As soon as we exited the plane, we were welcomed to the country, given surgical masks, and our temperatures were taken. Swine flu really has these people paranoid--they even escorted someone off the plane to quarantine him.
So far, I've seen and smelled and tasted things I didn't know existed. For example; I didn't know there was a place in the world where people boil duck eggs just before they hatch and eat them. But apparently baby duck fetuses are a real hit in Hanoi, so naturally we had to try one (and naturally I almost puked). We also tried some silkworms, which were surprisingly tasty. It's like pork in worm form.
There are literally hundreds of thousands or motorcycles here. It's like this glorified biker gang at all times. People ride them into buildings, on sidewalks, and park them wherever they want. There aren't really traffic laws here, so they do whatever they can to just keep moving forward, which results in some chaotic driving experiences. They carry astronomical amounts of crap on them, also. So far we've seen people carrying 20-ft long rhubarb, 8-10 large boxes, trees and even a stash of 8 live pigs on motorcycles at various times.
Another random gem of the trip: our hotel was rented out by the 30-or-so Norwegians who live here to celebrate National Norwegian Day. We kind of crashed the party, but they were warm and welcoming and asked us to join in the fun while a magician performed. The awesome factor of this was very high, but I'll let the picture speak for itself.
But, of course, one of the most significant highlights so far was walking into a restaurant our first day in Hanoi and seeing the cutest weiner dog ever! It looked like a bigger version of Lenny, named Colin. Conor decided it was a good omen. He was so friendly with all of us but decided he liked Conor as more than a friend and proceeded to hump his leg throughout dinner.
We've successfully documented school children, crazy street life, and feedback from two of Hanoi's most knowledgeable Americans/ex-pats, Lady Borton and Chuck Searcy. Jentry has written about them at http://southeastasiadoc.blogspot.com/ (he will be documenting most of the trip, and he's already posted an amazing entry. Pretty much all the photographs I'll be using are taken by him and Conor, both of whom are fantastic photographers).
