Barbara's Travel Blog: The agony and the drink

Last night was my first night in the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel, as the first night they were overbooked and put me up at a hotel a few doors down. The hostel has a great vibe, comfortable beds, friendly owners, and a great group of fellow travelers.

Yesterday was the second anniversary of when they opened their doors, so they threw a little shindig on the roof, with free beer and vodka, and a trivia drinking game. After a few hours, the party moved to a bar down the street, where free drinks continued to magically appear in my hand.

Given the circumstances, I don't think anyone could blame me for getting completely toasted. I was kicking myself this morning though, when I had to get up at 7am for a day-long city and countryside tour by motorbike.

My guide, Ting, was a very friendly local arranged through the hostel, and kept me laughing much of the day with silly jokes.

My favorite spot of the morning was Hanoi's oldest university (dating from the 11th century). The site itself was only moderately interesting, but the fun part was all the schoolchildren who were fascinated by me (presumably because I'm white, but I don't know for sure). The whole time I was there they kept running up to me to say hello and ask my name. I was also stopped by some military men who wanted to have their photo taken with me. It felt a bit like what I suppose celebrities feel like most days.

We also visited Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum (creepy), his lakeside houses (pretty but boring), and the Ho Chi Minh museum (tremendously boring). By this point the Advil keeping my headache at bay was wearing off, and the hordes of tourists were grating on my nerves.

After a butt-numbing ride around a huge lake (during which I did at least get some good photos), we stopped for an authentic Vietnamese lunch, which was fabulous but not enough to motivate me to get back on the bike for another four hours. I ended the tour early, and headed back to the hostel to slouch around in the common room for the afternoon.