Our guide, Tuyen, picked us up at the airport and delivered us to our hotel, the Silk Path Hotel. He and Khai, our driver, will be our best friends for the next five days as we explore the city and then later move on to Halong, 3.5 hours away.

It was evening. Tuyen said that weekends here are times for big celebrations. Streets are closed off. People are out until late and music and entertainment is available on the streets. The most popular area is the streets between the lakes only blocks from our hotel. He said we should we take a look. We did.

Wow, complete pandemonium! People, people and more people! But it was exhillerating. And then, of all things, Viet Nam finally won a football match. They beat Iran. CHAOS ensued. Vietnamese flags suddenly appeared. Everyone was buying them and waving them and cheering. They tied red Vietnam sashes around their heads. They honked horns on motor scooters and cars. They shouted, VIET NAM! then clapped three times, CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! over and over. We could help ourselves; we cheered with them!