Vietnam...

Greetings from Hanoi, Vietnam. Before I even got to the city, I made the comment that people drive like maniacs in Vietnam. Now that I'm in the city I've realized that the people here trancsend the word "maniac" and have actually created a higher strata of reckless driving that I never thought was possible. The roads are narrow for a city and motorbikes are EVERYWHERE! It is way more chaotic than even Bangkok. Bikes go in every direction with no regard for traffic laws or a western view of common sense. When I first saw it, I was amazed that people don't get killed everyday from collisions. But after observing it for a few days and even experiencing it first hand on the back of a bike, I've realized that there actually is an order to the chaos. There are unwritten laws of the road which govern the flow of the traffic. I suppose people are used to this way of driving, so it's not even a big deal to them. The concept of personal space while you are driving is a foreign notion here. People come within inches of hitting each other or slamming into cars head on. And from what I hear, this is nothing compared to Ho Chi Minh City. Crossing the street is the tricky part. No one pays attention to the little green man telling you to walk, so you pretty much just have to slowly walk out there and people will avoid hitting you...kind of like wading through water, the water will flow around you. Anyway, enough about the crazy traffic here, I'll catch everyone up on when I last left.....

From Ninh Binh, we took a minibus up to Halong Bay. It is a world famous site in Vietnam consisting of huge rock formations all over this bay of water connecting to the ocean. My group got our own boat and we spent the afternoon looking at the rock formations, visiting massive caves and climbing to the top of a hill with a temple. The area is very toursity and there were hundreds of boats around, it was almost like Houseboats, Vietnam style but with less irresponsible college students involved. The scenery was beautiful but the weather was a litte overcast and cloudy. It was a very relaxing time, nonetheless. It was a good opportunity to kick back and take a deep breath before entering into the madness of Hanoi, the Capital of Vietnam.

HANOI

Despite the chaos of the road, Hanoi is a very beautiful city. It has the feel of a smaller town because the narrow streets that are lined with trees. There is a lake in the heart of the city which is next to the large market area known as the French Quarter. This area is similar to a Chinatown, with each street selling a specific item such as bags, shirts, shoes, sunglasses, motorcycle parts and just about anything you could think of. When I embarked on the 15 minute walk from the hotel to the french quarter. There's nothing I can do to hide the fact that I'm a tourist, so I just embraced it. With my map in one hand and my camera in the other I ventured out into the foreign land of Hanoi. When I arrived at the french quarter I was struck how aggressive everyone was, especially after being in Laos for 5 days. People see me and instantly start yelling at me to buy shit from them. Anything from fruit to dried fish to hats to books to sweatshirts. At first I had fun with them and even bought some crap that I didn't really want. But after half a day of constantly being harassed, I started to get very annoyed. People will just not leave me alone. To make matters worse I ended up getting lost and then buying a crappy map from some guy on the street for way too much money. I then took a motorbike home and the guy tried to rip me off and ask for 150,000 dong when we agreed on one US dollar (15,000 dong). I knew the guy was kind of shady but I was desperate for a ride. I was disappointed in myself for not trusting my gut and being street smart. These experiences put me in a very negative mood about this place, the entire trip and people in general. I realized that this at that moment it was exactly the halfway point of my tour and that it was a time of reckoning for me. I decided to push on foward and stay positive by forgetting the negative experiences and reminding myself that the majority of the people here are warm and friendly and have a kind heart. With this in mind, I took a relaxing shower followed by a muscle melting massage. I felt great afterwards and much more positive about the city.

Here I am outside of the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum wearing my Vietnam flag shirt after viewing the embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh himself. The entire experience was absolutely surreal. The wait was about 45 minutes and the security was extremely high. Cameras and bags were absolutely forbidden. We had to go through a metal detector and a pat down before even getting in line. As we got closer to the mausoleum we saw the guards (decked out in their communist military uniform) ordered us to be silent and take off our hats. We filed into the building in complete silence and made our way down a hallway that got darker and darker. Finally we made it to the room of the body. The room was dimly lit, with only the body illuminated. The body was in a rectangular glass case with a stoic gaurd on each corner. The body itself actually looked like Ho Chi Minh. It had the appearance of a wax figure. Covering the entire wall behind Ho Chi Minh was a gigantic Vietnam flag next to a communist flag bearing the famous hammer and sickle. The fact that everyone was silent, that there were four communist gaurds standing absolutely still, the dim lighting and the fact that I was looking at the body of such an historically influential man who has been dead for more than thirty years all contributed to the aburdity of the situation. People here worship Minh like a god. His face is on all the bank notes and statues of the man can be found everywhere. I really don't know much about him or the things he stood for, but he has no doubt had a huge impact on the history of Vietnam. Ironically enough, he requested that to be cremated and have his ashes split up into thirds, one part to be spread in North, Central and South Vietnam. But despite his requests he was immortalized by the people of Vietnam to be forever worhsiped and idolized.

This picture is from the Vietnam Military Museum. It is remains of American fighter planes and tanks that were collected from the war. The fact that America was at war with Vietnam only about thirty years ago remains a constant thought on my mind during my time here. I understand the basics of the war, but I don't feel like I have a firm understanding of how it went down. I'm currently readnig a really interesting book about the war which should help me understand the reasons that it turned out the way it did. Hanoi itself was heavily bombed during the war. It is amazing that this place is now a tourist attraction which millions of American's visit every year. Can anyone imagine Iraq being a tourist destination 30 years from now? For the people who were involved in the war, it is probably even more difficult to accept the fact that Vietnam has opened its doors for Americans. The general consensus that I am getting by talking to the people here is that they try to not dwell on the past, but rather look toward the future. I'm sure all the tourism is helping the Vietnamese economy. I've told many people that I'm American and I haven't received one negative response.

Here I am eating in a traditional Vietnamese restaurant. I like Vietnamese food the best so far. The authentic restaurants are extremely dirty, have shitty plastic chairs that are too small (which makes me feel like I'm in Kindergarten again) and reak of rotting fish. Yet the food is mouthwateringly delicious. I'm becoming a master with chopsticks and I like the way the Vietnamese eat; they hold the bowl up to their mouths and shovel in food at a rapid rate.

There are heaps of ladies like this on the street who carry too baskets with food in them attached to a piece of branch slung over their shoulder. I was taking a picture of the stature in the background today, when the lady just comes up to me and puts the thing on my shoulder and sticks the cap on my head and takes a picture. She then expects me to buy a bushel of banannas for her. I ask her for one single bananna and she gives me three demands 50,000 dong. I give her 5,000 and she frowns and says 50 again. She finally concedes and takes my 5 and gives me a dirty look and walks away. Like I said before, the people are very aggressive here and grab me and yell at me to get my attention. They are usually friendlier than this lady and have a good nature about bartering. Sometimes I'll make my offer so low that they will just start laughing at me or give me an exaggerated sad, pouty look. After buying stuff from one lady, the next day she recognized me and jokingly asked me to buy more shirts. Its usually pretty fun to barter, but like I said before it can get very annoying when people are too agressive. I've learned to just flat out ignore people when they try to get my attention. But if I'm interested in the product I will have fun with the game and I usually enjoy talking to the people.

Well I could babble on for another couple of hours but you can see by the increasingly disorganized style of writing I am getting hungry and the lack of glucose in my body is affecting my cognitive abilities. Therefore I will put post up a bunch of random pictures since the connection here is really fast. Enjoy.