A little journey through Vietnam

I planned a lot of trips in the last twelve months, most of which we never actually went on, but we finally managed to get ourselves on a plane headed west, with Vietnam and Korea as the destinations of choice. As usual I worked my behind off the week before getting work stuff in order, and finally finished the last work task about 2 the morning before our flight. We grabbed a flight to Incheon first and were fortunate enough to grab 2 really great seats (1 A and K) and settled in to eat, enjoy the wine and some movies. I can strongly recommend the Tarlant Brut Prestige 2008 Champagne, and the Ogier Chateauneuf-Du-Pape Les Closiers 2007 that was being served on board. I finally got a chance to see Dinner for Schmucks, A*team and Centurion, none of which I was really very excited about. When we landed in Incheon, we had to go find the transfer desk to check in for the partner airline we were flying on, and we had a few hours to kill anyway. The airport is about what you'd expect, more modern than is absolutely necessary, and an automated voice in multiple languages for every piece of moving equipment possible. We got some really tasty Korean food, that you ordered on one floor and then went upstairs to collect and eat at the Food Capital. We had a pretty easy flight from Incheon to Hanoi, sitting in coach, but for the length of the flight it was tolerable. Our pre-arranged driver was waiting for us at the airport with a sign with my name on it. (Doesn't that always feel good, to get to a strange place and see your own name?)By the time we arrived in Hanoi it was late, so the streets were as quiet as we'd see for the rest of the trip. I saw a lot of places during the drive that we'd eventually pass or stop at on foot, since the trip into town is made difficult by random one way streets that made going past our destination necessary before actually getting there. When we arrived at the Quoc Hoa Hotel, we were tired, it was late, and we decided to play it safe and crawl into bed. It would be a while before our schedule allowed us much time to rest.