Saturday, January 11th, 2020

Friday, 10.1.20, 10 PM

There's breakfast. My body asks me if I'm crazy! Shit, it's already Saturday, 4 AM! They are 6 hours ahead of us in Vietnam. My body now asks me since when I have breakfast at 4 AM in the morning. I have no idea.

Saturday, 11.1.2020, 6 AM local time, midnight in Germany and for me. I should sleep now. But I can't. We just landed. Passport control. Multiple queues. Ours will be the longest. The young man in the uniform has to put two stamps in the passport. It strains him a lot! Alright, done. Get the luggage and out to the bus. The chameleon man was also immediately there. Checking names. Ah, today a second chameleon group is arriving at the same time. That's why the name list is not correct.

And once again my body speaks to me. But with a forked tongue. The head says it's winter. A bit too warm for the season, but still winter. The rest of me says: take off the jacket. Immediately! It's humid and warm. 7 AM in the morning.

Off to the hotel, travel time significantly shorter than indicated. It's going well. Quite a lot of scooters on the way.

Breakfast at the hotel. Very nice. Noodle soup for breakfast on request. Okay! I'm modern and open-minded. The coffee can wake the dead. And our group. It's warm. Oh, I still have the compression stockings on. Off with them.

We want to go to the lake. Did they say left right left at the reception? Or right left right. Doesn't matter, we go. Were there really a lot of scooters on the way earlier? That could still be significantly increased. In Hannover, electric scooters are now standing on the sidewalk. It's sometimes annoying. It feels like you can hardly get through. That's completely different in Hanoi. The sidewalks are full. Full of scooters! Squeezing through? Forget it. So, onto the road. With pedestrians, bicycles, scooters, tricycles, cars, buses. And we're in the middle. German time: 3 AM in the morning. What's the most important part of a scooter or car? Right, the horn. What does the brochure say: when crossing the road, do NOT look at the other road users, maintain a steady pace, do not stop. A scooter right behind me, a scooter right in front of me. Everything flows. Sweat too. Everything is fine.

Around the lake. Calm traffic. Too bad! First sightseeing. A shrine on a small island. Admission. 30,000 Dong. One Euro 20. This will be a nice calculation. Long live the app on the mobile. The shrine is very magnificent. Also for the benefit of the patron saint of the doctors. Fits. Three out of the six of us are doctors.

12 o'clock. The tour around the lake is over. Preparations for the New Year's festival are everywhere. It's still warm. And humid. Sleep? No chance. But thirsty. The stalls seem to have bought up all the kindergarten stools worldwide. We will never get up again (at our age). What the heck. It's warm, etc., etc.. So, first a beer. Oops, that hits hard. Hopefully the rooms are ready now. I am ready in any case. By the way, our hotel is called La Siesta. And that's what we're going to do now. In 5 hours we'll go out again.

At around 5 PM we're on the go again. Through the old town. Endless hustle and bustle. Luckily you can hear the scooters, because many drive without lights. Now we're going to eat something, two beers and a cocktail at the hotel. Good night, Vietnam.