We had a restful sleep, and I woke up early (time zone change). It was a beautiful morning

HALONG BAY VIDEO CLIP:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1chm9yxi492pubx/15.3.31.Halong%20Bay.MOV?dl=0

First thing on the schedule today is a short stop at an island with some elevated observation areas. I made the climb, and the view was beautiful. There are lots of boats on the water today. After the island stop, we began to head back to the pier for our drive back to Hanoi. While we cruised back, they served a great breakfast. We ate really well on this cruise.

This was the view halfway up. This is as far as I chose to climb

The cruiser in the background was ours.

Back on land, our guide and driver were waiting, and we started the drive back to Hanoi. Traffic is lighter today and the back is quicker. There were still some of those hair-raising moments when drivers were passing each other in both directions on narrow roads. As we got back to Hanoi, our driver had to make a sudden stop when a car in front decided he had to move into a turning lane (and there wasn’t a hole). A scooter smacked into the back of our car. I’ve been in Asia for almost two years, and haven’t been involved in any wrecks. In less than twenty-four hours, we’ve had two collisions. Beijing will seem peaceful.

This guy had a kite he was trying to carry on the back of the scooter.

Citizens pay homeowners tax based on the width of the home. Lots of tall skinny homes. A wider home bumped them up into the next tax bracket

I was intrigued with how the wires were “carefully” organized on the utility poles. I posted a couple of crazy infrastructure examples.

Back at the hotel, our guide arranged a rickshaw ride through the “Old Quarter”. I thought we’d seen crazy traffic, but this little excursion was eye-opening. This is a crazy town. Check out the two videos below:

Old Quarter rickshaw ride videos: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tkcr0gudisnky77/15.3.31.Hanoi%20Rickshaw.MOV?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8gl32pws1hqlce5/15.3.31.Hanoi%20Rickshaw%202.MOV?dl=0