At the
moment I am visiting Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, together with my friends
Noralv and Thomas. The people here are very friendly and we have been enjoying
their hospitality. We are staying at Kim Ahn Hotel and I was pleasantly
surprised to discover that a wireless Internet connection was provided freely
for all the guests.

Tonight we
have been have a most delicious and biggest meal I have had for a very long
time at the Au Lac do Brazil Steak Restaurant. We were enjoying a so-called
buffet but it work in the way that waiters continually came to serve all kinds
of meat and salads. We had different beef meat, roast lamb, ham, ribs, chicken,
scrimps, bacon, sausages etc as much as we wanted! I can recommend this
restaurant to everyone visiting Hanoi! Here is a quote from their website:

The specialty served is the Brazilian churrasco,
  which is a buffet of charcoal grilled meats brought to you
  at your table on long skewers. Tender, hot slices of meat
  are carved right in front of you by the ‘passadors,’ waiters
    armed with meat, long knives and friendly smiles.

We have met
with a lot of very nice people. Some of them don’t speak English and that makes
communication a big challenge. Some understand a little bit English and some
are quite good. The traffic is something very special since the streets are
crowded with scooters and motorbikes. They find their way through in very
creative ways.

It is quite
interesting to think about the fact that this nation defeated the great USA.
But even though they won the war, they seem to have lost the cultural was. I
find big advertising posters of all the brands I know from the Western world,
and I see labels with this text: According to American standard. There is not
much that reminds me of the fact that this is a communist country. There is no
obvious difference between Vietnam and so-called democratic countries, as far
as I can see.

We have not
had the best weather while we have been here, so I reckon I am here at the wrong
season!