Sometimes we don't know how lucky we are. We take things for granted. I mean, look at me. Our country is struggling economically and I don't have a job yet I find a way to get away for a little while to learn about different cultures across the Pacific.
I have visited countries now where it's near impossible for people to travel anywhere. The currency is so weak that even if they make good money, it's good enough to have a decent life but not one where they could travel. I also have spoken to locals and they have told me it's not in their culture yet to explore other places. They are content with their everyday life. I was thinking about that yesterday when I was looking for my street lady for the best dessert! What would I have done if she weren't there? Then I thought: is she there every day? I can't imagine doing the same thing every day!!
Then there was our tour guide from the palace yesterday. He was telling me that his dream was to see snow. He had no concept of snow and was asking me if the USA even gets snow. I explained to him that there were some areas they did, consistently! :) haha. I asked him about traveling and he was very disappointed with the weak currency. He was able to afford local things but anything international was too much.
What I find interesting is that everyone wants dollars. It is sort of bothersome to me that Vietnam quotes almost everything in US dollars. Weird. Other places outlined that if you wanted to pay in dollars or Euros, that the exchange would be. Here, it's outright dollars. Their currency is the Dong, which is about 17,000 for $1. I was complaining about my 40,000D dinner tonight... I guess you just get used to spending less!
But it's not like this everywhere. In Singapore, it seemed like every person on the subway had an iPhone. Those who didn't were either playing with Blackberry's or listening to iPods. KL was pretty sophisticated but not to the extent of Singapore. I don't think the majority of people in either country would have much problem traveling about.
Hanoi is much less chaotic than HCMC, and although I loved the change of pace on Day 1, I was ready to tone it down a bit. It's VERY European here, thanks to the French. Looking around, you'd think we were in Europe. It is a much smaller city, less than 1/2 of HCMC at 3.5M people. The only problem I have is between motorbikes and stands, you have to walk on the street and that gets old with everyone beeping all the time. And let me tell you, you have NEVER heard to much beeping as you do in these two cities!
As you would expect, there are a lot of bakeries but also sandwiches on French rolls. I have stuck more to the Northern Vietnamese specialties. The weather he is much more like California. About 80, almost no humidity, and borderline long-sleeved weather at night.
