Impressions of Vietnam

So I did go tubing again that day in Vang Vieng. No worries, I wasn't too drunk. ;) It was great. Thank you for all the concerns including my lifeguard friend, Teresa. ;)

The next morning, we caught the bus to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. There wasn't a whole lot to see there so I'm glad that we didn't spend the previous night there. We did have some tex-mex food. It doesn't have anything on the mexican food that I get in Vancouver or anywhere else in North America, but it did fill the craving.

Later that night, we caught a flight to Hanoi. It was probably the smallest airport that I had ever been through. A total of 12 flights arrive and depart, I think per day. It was a short one hour flight to Hanoi and it was totally worth it instead of a 20-30 hour bus ride from Vientiane to Hanoi.

First impressions of Vietnam??? Very positive. I liked Vietnam right away. It's hard to put into words, but I had good impressions right away. The day that we got in was also leading up to the APEC summit so I don't know if Hanoi was cleaned up better than usual.

There are SO MANY motorbikes in Hanoi. The trick apparently is to walk across streets slowly so that motorbike drivers can swervve around you. If you run, that can be very dangerous. It's quite daunting at first, when you just start walking across a street and there are tons of motorbikes coming at you. Some intersections seem like chaos to me, but somehow it works.

The building style is very interesting in Hanoi. A lot of tall skinny buildings in the French colonial style - with little balconies, and a lot of them are painted bright colours. We stayed in the Old Quarter of Hanoi and I really liked it. I think I liked Vietnam b/c it felt more real. Whereas towns like Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang seemed to exist primarily for tourists, Hanoi was a real breathing city w/ millions of people. I love people watching in Hanoi.

Women in big straw hats carry around their produce everywhere. Its like a moving market. There are lots of people eating on the streets. Motorbikes are parked haphazardly everywhere. The streets are narrow so Phil felt a bit claustrophobic in the Old Quarter. There's lots of great shopping - the endless parade of fake imitation clothes. But yeah, I really loved it. At this point, I think I like Vietnam more than Thailand and Laos.

The next day, we walked around the Hoah Kiem Lake (sp?) and took in a water puppet show. Water puppetry in Vietnam is based on an art form from the 10th or 11th century and was created by the rice farmers. They float water puppets in the rice paddies. So we went to a theatre and watched a water puppet show with traditional Vietnamese music.

The next day we went on a city tour. We lucked out and apparently that was the first day of the reopening of Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. It's closed for 3 months every year for "repairs" but I imagine that they probably got all the work done in time for the APEC summit. So we got to see Ho Chi MInh's body - frankly, I found it sort of creepy. A cold dead body inside of a glass box. I don't envy the four soliders that stand at each corner of the box. Yikes! We saw Uncle Ho's living quarters, etc. Then we saw a whole bunch of pagodas and temples that sort of blur together. Not particuarly exciting as by lunch time, half the group took off to go shopping.

That night we caught an overnight train to Lao Cai - high into the mountains of North Vietnam. The trains in Vietnam are not particularly nice. In fact, Ifind the trains in 2nd class in China to be cleaner than the 1st class trains in Vietnam. Thailand is by far the best. I fell asleep pretty quicly so it didn't matter that much.

The next day, we visited the Sunday market in Bac Ha where we saw lots of women in their traditional tribal garb selling goods. It really was something. (WE also stopped brtiefly at the border to China and I started feeling very emotional for some odd reason. I totally miss CHina.) Then we bussed to Sapa, which at first impression reminds me of a Vietnamese switzerland.

The hotel we stayed at was so swank and more than made up for the crappy overnight train. Sapa is BEAUTIFUL. Have you seen the pics of the multi tiered rice terraces? I'd post pics, but I don't have my USB cable with me. Yesterday, the weather was crap and I was sliding down the muddy hills, but when it stopped raining, and the ever present mist cleared away, we got some stunning views.

Imagine lush green mountains, rice paddies, livestock running around, little huts dotting the landscape, and adorable little Hmong girls running ahead of us and talking to us in perfect English, pushing their goods and wares on us. They were sort of pushy but I didn't mind. They put some little cloth bracelets on me so I felt obligated to give some money. What a lifestyle though. But it's so beautiful. The weather changes here every 5 minutes and by the end of the day, I was drenched and caked in mud, but it was amazing and totally worth it.

Last night, we went to do karaoke with some locals and some other people from the tour... it was an "interesting" evening..... As you know, Karaoke isn't fun w/out a bit of booze.... All I'll say is that I was helping people this morning piece together the events from last night.... ;)

We went on a short trek this morning, and tonight, we head back to Hanoi.

I love Vietnam. I like the food. The scenery is spectacular. Their pop music is way better than Thai music. And frankly, I think Vietnamese people are the most beautiful people of SE Asia. That's just my opinion though.... ;)

I hope you all are doing well. It's sort of nice also not being overwhelmed w/ Christmas stuff as I imagine it is in North America currently. Although for some reason at lunch on our city tour, they were playing Christmas music.... I'm not even sure if they know what it is that they're playing. Happy Thanks giving to the Americans reading the blog. Is it just me or does it feel like forever since I left home?

Love you all lots.