I’m at my new (temporary?) apartment in Hanoi! So far I can’t say I’ve done much. What I can tell you is that after a night of unrestful, jetlagged sleep, I was awoken by several  entertaining (for now) happenings:

1: A rooster. At 5:30 in the morning. Perfect! I won’t ever need an alarm clock here. I’ve heard it’s better to wake up naturally anyway, though I’m not quite sure whoever said that meant the alarm clock itself should be natural…

2. Motorbikes. I was expecting this. Just take a look at this Google image search of traffic in Hanoi and you’ll see why. For the record, traffic does not last all night. I know this because I was up from about 3:30 to 4:30 this morning (thanks, jet-lag!) and only heard the occasional motorbike. 

3. Loudspeakers. Around 7 this morning, a loud, 80s style Vietnamese song floated in through my window. I’ve read that the loudspeakers around the city give announcements, but I’m fairly certain this was just music. Of course, I guess I wouldn’t know if they were in fact singing the announcements. 

4. A megaphone. Between the melodious sounds of morning announcements, someone was shouting through a megaphone. Once again, no idea why. What’s amazing though is as I’m writing this, someone has started to shout announcements again. Perfect timing! Must be telling me it’s time for bed. Here’s to a night of uninterrupted (that means you, jet-lag) sleep.! At least until the rooster crows. 

I’ll leave you with a picture of my new neighborhood:

And this:

Some “fresh tea” flavored mouthwash I found at the supermarket. I’ll have to try that..