their ankles too!!
Well the highlights of my excellent visit have been of course spending time with the Rose and Sam. It has been absolutely wonderful catching up so much. And you all need to get your bums over here and do the same!
Another highlight has been riding on the back of Sam’s motorbike. It is so much fun, everyone who comes has to do it!!! He weaves in and out of crazy Vietnamese traffic like a pro. We even had a 2 hour ride the other day, which was because we wanted to have an adventure, not because we got lost or anything :)
I have also absolutely loved having a shop around here, the hassling is always an experience in Asia. There are so many beautiful thing to buy and I have been very happy with my purchases (while still not going overboard on spending money mum).
*Please note that these are only three highlights among many.
My lowlights. Hmm, a little harder. The heat sometimes has been a little too much, not to mention that Rose and Sam are weird about the a/c. Rose thinks it smells like mould and Sam thinks it’s going to make him sick!! This is the kind of shit I have had t put up with:)
Well to sum up, I have had a bloody great time, everybody should come and visit Rose and Sam (although perhaps in a planned and organised manner) and Hanoi is awesome!!!!!
I give my trip 4.5 stars (.5 of a star was removed as I was not allowed to sing whenever I wanted. In fact Sam, the bossy boots, often told me off for singing and demanded I stopped immediately).
It has been a privilege writing on this blog. I would like to thank roseandsamsexcellentadventure.com
Much love and kisses
Lily. xxxxxxxx
Lily,
Thank you for your informative blog, and so glad you’ve had a great time.
One point though….. at what point did you think you had to stop singing just because Sam said so???If you REALLY want to piss him off, you tap your fingernails on the steering wheel when driving…always gets a great response!! ( I guess you will have to wait till Xmas for that one.)