Life in Hanoi
Well, I said sayonara to Japan (literally) on July 28, 2025. And English student met me at a train station and stayed with me to the airport, and even treated me to a great lunch in a very crowded food court. The VietJet plane was a bit late getting off, but arrived a few minutes early. I was surprised to hear the CA say that a bottle of water was 5usd, and even more surprised to see that at the scanning tables you had to throw all your water bottles, but could buy later inside and take on the planes. Not a very smart system.
So after 5 hours of waterlessness, I touched down at a tiny airport which serves 9 million people. It reminded me a bit of the Nashville, TN airport of 45 years ago, but not so swanky. I had to fill out a long form, and could finally do it after waiting over 5 minutes for someone to appear at the counter. Then I had to pay 2usd to get my pic taken. My pickup team from the school had a problem, so after telling around 6 or 7 scammers trying to get me to use their Grab (like Uber) service, I decided to buy a little sandwich and a drink – nice, but not cheap.
In Hanoi!
Then my pickup team – yay! 
It was cool riding in their true Grab ride, and seeing the garish skyscrapers coming into Hanoi at night – like a disco. They dropped me off at the school, and my roommate and one teacher accompanied me to the apt which is on the 18th floor of a building around a 90-second walk away. Large apt. with 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. Bunk beds reminded me of when I was a kid! 
3 air conditioners! Loud noise from the nearby Thang Long road which is probably the biggest in Hanoi!!! 
Then the new roommate went somewhere, and I was left to figure out that I had no drinking water and no toilet paper. Ummmmm, OK.
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