DAY 1: Hanoi, At Last.

A quick housekeeping note. If you've been seeing only the top of my head or my left ear in recent photos, I apologize. My website has decided it will only accept cropped pictures, a technical issue my engineer is currently working feverishly to fix. Trust me, it's probably nicer than the whole picture anyway.

But I am here. I’m sitting in my hotel room at 7:00 a.m. after a wonderful night's sleep. I arrived, I unpacked, I had a shower, and then I went out into the bustling metropolis known as the Hanoi Old Quarter.

I met up with Chin, a very nice young student I've been talking to for a while. He graciously took me out for some really nice soup—or what we would call soup. It was a fantastic bowl of noodles with pork, and with a Coke, the bill came to £1.55. I can't believe how cheap it is here.

Then, we had to cross the road. I now know how a bee feels inside a nest that's just been prodded with a stick. Trying to get across the street here is like trying to knit fog. I’m convinced there are about 10 million motorcycles in Hanoi, and most of them seem to be piloted by retired kamikaze pilots just trying to keep their skills sharp. A word of advice: do not, and I repeat, do not trust the little green man on the traffic lights. He lies.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to doing a tour of Hanoi today, so I'll be taking my camera out and snapping away. Hopefully, Kyle gets the picture situation sorted. The hotel is beautiful, the bed was great—I hit the sack about 12:00 last night and don't remember anything until waking up at 6:00 a.m. Couldn't get back to sleep after that. Catch you all later.