to the northern hemisphere

The first 24 years of my life have taken me to all parts of main land Australia, both main islands of New Zealand, and to Bali in Indonesia. So before this trip I'd been as far west as Perth, as far South as Wilsons Prom, as far north as Bali, and as far east as Auckland.

Now I'm off to service the needs of the world's telco's! First trek, Hanoi, Vietnam. First stop over... Singapore. I suspect Singapore airport might get frequented by me a fair bit over the next few years. Here's what I might get used to:

That's the view from the smokers balcony / flower garden. To keep a tired traveller happy there is plenty of free grog samples in the duty free store downstairs too.

Hanoi was a 3 hour flight from what I can recall - I don't actually remember taking off - I fell asleep while the aeroplane was taxiing!! The Daewoo hotel in Hanoi is "Hanoi's best" according to the Lonely Planet - here's the view from my first room:

The traffic, as you can see, is pretty damn insane, though I have been enjoying the taxi rides; they are very entertaining. The guy standing under the unbrella is a traffic policeman - his job is to fine anyone who ignores the traffic lights - a manual red light camera system : )

The protocol for driving around this town goes something like this:

1. honk horn
2. merge into the traffic if possible
   
3. if not honk horn
4. drive
5. if impeded honk horn
6. if anyone looks like merging into you, honk horn
7. arrive at destination
8. stop
9. have horns honked at you
   

My favourite traffic sights so far have been a toddler riding between Mum and Dad on a motorbike - ASLEEP!!, and a guy transporting two dead pigs, tied to either side of his motorbike. These are closely followed by people transporting 19" LCD's on the back of their bikes.

Due to the original room only had single beds, I've been moved down two floors to a room with a king sized double. It has a view over Thu Le Park:

The park has a zoo, and an ancient temple, and... the Australian embassy!.. Tomorrow morning I don't have to be at work until 10:30ish, so I plan on going for a walk around the park.