It Starts Here

I arrived yesterday in the morning. Hanoi has it's customary haze but the traffic was suprisngly light. I was told before I came that I would be blown away by the chaos of Hanoi traffic but for me it was like coming home. While the whole traffic thing looks like an impossible exercise in over the top chaos it actually works quite well with everyone missing by inches.

 it is now day 3. I have had a great time so far. i have already been toone motorbike shop. The selection was OK some five bikes all honda wins. One was OK it needed some cosmetic repairs. The others were worn out. ast night I found a shop just up the street from my hotel. I will check it out today. i have also a 2pm appointment with Tony's friend Dung. I will hand over the stuffed toys and go with her to a meal.

My first night was pretty amazing. I went to dinner at Le's House. I have no idea where it is only that it is past West Lake somewhere. Le's son is gorgeous. There was also Le's Mum and her mother in Law. Lan was there and of course Le's husband Vuong. We had a lovely meal finishig off with Roddy's Rocky road which they liked with reservation. At the end of the meal Mr Vuong took me home. As we left Mt Vuong asked if I would like to have a coffee with him at West Lake. We stopped at a very nice Cafe and I has a frozen thing that was magnificent. Now the really fantastic thing about all this is that Vuong does not speak a word of English. You would think that we would sit in silence but no we spent a very happy hour chatting away about all sorts of things. We talked of our families, Vuong is an only child his parents are divorced and his father has remarried and lives out of town. I think his mother lives with him. He is very proud of his child. He is a graphic designer {I think}. How did we do this? we both had translation apps on our phone and tabet. We would sit there furiously typing away and showing each other the results! It worked really well. The next time anyone hears me bagging modern technoogy they can kick me in the shins for free. This is the end of this post . Hopefully the future will bring a new bike, stories of me at Minh's jazz club and a host of new friends.