Introduction to Hanoi

We were fortunate to have two full days to recover before the long ride to the orphanage. We mainly spent this time sleeping and going to the market. I don't recall much else about these two days. The first time you ride a taxi you are immediately aware of the road. It is hard to ignore roads filled with scooters from one side to another. Of course there are cars too, but scooters or small motorcycles are the only transportation for many. There are no rules. Some roads do not have lanes. There seems to be no need because if there are lanes you just pick any lane to drive in, or drive between two lanes for that matter. The first time we took a taxi he had to make a left turn and he just headed out into a sea of scooters and cars coming our way. There really are no rules. They use a honking system that makes it very noisy. Basically you honk when you are coming up on someone to pass. There are hundreds of horns honking at once so I am not sure how you know which horn is directed at you. It seems to work, we always got where we were going. It is not uncommon to have a vehicle or scooter only 2-3 inches from your vehicle. John thought it looked like fun and wanted to rent a scooter. I told him he would last 5 seconds. I am wondering what the learning curve is like when a person first starts driving in Hanoi. Our first hotel was suitable, but not fancy. Our room was quite big, but lacked a few amenities. Eating has been a problem from the beginning but we kind of figured it would be.