“Go back to sleep.” I hear from from Chris as I see from the light of my phone that it’s 1:38am.

Damn, I thought it would be much later. We had gone to sleep just before 8pm. Yesterday was our first day in Hanoi on return trip to Southeast Asia.

I fought the clock for a few more hours, surprised that I actually went back to sleep. But here I am now, totally awake and ready to recount the events of yesterday.

As I sit in bed, in the dark, tapping the keyboard on my phone, I can hear roosters crowing and the sound of bells ringing from a nearby cathedral over the low drone of the room’s air conditioning unit.

The Return

Our return to Southeast Asia is significant for a few reasons. For one, we’re here to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary (happening next month). It’s fitting that we’d go on an adventurous trip since this type of travel has been a thread throughout our marriage. We’re so grateful that we both love to travel this way.

Beyond our anniversary, the trip is a continuation of one we started in 2008 on our ’round the world bike journey. Back then, Chris and I pedaled through Thailand north from Bangkok to Chiang Mai before flying over to Laos. We intended to continue east to Vietnam but Chris had a major wheel failure and we found ourselves booking tickets home to Colorado after 6 short weeks. At the time we made the comment that “we’ll get back someday.”

I’m not sure either one of us actually believed what we said, but here we are, nine years later.

Hanoi

After only a day, I’m really liking Hanoi. It definitely has the old world charm I was hoping to find. We’re staying in the Old Quarter near Hoan Kiem Lake so that helps. From our hotel we have to navigate a few narrow streets, lined with trees and food vendors to get out into the thick of things.

Yesterday we took it easy and did a walking tour around the Old Quarter, finding some of the things that make us happy travelers. So far the city is very visitor friendly: easy to navigate on foot with plenty of interesting culture and great food.

Among many memorable moments from the day, walking through the open air market stands out the most. There was a cacophony of sights, sounds and smells. The frying oil smelled nutty while the fresh chunks of meat were musky. Perhaps the strongest scent was that of Star Anise, a go-to spice in Vietnamese cooking. It was definitely a nice place to linger for a few moments.