Hanoi is a force to be reckoned with. I arrived on a night bus at 6am pulled back my curtain and the first thing I saw was a table on the street stacked with deep fried dogs! A woman was sawing off the dogs heads and putting them in a bowl (you can see this snap shot in my pictures above). Unbelievable! The people are rude, the city is smoggy and overpopulated. The owner of my guesthouse was Australian and has a golden retriever. He said he has had his dog gone “missing” several times and has to run into the market to find his dog in a cage ready for the butcher!
I was stressed out in Hanoi and ready to get out of this communist recklessness. I signed up for a bit of culinary distraction as the swanky Metropole Hotel has a famous afternoon Chocolate Buffet for 20 USD. The cost at the time seemed truly outrageous as a hotel stay is 5 dollars and a typical meal is no more than two dollars. So I splurged on a decadent chocolate buffet and relaxed with two friends from Melbourne poolside. At the airport I waved goodbye with my middle finger and did not look back.
