Hanoi Update

Hello,

Well this has been quite an experience thus far. I have to come understand the significance of Tet! This New Year celebration is like Christmas, New Years and everyone's birthdays combined. Everything is closed. Though several key sites are open. I hope to get into Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum and museum tomorrow. This is a communist state though there has been considerable growth in capitalism but you won't find most of the well known fast food chains here. The people of the north are reported to be not quite as friendly as those in the south, less smiles that's for sure than in Thailand. This place is so entrenched in history and war that is is quite fascinating. It certainly is the city in Vietnam to spend some time in. Walking the streets and seeing how people live and interact has been the highlight thus far. I have had some interesting dishes "road side." So I now have money from four countries on me and you try to get it straight and do the math...7:1 Hong Kong Dollar...32:1 Thailand Baht....16,000:1 Vietnamese Dong...and some good old US dollars which come in handy here and there and what ever they decide to give me for it :):)

It has been quite interesting. Picture arriving in a city bigger than Montreal, or about the same size...flat, no landmarks, everything in Vietnamese, everything closed...and everyone on the streets on mopeds, bikes and walking...moving around with families to every place of worship or place of significance. It is not a party atmosphere but a very friendly and festive environment. Today at one of the religious sites a family approached me and though they did not speak English they wanted their four year old little girl to wish me Happy New Year...they then wished me a wife very early in the new year :):) Originally I thought everyone was hitting the horns on their bikes and cars to celebrate the new year...though have come to realize that is how they drive!! The best way I can describe it is it is a sort of sonar?? They hit the horn constantly letting everyone close to them know where they are at all times...it you even try to lean toward the street you will set off a good dozen horns from traffic coming in both directions...u get used to it as a steady background noise.

Using my "Lonely Planet" guide book on Vietnam I have been doing quite quite well considering very few people speak any English. It is cold here, I am wearing everyday everything I brought...I guess I could have researched the weather a little better. Going from Bangkok to Hanoi was a real wake up. My $16.00 CAD hotel is better than expected though today we ran out of hot water :). Today (Saturday) I leave at 5pm is to leave on a sleeper bus (bus with beds!! - company I am using is "Camel Travelco") for the overnight journey down the coast to Hue City (site of the famous Tet Offensive) the historic capital of Vietnam. Spend the day there and then to Hoi An (the ancient city) and then to Nha Trang and then to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh). All this came from the recommendation of the first person I met in Vietnam. I arrived on Thursday at 1pm and walked up to a cafe that overlooked the lake. A girl asked to sit at my table. I had acquired the best table view wise so it was the view she was after I am sure! She is from Saigon on vacation. She gave me a bit of a walking tour of Hanoi and at the same time clarified many of the misconceptions you acquire from the west re Nam. She advised I go south via the sleeper bus, you see the train does not allow you to get on and off enroute to Saigon. After several hours she had my chosen word for the new year "Clarity" written in calligraphy by street people. By 7pm she was off to catch a train to the north. I am still not sure whether she was real or...this "is" the land of spirits and there is never more likely a time for them to return to earth than during Lunar New Year's Day!!!! hmmmm....patron saint of safe travel...though the real messages here seem to come from dragons, snakes, a phoenix and a turtle....and it is the year of the rat????

So that is how it is going...I really enjoying taking the time to get a sense of how people live, eat and move around in these cities rather than running off and doing all the tourist stuff! This morning I found a few day old paper (many stores still closed) and read up on Nam. Yes the press are tightly controlled re censorship but at the end of the day they struggle with many of the same issues everyone else does such as the less family and more individual(self centered) focus of the youth. Stay tuned :)