Jet lag.
I tried to only sleep on my flight during times I would sleep in Vietnam. This meant being balls tired by the time I boarded the longest of the flights (from sf to Taipei), but still staying awake for the first 5 or 6 hours of it. I was not anticipating this to be an easy task until I found that I could watch Titanic on the plane! Roll your eyes all you want, but it definitely kept me awake. It only occurred to me about 2.5 hours into the movie that it was a little odd that I was watching a simulation of a ship sink in the Atlantic while flying over the Pacific.
I sat next to a wonderful lady who was older named Resa from the Philippines. Her English was perfect, and the timbre of her voice reminded me a little of Estelle Getty from the Golden Girls but with a nicer tone. She later told me she is an English teacher who has been speaking English since 1965. Certainly longer than I've been speaking it! :P She had also lived in Singapore and other countries, and had a big family. It sounded like she's had a cool life so far.
So anyway, jet lag. Customs and airport pick up went smooth, it already felt a lot better than when I arrived in Delhi. Got to my room and started to collect myself to go exploring, but I felt like a zombie. I accidentally fell asleep from 330 pm to 9 pm. Luckily, I still feel pretty tired and think I could go back asleep. I was a little disappointed because I'd really wanted to make good use of my time and all that, but when you travel for something like 29 hours straight, one's body will inevitably put on the brakes, even if ample amounts of properly timed shitty airplane sleep happened.
I've booked with Hanoi Family Homestay, which is a hostelish family run business in the historic Old Quarter. They ended up having a person who needed to stay an extra night so I'm staying with no extra charge at a small hotel down the street called Rising Dragon.
A woman who goes by Perfume runs the homestay, and she immediately fixed me something to drink and shared a pomelo with me, which is a not so bitter grapefruit like situation that initially looks encased in coconut skin once the outer layer is peeled. We learned about each other's lives, chatted and I booked an overnight tour to Halong bay through her. They have family dinners every night and I was going to go but slept through it.... Whoops!! How rude. She probably already knows I fell asleep with how tired I looked when we met in the early afternoon. I plan to eat there tomorrow night for sure.
That's it! I'm happy to be here. Tomorrow's plans include a self guided walking tour through the old quarter and around Hoan Kiem Lake, a trip to the Vietnamese Women's Museum, the water puppet theatre, and possibly the French Quarter if energy and time permits. Also hoping to find some crab noodle soup and bun cha!
