Fly from Chiang Rai to Bangkok to Hanoi

Sawat Dee Kah!! My flight departs Chiang Rai at 7:45AM to Bangkok with a connection on to Hanoi, Vietnam.

I arrive Hanoi airport at 3:30PM on Vietnam Airlines. Oh, this is different!! The tour operator from Vietnam has already sent me a copy of my visa. I walk to customs and they point me to another office, where officers of the Communist Party scrutinize my passport and the copy of my visa. Gone are the smiling people of Thailand, these people are serious and look at me like I have come as an agent of the CIA. After much whispering and veiled looks they hand me my passport with my visa for Vietnam.

A driver is outside the airport and with little ado, we are off to the Sheraton Hotel. The highway is pure chaos, with scooters, cars, bicycles and water buffalo all vying for the same space. I want to close my eyes, but then I might miss something such as a head on collision with a water buffalo.

There is something major going on at a bridge ahead. Cars and scooters are coming directly at us, with people honking, yelling and waving their hands. The driver explains that there has been a major accident that won’t be remedied for hours, so we too turn around and start driving down a dirt road with rice paddies on both sides of the car and even more water buffalo milling around.

The bright side is that I am seeing the way people live here, the negative is that this narrow dirt road we are on has traffic coming from the other direction and it is next to impossible for two cars to pass each other. My other observation is that spring is in the air with the mating of water buffalo and they are running wildly about, with males in locked horn displays of buffalo maleness, and females running with their tails in the air. We finally reach a paved road and I admire the French architecture of the buildings and the people around me. The Sheraton Hotel is away from the Centro district, but I am ready for quiet time. The young girl who opens the door to the hotel is gorgeous with her long dark hair, clad in a long velvet wine colored tunic, over gold silk pants.

There is a charming boutique outside the hotel, the Indigo Store which is an organic, free trade, handicraft project that carries traditional clothing that is woven, dyed and sewn by the Hmong women in Northern Viet Nam.