In Hanoi (briefly)

11:30 Saturday morning (11/21)

Hi all,
Well I flew to Hanoi this morning and got a cab with 3 other girls to the Hanoi backpackers hostel - 2 British and an American. The American girl is only one I've met so far and she's also traveling "alone" though she's now been traveling with the 2 British girls for a month. She lost her job and decided to use the opportunity to travel. Very cool.

I just booked a 4 night/3 day trip to Sapa, which is a town pretty far north from here - about a 10-12 hour train ride. I think there's about 8 people going tonight and so we'll take the night train together. The trip is going to be awesome - I've heard such good things about it from other travelers. It will be a combination of trekking and visiting with the local people - mostly Hmong I think. My timing is good b/c this version of the trip includes going to the Sunday market and only leaves on Saturdays. I decided to do this version of the trip and will skip Halong Bay, which is also highly recommended by other travelers...but I just don't have time and the weather is not that great here now. Pretty chilly (I'm wearing my fleece) and it's been raining a lot. Very different than Cambodia and southern Vietnam when I was sweating so much!

Yesterday (last day in Hoi An) I took a cooking class which was awesome. So much fun! The class was about 15-20 of us and we learned to make the specialities of Hoi An and I'm bringing all the recipes home where you all can be guinea pigs. Ha ha.

Okay, I've got the day to kill here in Hanoi (my train leaves tonight at 8 pm and has a bed). I'm going to try calling Nicole's old roommate here and see if she wants to get some lunch. Cheers!