Hà Nội

As helmsman and joint captain of the USS Paddle Kitty, I'm responsible for ensuring safe and timely passage through the smog obscured waters of the Hồ Tây. An enemy ship is always nearby.

Back in Nha Trang we did get one good beach day. The water was nice and warm.

There was another temple, this time with boobs.

On the way back from the temple, we stopped at a choose-from-the-tank seafood restaurant. These were my victims.

Pasha didn't want to order anything there, so we stopped at another restaurant closer to the apartment.

There was no shortage of temples, pagodas, and citadels in Hanoi, either.

I don't know why, but entire streets are dedicated to selling Christmas decorations. This is a small sample, but imagine city blocks of blinding lights, santa hats, candy canes, and plastic reindeer.

Being a nominally communist capital, there is an obligatory statue of Lenin.

The main tourist spot is a "beer street" in the old part of the city. Rows and rows of tiny plastic chairs where you drink beer and eat hot pot and boiled peanuts. Once every couple hours a police car crawls by, and the staff all scramble to fold tables, chairs, and umbrellas to make room for the car. When the cop has passed, they put everything back.

The world cup is happening, so almost every venue had a big screen TV with the day's game. We met a couple of French guys, some Canadians, and one rather well traveled Chilean named Nacho.

The food in Hanoi was less about the soup and more about the meat, though soup was never far away.

So much for Vietnam. We're currently on our way to Bangkok.

I should look up how to say "hello."