March 12 - 13 - Arrival in Hanoi

The 16-hour travel time from home to the Lucien Lakeside Hotel in Hanoi is long, but considering that you are then in a completely new world, it's not so bad.

The flight goes smoothly, with two meals and plenty of movies making the time fly by relatively quickly.

In Hanoi, a driver picks us up from the hotel and makes the normally 40-minute journey to the Old Quarter in about 30 minutes. I thought of little Janosch: 'Dad, are we overtaking everyone again?'.

Since it's only a bit past six in the morning, we have to wait until our room is ready, so we first have breakfast at the hotel and then spend some time taking a walk around the Hoan Kiem Lake.

At ten o'clock we can check into our room and catch up on some sleep until the afternoon.

Then we stroll a bit more through Hanoi, have coffee, enjoy happy hour on the rooftop (an important thing in Hanoi), and have dinner at the hotel. Finally, we have a nightcap in front of the hotel and watch the soup kitchen across the street close down.