Hi everyone - we made it safe and sound and on time on Monday morning, Vietnam time. I slept quite a bit on the flights, but was still exhausted. Plane sleeping just doesn't cut it! We hit the ground running on Monday. Our hotel is simple, but clean and nice. We are staying in the Old Quarter of Hanoi which is a large area of small, twisty streets, narrow sidewalks, and everything very close together. After booking a couple day tours we walked all over the Old Quarter for hours. In NYC we have the lighting district, the jewelry district, the flower district, etc. Here they have the herb street, the lighting street, the tool street, the shoe steet, etc. It's incredibly fascinating, but a bit overwhelming too - sensory overload. You mostly have to walk in the street because they are either cooking on the sidewalks or doing their trade on the sidewalks. Also, the traffic is continuous. We were both saying that if we came from a small hick town it would probably be too much for some people. Everyone either rides bicycles, small motorbikes or scooters. EVERYONE! There are hardly any stop signs or traffic lights, but for some reason it works. No one drives very fast, even on the main roads and there is no road rage at all. They are all very stoic and just deal with it. Some are smoking or eating or talking on their cell phones while driving. Pedestrians just go for it. As we were warned before we came, you just walk across the street. Don't hesitate as that's when you're likely to get hit. They traffic will avoid you. Jaywalking in NYC has come in handy. It's a bit disconcerting at first, but after the first time, it was pretty easy for us. Although today we were at one intersection where there just didn't seem to be an opening. I think we stood there for almost 5 minutes before we finally braved it! We at our first meal of pho ga (delicious soup with chicken and some herbs) at a literal hole in the wall. They pulled up a folding table and some plastic chairs for us and within 30 seconds two bowls of soup were placed in front of us from the pots on the sidewalk. Each bowl was $1! Delicious and cheap! We went to the Water Puppet theatre Monday night. For those of you who don't know, this is a very old tradition in Vietnam. It was pretty cool, but we were both so tired by that point too.
Tuesday we got up early, which wasn't difficult as the city awakens around 5am. The horns outside our window combined with the kitchen below us slowly woke us up around 6am. For some reason though, on vacation it seems easier to get up early. There's more incentive then getting up to go to work! We took our first day trip, to the Red River Delta which is about 2 hours south of Hanoi with 4 other people and a guide. One couple was an older couple from S. Africa and there was also a father and daughter from NJ. She is living in Hanoi for a year working for a wildlife organization. We rode bikes through rice fields and tiny villages for a couple hours. Then went to a local family's house to make and eat a Vietnamese lunch of spring rolls, sauteed water lily spinach, squash with peanut sauce, and rice noodles. Everything was fresh from their garden and was delicious. Then we rode bikes for another hour and a half or so and ended it with a boat ride along a canal. The bikes had no gears and we were riding on dirt roads, crumbled cement roads and across thin stretches of land between the rice paddies. I actually slipped off at one point and almost landed in a rice paddy! The older woman with us really slipped off and went head first into the paddy! She was laughing as she came out though. The people in these villages are incredibly friendly and would yell hello to us as we rode past. Little kids just keep waving and repeating, hello, hello, hello.
Today, Wednesday, we went to see Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum, but apparently they're doing some renovation work on his body so it was closed. We rode the Xe om (spelling?) which are the motorbike taxis - each of us on the back of one. Now think back to what I said previously about the traffic...it was fun as hell, but scary too!! It's such a great way to get around though, even when they go against the traffic just to get across an interesection! We went to the Ho Chi Minh museum and also visited the houses he lived in in the late 50's . Then we walked to the Temple of Literature which is a very large pagoda and garden area that's exremely peaceful and beautiful. On the way there we came across two older men giving hair cuts and shaves on the sidewalk. Lynn had been lazy since we'd arrived and hadn't shaved. So, he decided to clean up a bit. The poor guy had to use 3 razors on Lynn's thick American facial hair! A girl from England stood with me and watched the entire spectacle. We also went to the Museum of Ethnology which gives an entire history of the Vietnamese culture.
Tomorrow we're taking a day trip to Halong Bay which the people of Vietnam are trying to convince the powers that be to make it the 8th Wonder of the World. Then late tomorrow night we will begin our trip south, taking the train to Hue.
All the food we've had so far has been amazing - pho, rice noodle dishes, congee, dragon fruit, etc. I'm starving right now actually, so will sign off for now. Thanks for all your messages. We're taking loads of photos! Love you all!
