We left from Zurich in the evening, treating ourselves to business class seats for the long trip to Bangkok. Good god I work for an airline, that makes that part affordable. Hopping off the plane in Bangkok, the heat and humidity almost knocked us back into the SWISS A340-300. The flight was quiet and smooth; I slept most of the ten and a half hours. In Bangkok we had a 3 1/2 hour layover and spent the time strolling through the modern airport building, getting our first taste of Asia. But, even in parts of the airport it was too hot to actually do much. We were aircon area seekers…

In the early evening, we boarded our Thai Airways flight, an Airbus A300-600 to Hanoi. The flight was only about an hour and a half. There were beautiful thunder clouds lining the horizon for much of the trip. It was amazing how the cloud formations seemed to have a life, lightning give them an erie glow… They provided an awesome play of light, with the sun setting behind the airplane and lighting bolts illuminating the dark clouds ahead of it.

The first impression of Vietnam, Hanoi’s Noi Bai airport, was as if we were thrown back several years – unlit taxiways, dark, empty old hangers, a strong smell of jet fuel. The temperatures on the otherhand were a delight – 18° celcius, not the heat and humidity that we had expected. Before entering Vietnam, we had to get our Visa on arrival, for which we already had an invitation letter organized through Footprint, our travel agency. Because we didn’t have a passport photo, the immigration officer earned himself a few extra dollars, using his five dollar point-and-shoot to take our picture. Actually, we don’t even know if he took a picture – he pointed the camera towards us and before anything actually happened, he said it was ok… But he stretched out his hand for the $$$ so we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.

After a few more critical glanzes from the very communist costumed immigration officers, we found our bags looping around the carousel. In the arrival hall, we were then met by Hoang, our tour guide (and turned friend) for the trip. He will spend the next 14 days, starting the day after tomorrow, showing us northern Vietnam, the country, the culture. He introduced us to Manh, our driver, as well as our oversized Ford Transit van which will be our retreat for the next couple of weeks. During the drive from the airport to downtown Hanoi, Hoang briefed us about the trip and gave us some cultural advice, safety tips and survival guidelines for the Hanoi traffic. At that time we didn’t realize how glad we’d be for those. As we neared the center of town, he welcomed us to the ‘Symphony of Horns’ as he calls the honking and beeping on the streets.

Our hotel, the Viet Hotel located at the edge of the old quarters, is a cozy, friendly, clean place. It is not too loud there, and the staff did a great job to make us feel at home. The room was really good, the food was quite ok. We dropped our bags and, although both of us being a bit tired from the trip, decided to take a first plunge into old Hanoi to find some food. It was just after 9pm, and the streets were still bustling with activity. We strolled along until we got to the big market square, where we found numerous sidewalk soup kitchens.

We took a seat and enjoyed a beef hot pot and a Hanoi beer. We didn’t know it yet, but this was going to become our standard drink to most of the dinners we had. We sat quite a while, and soaked up the atmosphere. First impressions count, and so we let the sights, sounds and smells sink in. Maybe we were just too tired to lift our butts to get back to the hotel!

It ended up being 5 minutes to midnight before we went to sleep, but not without first setting the alarm clock for 6am. Good night…

Tomorrow, we are off to discover Hanoi and will . Stay tuned.