Beatrix - back higher than front

We've notice that our 9 moth old beatrix the great dane has hind quarters that are taller than her front.  

Reading online, we see that there are many great danes with different growth rates on different parts of their bodies.

http://www.danesonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47427

Not much we can do about it to change any of it as it appears to be more a part of genetics than diet. 

Some forum posts talk about it happening with some of their danes but not others.  

It appears that it also occurs with other large breeds like the mastiff.  

So,  we will appreciate her uniqueness as watch her proportions change as she gets older.

So the hanoi airport needed a water fountain ...

The hanoi airport (HAN) needed a water fountain in the international terminal.  This is the story of how it came to be.
First,  an attentive employee "Bob" noticed that people often get thirsty and installing a water fountain would be a quick and simple way to get the water that already runs in the walls of the airport to the people that need it,  a commercial quality water fountain costs less than $200 and installation can be done in 2 to 3 hours at a cost of about 2-300 dollars with plumbers licensed to work at the airport.

So Bob proposed the idea to his manager "Jim" who agreed it seemed to be a wonderfully simple and quick solution to the problem.  However Jim had been at this much longer than Bob and he knew that there was no such thing as quick and easy.... ever. So jim thought he had better get the facilities committee involved.  The idea of a water fountain was proposed to everyone in the monly committee meeting  and the coversation went something like this 
"okay team, this seems like a simple fix, so I will go ahead and ask a simple question, will people even know what it is is for?"
"What, do you mean we would have to put a sign on it?" 
"If we put a sign on it what would it even say?"
"Well, since we aren't charging for it, I think we should let everyone know that it is free"
"Wouldn't people know that it is free when they see it there?"
"We can't really just have a sign that says water, I think it should say 'Free Water'.  It is short and to the point, wait, where would we put the sign?"
"What if we put the water fountain in a cabinet and mounted the sign on the cabinet?"
"A cabinet sounds fine but is the sign going to be big enough to read?"
"We could make the cabinet wide enough that it will fit 5 to 9 cm tall letters.  That sounds easy for such a small phrase as 'Free Water'"
"We need to have two languages right? What if the cabinet gets too wide with the translation?" 
"We could just add counters to the side if it is wider than the sink part of the fountain"
"I don't want cluttered counters, I hate cluttered counters, I don't want anyone putting there luggage and stuff on the counters"
"let's just put a sticker telling people not to put luggage on the counters" 
"Or trash or kids or anything else!  AND we don't want people putting trash or anything in the sink either"
"We'll just put stickers on the counter for all of those things,  I like the type with a red circle and a slash through the middle like the no smoking sign, people really understand they are not supposed to do something when they see those"
"I agree that people know what NOT to do when they see those signs, but perhaps we should tell them that we want them to just 'keep the area clean', you know,  in addition to those cool red circle things"
"I would really like to have the uncluttered stickers on top of the counter ONLY.  Perhaps we can fit a note on the front of the cabinet, the letters can be smaller since we are only worried about people that are close seeing this message."
"You know,  I think we should change the word 'Water' to 'Drink'  they can't really take the water with them without drinking it."
"What if they don't know how to get their free drink, we better put a small note on the cabinet about how to push the button for water" 
"I think you mean 'Push the button to drink' and can we add an picture next to that note showing a person drinking?"
"Okay, what's next,  what about kids? How tall is this going to be? I thinks adults will use it most"
"Yeah but we should add a step to the front so that kids can also use it"
"That means that the adults will have to bend over to drink from it, can we update the picture to show them bent over"
"Looks like we have come up with a plan in record time, great collaboration on this.  Any other thoughts?"
"I think this fountain and the collaboration that went into this will be a great show piece for the airport, I think we can get someone to sponsor this" 
"We have an extra TV perhaps we can make this sponsorship rotate and we can sell even more ads"
"This doesn't mean we have to rethink the signs does it?"
"No, I think we can find a way to have the sign makers build a sign which incorporates space for an ad TV.
"Sounds great, I think that settles it,I will write up a memo to let Bob know his idea has been approved with a couple of improvements."

Congrats HAN on a masterful drinking fountain

Quick visa on arrival to hanoi

I bought my ticket to hanoi only 7 days before my planned arrival in hanoi.  Based on the way It went the first time I would have had to mail my passport to the vietnamese embassy and it likely would not have been back in time.  Instead I waited until 12 hours before the trip and I purchased a "Visa on arrival" from a travel agent.  I paid extra (29 instead of 19) to get the one day turn around instead of the standard two day turn around.  
I just selected the most professional modern looking site at the top of the Google search results
My first problem was that I put on my application the wrong date.  I was hurrying and miscalculated my arrival date.  I quickly emailed the support address and but they weren't open fir the day yet.  My flight took of at 6 am the next day which gave the company a full business day to respond. They had the visa by midnight and I printed out two copies.  I also printed out two application forms as recommended on the email.

I had to show the vietnam visa on arrival letter at the sandiego airport before they would allow me to board.

I filled out the application forms on the final vietnam leg.

When I showed up at noibai airport there was a counter where the person accepted from me the passport and page 1 and two of the visa letter and told me to go sit down.  He did not take two copies of the visa letter.  And he also did not take even one copy of the application form I filled out.

I started in line at 10:59 PM and was sitting down.  And I had visa in my hand at 11:20 .  They never requested the application forms that I filled out.  

They only took one of the two passport pictures and it only cost 25 USD.   I haven't added it up yet,  but I think this is the way to go over a more formal VISA through the Embassy.

Hanoi cab drivers are crazy to Americans

While most of the americans I have traveled with to Hanoi will say that cab drivers are crazy and that a cab drive was a harrowing experience.  I disagree for the most part.  It is the traffic and the seemingly unorganized flow of traffic that seems to be the most distressing.  Most cab drivers (or any drivers for that matter) are actually not crazy or erratic,  but rather doing the best they can to  get where they need to go.  I have never really understood the erratic honking though.  I think it has something to do with warning other people that you are there,  but the funny thing is that everyone knows that someone is there because there is nary a square meter without a vehicle( motor bike ,  taxi, truck, car, bicycle or pedestrian).

Tonight I found a person that really needed to be an erratic taxi cab driver with honking.  He had turrets syndrome and had a huge number of ticks.  He was constantly giving nose snorts / blows,   clicking sounds,  finger cracking and almost whiplash worthy head shakes (think violent Justin Bieber head shake on crack).   Anyway,   the horn honking appeared to b part of his Turrets and while I did not figure out what order he liked to do it,  there were long periods of time when there was no honking followed by  episodes of clicking, head shaking, nostril sounds, finger cracking fit in with random seeming honks.   I realize that this does not explain all honking,  but I know that it really fit for him,  he was a very happy person and he was excited and happy to be driving.

Narita with 45 minutes to spare

I am flying through narita - Tokyo and have a few minutes to kill so I thought I would throw out some random notes about the airport. 
When transferring through internationally it is very quick.  You do have to rescan your carryon items though.  I got to leave my shoes on, but they had a rule that said  I had to put my huge backpack into a bin.  Even though the bin was too small and all(most) other airports allow it to go through not awkwardly perched angled in a bin.
The conversion currently is $10 is about 100 yen.
Trying to read Japanese and figure out what something says even when you have some context does not work at all.
The airport has those automated walkways going only one direction. It is probably because there is not enough room for two and they all head towards the gates to possibly help people get to their gates ontime.
Toilets are wierd

You can rent a shower room

Victoria secret is here....

Luggage carts in the international terminal appears to be free and just randomly parked everywhere.  

Kohls new method of low budget advertising - post its

I noticed this new method of in-aisle advertising at Kohls.

I am not sure if it was actually an intentional advertising campaign, or if it was some sort of in progress category swap, but I know I paid much more attention to the product and I read each of four of them on the aisle.  It is probably related to the fact that we use them as a reminder at the office and if I see one I always tke a quick look.  Perhaps the method of marketing is worth looking at for retail.

Pedicures @ Q nails

This is my 4th pedicure and the pedicurist convinced me to go with gel.  This is new to me so they had to explain it to me.
The put on primer, then a coat of gel and 15 seconds of ultraviolet light then another coat and more uv light. 
Then they are dry immediately.  Supposedly they last longer and stay shiny the entire time.

We will se about that.

Unexpected fun time - puppet show at woodland empire

Drake bought tickets for a ominous puppet show at woodland Empire. I like their beer and I always have a good time anytime I do something with Drake so I figure this will be a good time. D venue is small and since Drake family and I took an extra long time lock stock and barrel for dinner we show up about 5 minutes late. Our tickets have been given away to the waitlist and we ended up standing against the wall for the first time drinking a delicious beer. I typically like standing up after working all day and a chair but after a while and the show didn't mind getting a seat at intermission halfway through. I had never seen anything like the show, an artistic person probably would've recognized artistic things that were doing but there were some elements I just didn't understand. In general though entertained things I've never seen before certain comedy shows with puppets, gentlemen who was hosting the show area comedic wind and introduced several varying types of acts from two or three people wandering around in space to A couple of teenagers Ouija board experience with a new trainee Haunter. The most interesting thing to me was A progressive four different scenes that happened throughout the night where a baby will it sit up scared of the coat rack. It seemed to move and he would shine a light on it and realize it was just a coat rack. With shadows and some other effects they were able to make it move and be very creepy. I expected the worst in the final chapter.  

In all I really enjoyed it, I think about you more local Theater quick shows the last minute

London imported gin and tonic

I was in Boise when i cracked the bottle Doug brought from London and gave me in Hanoi.

Let see how delicious the Gin and Tonic ( with lotsa olives) is

Beatrix - fits in the back of the suv

Beatrix has to either lay down, or stand and duck.  She can only sit if she funds something to sit on that is raised so that her head does not hit the ceiling.

Puppy anger

Or is it love

My poor impala body is locked up

Last October I started getting the impala body worked on.  They finished the doors and panels, and then we had the frame and body hauled over to the body guys house.  He pulled it off the frame and we brought the frame home.  And the body has sat in his garage since then.  Many excuses and texts and calls.  I may just lose money on the money I prepaid him and just take the body back incomplete.

I am not sure but it seems as though run dmc and beastie boys are timeless

1968 impala rear axle - panhard bar fit with oversized pumpkin

We purchased a larger aluminum differential cover.  And now it is causing us some problems with the panhard bar not clearing the cover so we can install it. So we have to find some other panhard bar option.

Impala 68 - rear axle

Over the weekend sam and I finished installing the disc brakes on the rear axle.  And we connected the axle to the frame using the lower control arms.  In order to do this we had to raise the frame higher so that we make the connections.  We placed the frame on a couple of produce tables.

Next step will be to figure out if we can get the pan hard bar to fit next to the pumpkin cover.  Also we need to get the upper control arm Frame bracket sand blasted and powder coated.

Partying in vietnam

The smallest cab DOES fit 6 people

Food in vietnam

There are many styles of food in vietnam.  While I only experienced a small portion of what was likely available.  There is some food that is delicious,  some that is easier to stomach and some that my pallette could only take once.  Here are some pictures of what I saw.
On the way to hanoi on korean air business class they fed me a couple of times.  Both times i picked korean food.  In the picture below I can remember what it was called but the meat was tasty. However the beef was served with very large chunks of fatty gristle which I could not eat.  The peppers (top left) were good,  however the vinegar / pickled veggies (top middle) had an overly pungent vinegar flavor and I only ate one.

The easiest consumable to deal with was beer, and we found plenty of it.  The tastiest though is not from vietnam,  it is tiger beer from thailand and I will search it out when I get home.  I really like it.  Vietnam beer has a distinct taste of a somewhat un natural chemical.  I found the sam flavor in a noi beer and in Saigon beer. (Although Saigon beer us better because it has less of the taste)

In addition to local beer it seems the country loves it's German beer.  We happened into many places that specialized in German beer only (and we also found an Austrian beer festival)

Heineken found it's way into many citywide travels as we found different caberet, gay, techno clubs and after hours tombs (wait was that all one night)

Aside of beer we also stopped by what looked to be a chain of some sort that had fried chicken (Gà) and saw the gang Nam guy sponsoring some sort of korean juju or wine.  We ordered it ip and found it to be filtered sake.  

While the beer and wine was good, really they were not really unique in any significant way.  But the coffee was.  For some reason every one seemed to think that vietnam coffee was amazing, but the coffee itself seemed about the same to me.  The unique aspect was how they served it.  Anytime you ordered coffee they asked if you wanted it hot or iced.  I always took it hot.  They would also ask if you wanted it with cream, and here is where the whole country is somewhat inconsistent.  Some places serve it black with a side of cream, others serve it with cream added others will use sweetened condensed milk. And this last one is what I really like.  The sweetened condensed milk goes to the bottom and has to be stirred in order to mix.  Sometimes they would give a very small amount and sometimes much more (I liked much more).  

They always served it in the same style cup, and I always drank all of it.

Back to food,  the best of all food is certainly Pho (said "fah") noodles in broth with either chicken or beef and green onions sprouts and parsley (I pick around the parsley) typically there is something cilia sauce, hot peppers and other veggies. The beef is added when it is only partially cooked and it finished cooking in the broth.  

It is tasty and unique, yet it does not have foreign flavors that could turn off my taste buds.  Even though I ate it many times it appears I only have one photo.

Pho was common at breakfast even though it seems more like an American dinner.  Another breakfast food for me was congee,  a grits or oatmeally like textured rice dish,   with sides of peanuts, some sort of onion straw bits, eggs and century eggs.  The first time I had it I ate every drop,  it was sweet like it already had brown sugar and butter in it  (that's the way I like my oatmeal).  But by the end of the week, my stomach had started to tense up a bit at the sight of it so I stopped eating it. I think I will try again in the future, but I might add my own sugar since it did not seem to have enough after the first time

--no picture of the congee--

Also note able is the street food,  almost any food could be found on almost any street with varying levels of cleanliness.  One that I liked was the chicken and hot dog like meat on a stick.  They were already cooked most of the time and sitting in the open air waiting for you to order.  Then when you order they would heat it up again by setting  it on the coals. (I thought it was cool when they used a beat up fan tk blow on the coals and make them extra hot)

A suprise treat was some un identified food, it was about 7pm and a random corner was packed with people so doug and I sat down and let this guy ask what we want,  we pointed at a rice dish and said 2. Pretty quick we were given rise with some sauce which was about 50/50 mixed  with the rice (so it was not rice with a sauce,it was more like a sauce with some rice in it)  the dish was delicious and I tried to take a picture of it so I can figure out what we just ate.

We also has fried chicken at the vietnamese version. Of buffalo wild wings.  Nothing special here except that possibly because it was a chain I had problems getting them to give me some of the delicious sauces they had on the wings, put on to the  chicken strip which were boneless.  Ultimately I just ordered chicken strip with a side of chili sauce.  They came back and said there would be an extra charge I said how much and they said I will check, she came back and said there would be no charge.  I got my chicken strip but the side never came..I guess that what I get for being picky about chicken bones.

At one point we were walking around the railroad station, and we realized there were very few tourists, I suggested we get something to eat and Doug says "like rat" and I say "probably not"  and then I realize why he said it

 we did not eat anything on that street even though it appeared that later on down that street there was a flow of water raising up from the sidewalk as though the whole place was built on a fresh natural spring.

Even though the place is full of ethnic vietnamese food, there is still lots of foreign food which is easier on the stomach.  We has beef fried rice at an German beer restaurant

World travel liquor

It is a good thing I didn't buy some liquor in vietnam yet.  Cuz my brother showed up in Hanoi with some dry gin from London.  A 40th birthday present.  Only 1 liter will get past customs.  I will take this back to seoul and the boise.

Thanks doug!

Seoul for a couple hours by subway

I got on the train and figured I should take some pictures of the maps it was I  the phone.  Although I lost Internet when I left the airport.  I got on the subway and headed for seoul station. First experience was I sat down in a section of 3 empty seats.  They were the only empty one in this subway car.  Immediately two ladies cam in and I offered the seats to them and they were very embarrassed and refused even though one of them was much older and would have appreciated sitting down.  I said please which they said back to me gesturing to take the seat.  I stood for a whole and when the doors shut I sat down.

A stop later three guys, all older than me came in, and they made a big show of offering the seats ti the oldest,I stood up to offer it to the third who had no seat and he said oh no and physically helped me in my seat.  He them made a joke about the oldest guy who had white hair. 

The old guy was next to me and he said something g to me that I did not understand.  Then he said "KOREAN"AND I said american.  And that was all of the communication we had. 

One of the guys was drunken and smelled like a sweet type of alcohol.  He was very expensive and made wild funny gestures. Speaking animatedly.  I enjoyed watching them.

Two of them left halfway to my destination and when I noticed that one of them seemed to be getting on wifi,  I showed him my wifi screen to ask about an Internet connection.  He immediately started trying to figure out how to get me to myeongdong.  HR had an app on his phone and he probably said transfer train about 100 times.  I tried to say I understood but he was still helping. He got up found done e who spoke english.  I told them thank you I know where I am going they said okay and sat down. He seemed embarrassed and stayed standing so I invite him to sit down and he said thank you and sat down.  I told him my name and  he said hi name was Le. He said thank you.   I turned on international roaming opened google translate and typed out.  Thank you for being helpul he was visibly relieved.  After a while his concious was eating at him.  He started to tell me again to change line four.  I said ok, thank you and understtand.  And finally he said okay. I am going with you.  (He had told me he was getting off before my stop previously )  I convinced him I am okay and he went on his way.   Unfortunately I did not learn anything from le.  Except that it is a good idea to get an offline translate app before you travel without internet.

I got off the train and walked about 1/2 mile to Get On Line 4. However, line 4 was ambiguous marked (some 1s and some 4s)  I found it though and read the map.  I didn't watch the trains to find d out which direction they travel,  but I know know the travel to the left.  So I picked correct and a 10 minute rife later I am in myeong-dong.

I picked this place arbitrarily so I have no idea what to expect(the first trip advisor search said there is some night life here) so I go in search of some food and maybe a place to sleep and shower. 

I find a treasure trove of activity.  Block after block teaming with people and products.  Tons of vendors some on carts and makeshift tables I  the middle of the street, others are stores lining the streets.  Some shops are large corporate storefronts, others are tiny, some are only 4ft wide.  Some are just doorways that open to a set of stairs going up or down to the actual shop.  There is advertising EVERYWHERE storefronts,  freestanding signs, and on the stairfronts.  A come things is for restaurants to have someone out front with a large two sided menu that you could look at, they would hand it to you and then say okay and start to lead you upstairs or whatever.  Kindof a neat trick to get you to follow in order to return the menu.  I ate some fish pancake on a stick made by a street vendor on and ancient looking grill and cart. It was excellent after I let it cool.(although not as sweet as the one I had at gang am in boise) .  He also gave me a cup of tea looking stuff that would have melted my throat if I had tried to drink it.  I had to get rid of it and set it down it was burning my fingertips off through the cup. 
I also found someone selling g fried octopus balls.  I went mild instead of spicy and I was bummed. It was real octopus inside but it was a very chewy chunk probably from a large tough octopus,  not at all tender like the grilled smaller octopus tentacles.

I continued to wander and found a hotel built 7 stories high and only 12 feet wide.  It was about 110000 a night.  Since it was the first I looked at. The guy didn't want me to leave so he knocked it down to 90000.  I left anyway and ended up at a wider place but with only tiny rooms 54000 (after the discount he gave immediately when i did not respond to his initial 60000 price).  The bathroom had a shower toilet all in one.  No power outlets and the bed was a single.  The walls were thin and I only slept a d ew hours got up and showered and left by 230 am. I was worried about getting g back t ok the airport on the subway and when I went out to check it out I found out that the subways closed.  But at first I had no idea where to look to find the schedule, eventually after wandering between stations i find a sign with firat train and last traun times, and the first train showed up at about 5 am and that would not leave me anytime at the airport to check out the vip lounge.  So I wandered looking for a running bus or something cheap.  I was drawn by some neon signs bcause most of the crazy french quarter stuff was gone,  and I found a wierd are that was all about children's clothes, like infant clothes, and there were dozens and dozens of stores still open and being restocked.  I found a place in the midst of them and had some poki (?) And it was spicy.  I could only handle about half of it it was really good at first but the texture started to be enough.  I had enough and went in search of a ride.  I walked about a mile I  the direction of the aurport,  and then I turned on my roaming data on my phone and quickly realized I was walking the wrong way. So I grabbed a cab and paid 54000 for the 54 km to the airport (For price reference the subway was less than 5000 but took the sam amount of time because the subway went straight into town but the cab driver had to take a freeway that went all the way  around about way.)

BOI - PDX - YVR - ICN - HAN

In boise Lamont and I showed up at the airport about 5 to 5 and split up to go to our different airlines even though we were going to the same airport SEA.  However,  I quickly found out that I was actually going going to PDX. The flight was quick (I sat next to MIMI who was going to missoula) and when Lamont asked if I wanted to meet up in sea to get breakfast I had to tell him,  oops. I am at pdx.

My phone did not update the time and I wondered why nobody was there to board me even though the flight took off in only 20 minutes.  I figured it out and just waited.  Eating rolos  and a Starbucks bagel (just plain, they were out of asiago)

Since I was traveling with 100 dollar bills and j wanted to be able to buys stuff cheap (with dollar bills ) on hanoi I bought everything with the big bills to get more ones and fives.

Landed in YVR gonna turn in customs form, get charged up and find the long flight.

But wait,  I am not canadian,  so I shouldn't have put an entry onto that part of the form and the auto customs machine kept spitting it back at me.  The lady said it was a green ink issue but I knew I needed to leave part c blank and the machine knew that with green ink.  But I filled another one out. With blue ink.

Went through customs with some very inquisituve questions. (Pot is now legal in Oregon kinda now).  Lost my new headphones , got told that reentry into interational customs is not okay, even in canada.  Found a wall charger location and shared it with a friendly guy who flew home from pdx, after a hawaii business trip and went through a very quick security screen.

I sat down at the closest charge station and plugged in the usb.after about 5 minutes the phone was still at 2% so decided I would try the cube and I started charging immediately.    I shouldn't have wasted precious time on a USB attempt.

After charging up to about 10% where I could take pictures again decided to go up to the booth and just say hi since it's only 45 minutes to my flight. There's a couple of very nice ladies speaking very animated lady in Korean and one of them said just one moment and I saw him pointing at a list. I peeked at it and saw my name was one of two that was not yet highlighted so I set hi my name is Michael Blood and they said Michael business class you should check in earlier so you can go to the lounge. I said darn. Then we had a discussion about my baggage . They said they were concerned that they couldn't find my bag so I told them it was checked all the way through t seoul. So they didn't need to worry about it I didn't think. They said okay and then ask to see my visa in order to get into hanoi. It's kind of interesting that they needed to check for that on this leg of the flight. The thing that was the most confusing that had to be figured out was that I was on a flight to know that I will be taking my bag in Korea staying overnight and then getting back on a flight in the morning in Korea to go to hanoi.  Once they understood that things were no longer a problem and it was not a big deal that I no longer have my baggage tag. When one of the gentleman overheard that I was staying in South Korea he said do you already have your hotel booked. I said no but I asked if he had any recommendations. He said no there are too many good ones.

As I arrive in seoul.  The shear number of people is large. Or course plenty of Koreans but  lots of other nationalities too.  We take 3 walkways and an escalator to a tram. To an up escalator to a HUGE line.  The line said baggage claim and people were just piling in.  There were lots of others  going around the line strait but not near as many as we're getting in the line.  I waited for a second and then decided I would go find out what was down the other lane.  At the end of the lane there was another similar line that was much shorter but the signs said immigration  and baggage claim.  I wasn't sure what that would mean so I asked someone that was at a line that said visa (there was noone i  this line) and they said it didn't matter,  whichever.  So I got in the short one .  The line would e around several switchbacks but I was shuffling g forward ever 20 or 30 seconds.  A friendly girl from China was in line behind me and she spoke nervously to her mom for a moment and then said in very broken English where from you.  I said united states to a blank stare.  Her mom thought about it for a moment and then explained "USA".

As I was in line,  the announcements kept repeating and I finally listened and they said.  If you have diarhea, abdominal cramps, or some other stuff, ease report to the quarantine office to avoid speak of o fectious disease.

I approached the end of the line after about 30 minutes.  But in line it was rather fun with the girl constantly asking questions.  And finally asking to take a picture with me.  (Her mom pointed to the questions. On a translation app on her phone.)  I said yes I took a self with her too.   I gave her a business card and when she realized that was what I was about to do, her mom said something to her and I could see her physically get ready to receive it.  She received it with both hands and bowed at me.  She was 7.  

A s I went through the line. A lady on s switchback dropped something.  We were moving kind of quickly so I kind of messed up the queue when I helped the lady get her paper (all i really did was help point it out to someone else who handed it to her)  the daughter talked to her mom and they used a translation app to say three word "you help people" which she said many times.  I said yes.  We ended up next to eachother in the final queue and she said bye, and I said by.  And then slowly, and in my most Asian sounding way (I don't why I say things differently when talking to someone that is foreign) i say "nice to meet you".  Which is the first thing she understands and repeats back to me, giggling.  So cool.  

After I go out I am directed to a baggage carousel which has my bag and a dozen others waiting.  I think I took the long line.  Everyone else is gone.

I wonder around and find departures on the third floor.  I try to check in my bag but they will only accept it 2 hours before the flight.  I ask about a locker and the person said no lockers,  I ask for another option and they said hanging and pointed down the way.  I didn't know what that meant but I walked down and found a place that was packing boxes for frieght.  I finally went ip and found that they would just hold your bag and give you a ticket fo 9000 (covers ion rate was 1150)  so I did it. And went in search of the subway.  I wondered around for a bit and followed signs to the airport railroad.  Turns out there are two of the railroads on is a subway.  So I bought a ticket to myeongdong for 4250 and followed the increasingly cryptic signs to a subway.  A very helpful person let me know that I just needed to get on the current train and take it to seoul station (which appears to be the end destination for this train)  then she showed me on my map that myeongdong was only two stops down on train 4. I got on the train and left the airport.

I got my bag out of hanjin in a matter of moments and then just before the Korean airlines counters opens a huge line of people developed.  Then a loud music played and all of the attendants came out and stood in front of their stations while some pledge played to promise good custo.er service or so thing.   It was cool.  The prestige line had 20,people in front of me.  It saved me probably an hour.

Security was quick but since it had not opened there was a line waiting for it to open as well.  It took about 30 minutes and most of that time was the agents making sure that they carefully put each person through one at a time.  Then I got an awesome beer and breakfast in the prestige  lounge got on the flight watched a movie and arrived in hanoi.

After getting off the flight in hanoi. The customs line was one minute outside of the plane, but it took about 25 minutes in line but then was very quick.  I didn't have ti declare anything.  Grabbed my bag and out in 30 minutes. There were several middle-aged men whispering taxi, trying to drum up business. However I didn't feel comfortable I went up to one of those buses that several people are getting on and I figured that he would need a right to make sure everyone who sitting together paid the same amount. Also he's not just trying to sell a single person on it and have them any of them so I wandered around a bit more trying to find out what the taxi calling situation was. I was not able to find easily a rate so I went up to a taxi driver with multiple seats in his van he was trying to fill. Instead of one person being his entire fare he needed to be having a price that will work for several people. I asked him what the rate was to the area of town I needed to go to about 4 blocks south of the . He said it would be $3 then I agreed but when he hadn't filled two seats we all agreed to pitch in another box of you would just go which we all do he colleed the money and then two more people came and got in the car. Then we stayed to town and I spoke with the two German gals next to me which were going on a hostel backpacking journey.  The roads are crazy and he only brought me to downtown Hanoi next to the lake. Ethan said someone else would help me as well and the guy was more than willing to help me get on his motorcycle however I told him that if you really wanted to charge me $4 I will just walk so he said $2 and he drove me in the completely wrong direction at first then when he realizes mistake he turned around and got me right where I need to be.