Here’s what I know: I am too old for red eye flights; A family of four can fit on a motorbike; Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi is celebrating its 1,000th birthday; I am fortunate to live a life that has always included potable water.
Last Friday I accompanied Kyle on his business trip to Hanoi, Vietnam. Our hosts encouraged us to "come to Vietnam with a pleasant mind" and organized a day of sightseeing in Ha Long Bay for us. A photographer I am not, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that it was beautiful and amazing.
Our driver negotiated an unforgiving journey of two lane roads where the lines are merely a suggestion, and it only takes three hours if you can successfully pass the busses and weaving motorbikes while simultaneously avoiding the farmers using the "shoulder" to spread out their crop to dry. Both Kyle and I commented on the danger to the motorbikes, and indeed we didn’t have to wait long to see an accident. I didn’t really see it, but Kyle saw the man down and said there was blood on the road along with a stray helmet.
We arrived and met our tour guide Han. She escorted us to our charter and off we went. First stop was a grotto called Heaven Palace. Again, my little digital camera doesn’t do it justice, but it was really very neat.
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| Stairway to Heaven (Palace) |
We passed the Pond of 200 Children. The story goes that 100 children were taken by the father to populate another land, and 100 stayed back with the mother, and were kept alive by her breast (Han uses her laser pointer to direct us to a little pointy stone that apparently is the mothers breast). We continue past the face of Ho Chi Min (looked like Santa to me) and she grabs my arm to let Kyle go ahead and whispers to me, “Do you want to see what the husband left the wife to survive?” I said yes, and her laser points to a huge, stone, phallic shape. She giggled and giggled and said, “Penis in English, yes?"
Next, we had lunch on board. Fresh crab and shrimp and about a million other things. Delicious.
We arrived at the floating fishing villages—now these were just fascinating. With little more than a generator and paneling, these folks live and work on these floating homes. Hammocks hung over the low table surfaces, which I gathered meant sleeping and eating take place on the porch. School is too far of a commute, so there is like a central raft where the kids, regardless of their age/grade, go to school. Most of these people also kept pets. There were little dogs and cats everywhere—the cats were tied up. Kyle had a good point, “Where are they going to go?”
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| School |
We pull up to a floating house and our next tour guide greets us. She gives me a hat and pushes me in the direction of what looks like it used to be a flat bottomed row boat. Oh wait, it still is…yikes. We get in.
We are rowed into some caves and under arches and are soon surrounded by limestone cliffs and beautiful water and jumping fish and scurrying crabs on the shore. Sometimes you see monkeys, but we were too late in the day. It was really something. Sidenote: Only the women row the boats. Hmph.
We sail around for a bit—long enough for them to sell me a bracelet that breaks that very night—and make three hour trek back. Whew, what a day, but both Kyle and I agree, it was worth six hours in the car.
Sunday we rested. We were tired, plus there was a city-wide celebration of the 1000th birthday of the city of Hanoi. We were surrounded by people and parades.
Kyle was on business for most of the remainder the trip. I made my way to the Old Quarter for some shopping, saw some other sites, enjoyed ESPN (live American TV!) and got a mani/pedi. I read that you could get a $4 mani/pedi in Vietnam, but I was lazy and got one at the hotel. $20 for BOTH--Still a bargain.
We had a fun evening out with Kyle’s delightful counterparts in Vietnam, who are both Korean. The manager and chef came out to greet them, as they are big wigs and regulars who "always bring important Americans." Vietnamese food is very good.
We boarded our 1am flight and got home just in time for morning rush hour. We slept a few hours until Pete was delivered from the "farm" complete with a personalized CD with images from his little vacation. Super cute. The trainer says Pete’s name with an accent, so it sounds like "Pet."
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| Notice Pete is not the dog that has the little one by the neck. |
All in all, Vietnam made me appreciate things—I appreciate that I don’t eat or sell anything at the side of the road, that I can drink the water, that I don’t wear a mask to prevent inhaling nastiness, that Seoul is modern and relatively clean, that radiant floor heat is standard and that it has a subway and bus system.
Parts of Vietnam are very beautiful, don’t get me wrong (I would like to visit the southern part next time), but I really appreciate that I have never had to fit a family of four on my bike.
Here’s how they do it: Dad drives and wears a helmet and mask. In between dad’s legs, a helmetless-but-masked child (seriously like three years old) stands with their hands on the “dash.” Sandwiched between dad and mom in the back is another standing, helmetless-but-masked toddler, holding dad’s shoulders for support and being held at the waist by a helmet-wearing, masked mom. If the child cannot stand, then they are in a little baby bjorn type thing on the back of mom. Seriously.
:)sbc
