An extra day in Hanoi to relax before the ride. Day 0

I set my plane trip 2 days before the start of the ride so I can relax and get my bearings before moving again. My hotel was the Camelia 4 in the Old Quarter, in the Hoan Kiem district of Hanoi. I guess you can imagine the area as sort of the tourist hub of Hanoi. You have the lake central to it all, tons of shopping, bars and nightclubs, street vendors and street food, you name it. And, I experienced my first street crossing pretty quick. I cringed so bad the first few times I did it and it was a strange feeling to see all the scooters and mopeds navigate around you. I got used to this pretty quick though and people aren’t moving so fast that they can’t negotiate people and traffic. I walked around the city a bit. The interior streets are really small. Probably no wider than 2.5 cars. People, motorbikes, carts, and cars all share the streets and traffic moves at something like 10 mph. I see many western tourists around me doing the tourist thing.. sitting at bars drinking, walking around, shopping, taking pics, etc. It was easy to blend in. I stopped at a bar to grab a drink. I got charged somethign like 90,000 VND (about $4.30) for a gin and tonic, and while thats still cheaper than the US, I still got ripped off. I didn’t care. I was slowly getting comfy here. I walked around, took pics, looked at goods, merchants spoke broken english trying to cut me a deal on stuff.. I learned how to be a tourist fast.