Tuesday -- Feb 17, 2015 -- From Hoi An to Hanoi

Today had no “tourist” activities scheduled, and that was fine.  We had to pack up and leave to make our next move to Hanoi.  The guide and driver were surprised when we said we’d go to the airport around 1230.  I think they were both expecting to have to schlep us around town for the rest of the day.

They were a bit pleased with that, too – it’s their equivalent of Christmas eve (-ish) and they both wanted to go home and be with their families.  Getting off at noon instead off 4 p.m. was a nice surprise.

So they dropped us at the Danang International Airport, which looks remarkably like an army surplus facility.  Not the terminal itself, which is nice enough but the outbuildings and runways and things.  There is an unmistakeable flavor of “US Military Surplus” to it, from the concrete reinforced quansit  huts that house military vehicles (including what look suspiciously like fighter jets).

We had access to the Business Class lounge through our tickets on Vietnam Airlines, though, and figured we could grab lunch there and get some work done while we waited, so we checked out, went to the airport and said our goodbyes.

To say that the lounge wasn’t up to snuff with what we’d experienced other places is an understatement. 

The best part is that it wasn’t crowded.  In fact, there’s a strong possibility that the Charlotte, NC and Danang, VN airports had about the same traffic through them today.  The difference is that there’s a winter storm going on in Charlotte.  It’s just the Tet Holiday here.

Unlike the lounges in Hong Kong or Saigon, there was no hot food here.  There was a “self serve” bar with some suspicious looking lunchmeat and a variety of other things that we weren’t terribly sure about.  As a result, we stuck to packaged cracker/cookies, canned beer and cold fried rice.  We did get quite a bit of work done, though.

Eventually it was time to board the plane from Danang to Hanoi.  This was just a  short hop – about an hour – and was uneventful.  Once we arrived in Hanoi (where it’s cloudy and kinda humid, but still abut 70 degrees warmer than NC right now) our guide – who is also our driver in this case – met us and brought us to the Metropole Hotel.

This place is almost as grand as the La Residence hotel in Hue.  Built in 1901 by the French, it is the oldest operating hotel in Hanoi.  We’re supposed to learn more about it’s history tomorrow, but apparently a bomb shelter was put in at some point to protect patrons. It’s now available for viewing as a part of a tour.

There is something about an elegant hotel that lends itself to hand-writing letters with an old-fashioned fountain pen on wonderfully heavy stationary or postcards.  They do have nice stationary for you here, but just a plain old ballpoint pen.  It’s not like they’re afraid that someone will steal them – there’s a menu of what they’re going to charge if you take something else in the room (Silk Robe, 1,000,000d, for example) and it wouldn’t be difficult to add “Fountain Pen” onto the list.

If you’re going to type what you write, especially in a foreign country, it really needs to be on an old-style manual typewriter, preferably while chain smoking unfiltered cigarettes and drinking warm scotch.

Since I don’t smoke and really prefer my drinks iced, I guess none of that is going to happen.

Suffice it to say it’s a grand place to stay, and we’ll provide more details later.  We didn’t actually arrive until after 7 and after a day of being on the go rather than go out to dinner we went down to the hotel bar and split a sandwich.

Yep.  If it’d have been 4:30,  we’d have gotten our AARP cards punched and a free coffee.

Tomorrow is really the only day available for sightseeing here, so we’re up and out early.  Thursday is the actual holiday and everything will be closed (much of it is tomorrow, in fact).  There are perks, though – the fireworks display tomorrow night is supposed to be great.  For now, though, it’s time to plug all the electronics in so they can recharge, and we’re off to bed so that we can do likewise.