There's A Bad Moon On the Rice - Part I

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  Hanoi, Vietnam
Friday, December 14, 2007

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!   Welcome to 2008 and I hope you are all well and happy and enjoying time with friends and family.  Contrary to the rumours, I am quite well and have not quit the blog.  I have fallen far behing and hope to remedy this in two blogs covering the "best of"  what has now become the tour of my past.  I left you in Luang Prubang, but want to share some of the incredible days spent in Lao before moving on to Vietnam.
  After Luang Prubang I headed of to Vang Vieng and after a long day on a local bus enjoyed a pina colada while watching the sun set over the Nam Song River and the incredible mountains along its banks.  Someone brilliant lives in Vang Vieng.  I don't know who, but someone with great insight decided that all the restaurants and cafes in Vang needed to have table with chairs that extend under the tables so that you always have your feet up.  Genius!  The slow pace of Lao was exaggerated by my constant search for the next best place to put up my feet and enjoy a banana pancake and some Lao coffee  or a BeerLao depending on the time of day.  One afternoon, I tore myself away from the reclining Buddha position and headed down the river where I reclined into an inner tube and coasted 8 km down the river, stopping along the way at various river pubs for BeerLao and spring rolls.  One pub even had a pool table and another, volleyball and table tennins.  Each pub had its own variation on the trapeeze swing.  In a moment of clarity, I scampered up the ladder and held on tight as I swung out over the river and tubers and hoped to land safely in the river and within reach of one of the nice boys with bamboo poles to stretch out to you and pull you into shore.  What a wonderful day that ended at sunset and just a quick walk from a banana pancake.
  It was sad to leave magical Lao, but after a quick trip to Vientiane the capital city, it was off to Hanoi, Vietnam.  I knew we were to take an overnight sleeper train to Hanoi, but I didn't know that meant six people to a tiny little room.  I was on the top bunk of three bunks and the two people on that top bunk don't even have enough room to sit up.  It was steaming hot and there was nowhere else to go.  I gave up and just lay there and thanked God for Trista and her thoughtful loan of a silk sleep sheet.  Perhaps it was the contrast, exhaustion, general character flaws, but either way, Hanoi snapped me like a twig.  I couldn't cross the street without help, could barely feed myself and ended up paying 15US$ for two coffees in the mother of all tourist cafes.  Ended up back at the hotel after a long, hot puppet show, a broken woman.  I admit it...it was a first, but I sat down in the hotel restaurant and cried.  I had met my match.  My worst fears realized...I am not strong enough to do this trip alone.  Fortunately, I wasn't alone and my friends and I crossed the street to a French cafe and had a beer and called it a day.  I've never been happier to get on an overnight train.  Onward to Hue.  As I don't have time to write Part II of this blog right now,  I will just mention that Vietnam got a lot better, quickly.  Cheers, everyone and happy new year!! A.

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