Things are brighter by the light of day Even with a hangover (due to a bottle of french bordeaux last night), things seem better today. We're getting better at ignoring the constant street attention (people constantly coming up to you trying to sell postcards, fruit, travel guides, anything) and have mastered crossing the road without flinching. We found a lovely place to eat brunch today (banana pancakes for me, french toast for Mark) and plan on booking a tour out of town today (maybe to one of the nearby national parks). We realized, after I put down the crackpipe, that we are not flying out on Monday, but are leaving Wednesday (the 18), so we have more time here than we realized.
For anyone interested the practice of serving up dogs as dinner is still ongoing in Hanoi and the surrounding area. Apparently they breed the dogs, keep them as pets for awhile, and then eat them. Look out Beau and Sadie! Dog meat is Thit cho or Thit cay. Also on the menu in many places are snakes, bat, muntjac, and frog. Unfortunately I don't know the Vietnamese words for these items. Comfortingly we've found a nice vegetarian restaurant in Hanoi.
Our hotel last night was rather nice and only $12. However the owner is a bit pushy and keeps trying to get us to book tours with him, but after our Halong bay experience, we'll be sticking to the tour bookers highly recommended by Lonely planet.