Hanoi Part I

We made it out of Siem Reap and Cambodia just before they were able to completely deplete our travel funds. The temples of Angkor Wat were awe inspiring, but the surrounding town was very touristy and prices were at least triple of what we were paying everywhere else. On our last day in Siem Reap we got to visit a floating village on Tonle Sap, an enormous Lake that looks more like an ocean and provides 80 percent of the protein in the Khmer diet through the harvesting of a diverse array of fish. The people there live and depend entirely on the river. The village was complete with floating schools and boats laden with fruits and vegetables (often paddled by six year olds) that went around to the houses to sell their wares. We also went to visit a craft school that trains Cambodian people in masonry, wood carving and silk production. All of the work was beutiful but expensive so we only purchased a couple of mementos. The most intersting part of the tour was the silk farm, the amount of work and detail that went into each piece made me feel less guilty about buying my scarf and we got to see the whole process from the silk worm/cocoon to the loom.

We made it to the airport in time to switch to an earlier flight then we had booked and were shocked and amazed when they boarded the flight way before schedule and then left an entire 40 minutes early. Thank god we were there on time because I am not sure they would have waited. There was also some minor chaos and confusion when we arrived in Hanoi. We called our hotel with whom we had arranged a pick-up to let them know that we had landed early but ofcourse they had no record of our booking. Somehow (we still don't know how) there was someone with a sign and our name to get us (more than two hours before we were going to arrive) who took us to the hotel which only had one room. They were very helpful though and walked us through the old quarter of Hanoi (which is totally NUTS) and found us a decent if not over priced place to stay with two rooms available. Although we are now backed to paved roads the driving here at least rivals if not surpasses what we saw in Cambodia. There are millions of motos and the vast majority of intersections lack any sort of stop sign or light signal so it is a complete free for all with serious games of chicken and people vying for positions behind the bigger cars to protect them from cross-cutting traffic. Walking across streets is REALLY something you just have to go for it and walk slowly through the sea of motos and let them go around you or you would neverbe able to cross. Somehow it all seems to work out as we haven't seen any collisions. The old quarter where we are staying is very exciting with lots and lots of delicious street food. The thing to do at night is definitely to hang out at the "beer corner" and enjoy a very local 25 cent beer(3,000 vietnamese dong!!!) Its fun here you get to be a millionaire, I took out 2 million dong at the airport, about 120 dollars.

We had a good first meal last night once we got our rooms settled and today we have been taking full advantage of the street food. We have had bahn my (viet sandwhiches) ban chu (vermicelli with pork that were AMAZING) and also, thanks to Asia who was here in May, the worlds best squab served cornerside at little plastic tables with stools for squating. Sights today included the palace grounds where you can see both the museum and mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh. The museum was wild as it was very abstract and full of symbolism often lost on us. Sadly, we were unable to go into the mausoleum as Ho Chi Minh's body is currently in Moscow for its annual cleaning. We did however get to the palace and his stilt residence which was interesting because it showed that even as president of the country he stayed true to his humble roots choosing to live a more austere life. Tomorrow we go Halong Bay where we will sleep on a Junk (boat) and see these Karst formations that rise out of the ocean. We may not be able to write till we are back in Hanoi so dave requests that you try to get by without us.

Jess