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  Hanoi, Vietnam
Tuesday, March 28, 2006

J: Hanoi. The capital of the horn...and that would be the car horn, motorbike horn, bicycle horn, taxi horn, and bus horn. I have NEVER heard so much tooting in all my life. It follows you around like an annoying fly...there to wake us in the morning, carry us throughout the city and our day, and lull us to bed at night. This city puts NYC to shame.

So, before I continue with Hanoi and where we have been and what we have been up to since our last posting with Mom (which we actually did in Chiang Mai, but wanted to put Phuket on the map), I have to say that there is going to be a serious gap in the photos because well, basically we are all flakes and the camera inadvertantly took the trip back around the world with our mom. We will hopefully be getting it back tomorrow (it is crazy how dependent we have become on the camera and how much anxiety this separation has caused). We will do our best to catch up with picture posting at some point in the next couple of weeks...please just bear with us. (M: Jessie is really sugarcoating this experience. The logistics of getting the camera, the red tape, the questions, the not wanting to go see things we might want to take pictures of. We've been in a bit of a holding pattern. I think that from now on, the camera is going to be glued to one of us at all times.)

...back to what we have been doing...so after we sadly parted ways with our mom in Bangkok, after a most amazing week, we headed to Hua Hin, a beach town on the Gulf of Thailand. A friend of mine from college, sent us down to stay with his cousin in their condo on the beach. We were a little hesitant at first, feeling somewhat eager to just move on to Vietnam, but decided instead to take advantage of a few more days on the beach and the opportunity to see one more bit of Thailand before moving on. It was a great decision. We had an extremely relaxing couple of days and pretty much moved on in hopes of reuniting with our camera in Hanoi. Hua Hin is sort of a funny place. Apparently the development of the town and beach have happened pretty quickly and has been done in large part by foreigners. It was the first beach that we saw in Thailand with huge condos and high-rise hotels along the water. Honestly, it felt a little like Florida. But I can't complain, as we had our own room and bathroom, access to a pool and the beach, and could walk along the beach to get to town and the market. It was dangerously easy to be there. Don't think we didn't consider just moving in. Our host, Meow, was unbelievable. This was a prime example of the hospitality we have encountered throughout our travels. She had never met either of us before, and her cousin (my friend) had pretty much just pawned us off on her for a few days (he was too busy to join us). She made us feel right at home, taking us to dinner, and encouraging us to just enjoy the beach and time to relax. We did spend a day with her at work (the 1920s summer palace of a late Thai King) helping to edit the translated text of the palace displays. It is a gorgeous palace (sorry you can't see our photos from the disposable camera; maybe try the website if you are interested: www.mrigadayavan.co.th), and the foundation working on restoring it, led by Meow, has some really amazing ideas for creating programs for the public to learn from and enjoy. Our few days in Hua Hin were a perfect end to our stay in Thailand, and last Friday the 24th we flew to Hanoi. (M: I second all of that. Really, the hospitality we have encountered has been an amazing learning experience. People have really opened their homes and their lives to us. They've helped us when we didn't know the language or the customs. It's really inspirational.)

Right. So back to Hanoi and the present. We have been here for a few days now, and honestly I am not 100% sure what we have really done with our time. We have avoided doing a number of sightseeing activities, wanting to wait until we have our camera so we can adequately capture what there is to see here. We have done quite a bit of wandering around and I have to say that I think we are getting pretty good at Frogger. Isn't that the name of the video/computer game where you are the frog trying to cross the road? That is totally what it is like here. We are again in a city where the rules of the road are more suggested guidelines that no one opts to follow (that includes stoplights, sides of the road, not driving on sidewalks; you name it, they violate it). So amidst the honking, which I am pretty sure is like the video game theme song for us, the books advise just slowly walking across the street. One bit I was reading assured me the motorbikers would just flow right around us. So each time we make it to the other side of the street and the bikes have actually "flowed" we feel like we have won another round. It is actually quite astounding to witness either on foot or by bike, as we did today. Missy, wanna tell?

M: First let me say that one of the funniest moments of the trip occurred when Jessie yelled into the honking of oncoming traffic, "That wasn't flow! Where's the flow around me?!" It might not translate as funny, but it was hilarious. Today, we went to the Museum of Ethnography and then to the Temple of Literature. We got to both places by motorbike. We have mostly been walking everywhere, which is apprently most uncommon. But we like seeing a city this way. Today was the first time we've joined the mad fray and been behind the horns. The best way I can describe it is fun with a jolt of panic. Riding the motorbikes is great - the open air, seeing the street scenes, scooting from place to place. The moments when two buses seem to be converging ON you or when you turn your head and 60 motorbikes are headed directly for you, those are a little crazy. And there really are no rules. (J: Seriously, weaving in and out of the other motorbikes, pedestrians, bicycles, buses, taxis, and cars is an art form.)

The Museum of Ethnography was excellent with photos, explanations, videos, costumes and a yard full of houses built by different hill tribes. I thought that was particularly cool. Jessie and I talked about how interesting it is that tribes that were so close in physical proximity would develop such different languages and fashions, cultures and tools. Really great museum. The Temple of Literature was absolutely gorgeous. We're going to go back with our camera. Built in the 11th Century, it is exactly the kind of place where you can imagine being terrifically scholarly - the trees, the "lakes of knowledge," the quiet paths between temples.

I haven't put my finger on what exactly it is about Hanoi, but there is something really interesting here. I mean, parts look exactly the way I thought it would with the conical hats and women carrying foods to sell balanced on the pole across their shoulders. We have even seen elderly Vietnamese men in French berets and traditional clothes on their bicycles. (J: And honestly they couldn't be cuter. Oh, and we have had two really funny experiences with them, probably because we just stare and they aren't sure how to react. The first was this one guy who gave me the thumbs up, with sound effect. The second was this really super cute oldster who was walking laps around the lake we were sitting by and sort of smiled/winked at Missy. Okay, maybe it isn't so funny to all of you, but we were definitely amused at the time.) But then there is the incredible force of motorbikes. More thoughts to come as we gleckel on...

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