Vietnam

I realize that this spring festival tell-all has dragged on for far too long. It's actually spring now. So you know its getting old. So I will try to accomplish what I have to say about Vietnam in one swift stroke. 

Getting to Vietnam like the rest of our travels during break was wrought with uncertainty and a severe lack of planning. But it was alright we were going to make it. Somehow. It happened to turn out that somehow meant 4 million dong. Yeah, for a variety of factors, the biggest one being Tet, which is basically the Chinese New Year with a Vietnamese take, we came into Vietnam at one of the worst possible times. The borders were closed which sacked our bis ride plan, and our e-mail visa thing wasn't happening because the approaching holiday and so the workers "couldn't be bothered". So we ended up having to pay more than we wanted to in order to get in. And that's how I became briefly a millionaire. Four million dong for three on-arrival visas. 

Well, airport heinousness behind, we found our place in Ho Chi Minh. We saw a lot of Vietnam-America remnants including the tunnels and a museum. We got suckered into a Mekong delta tour rip-off. And we saw some amazing flower displays for Tet. I must say that for whatever reason, from the time we landed in Vietnam we didn't exactly feel welcome. Our passports were thrown back at us, and the travel agent from which we bought a tour told us all the things we wanted to see in town were closed (They weren't). But I probably over thought it and soon enough we found Ho Chi Minh delightful. But we barely scratched the surface of the historical jewel before we had to continue to Ha Noi.

Hanoi was great. The city was visually historical and a feast for my camera. We navigated through congested french streets all decked out in Vietnam flags and way too many electrical cables. We took in what we could before our two day Ha Long Bay cruise. Ha Long bay was so cool I can't describe it. Although most hoped for good weather, I found the fogginess to only add to the mysterious and mythical feel. When we returned to Ha Noi we dined on Vietnamese cuisine and saw a water puppet show. I would have to say it was interesting and hilarious at the same time. On the one hand it is extremely traditional and has been going on for many years. But on the other hand, you almost wish they would update it a little bit. There was one point in the show where one of the horse puppets, which are little more than wooden puppets with a control stick under the water, broke off and had to be dragged back behind the curtain. But it was very cool to transported back to a mode of entertainment that didn't have to involve electricity. But by far the best part of our trip to Ha Noi was our host. She is a teacher in Ha Noi but and american. She gave us not only the best of Ha Noi but shared with us her life in Indonesia and her new life in Ha Noi and fed us with American food. It was an excellent end to an awesome vacation. 

I say this was the end even though there was till Hong Kong, but the Hong Kong retreat, it is fair to say, was its own beast, which I cannot tell well through this medium. Ask me about it some time. And of course, there are pictures.