Hanoi

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  Hanoi, Vietnam
Monday, September 22, 2008

Unlike China where I studied the guidebooks in anticipation of our trip, I have had little to no expectations for what Vietnam would be like. In a way, though I never had an "aha" moment like in China where I'd finally see something I'd only before seen in pictures, I had an "ahh" moment when something different surprised me. Ok, maybe there's not too much difference between "aha" and "ahh" except that it's been nice to observe Vietnam without necessarily having searched for it.

So, maybe I need to provide some examples. In China, I knew there would be a ton of bicycles, but I never expected to see so many motor bikes in Vietnam. As a result, Vietnam's capital is, in a word, noisy. In order to cross the street, you have to take a deep breath, say a little prayer, and walk slowly and courageously through traffic. People don't stop for you, they just go around you. Jason's mantra whenever we crossed was a littly ditty "We're gonna die! We're gonna die!" Even when you're indoors, you'll notice that your ears are ringing a bit from the incessant honking.

Another example is the Vietnamese dress. After being in China where mature adult women would wear Mickey Mouse pajamas in the daytime, the Vietnamese women looked all the more beautiful. Their traditional dress is all silk: a long fitted tunic with slits on either side beginning at the waist on top of flowy silk pants. Young girls in the countryside wear all white ensembles, and they miraculously stay white as they ride their bikes through muddy roads. If it were me, my outfit would be stained in the first five minutes.

In all of Vietnam, the lush tropical landscape has been very pleasant. Natural beauty is abundant with palm trees and colorful flowers. With this flora, however, also comes a climate of rain, heat, and humidity. Weather has not exactly been conducive to the best sightseeing conditions because dehydration quickly zaps your energy. Regardless, it makes you miss the over-air-conditioned indoors in America.

Also, I didn't know to look forward to it, but we were in Vietnam during the mid-autumn festival. (Who knew mid-September and 95· heat qualifies as "mid-autumn"?) Regardless, it was very exciting because there were a lot of people out and about (on their motorbikes, of course) celebrating. Children wear costumes and participate in traditional dragon dances. This was most noticeable in Nha Trang, but it was still occurring in Hanoi where we saw some children running around with masks.

Other small things captured my imagination as we drove through the countryside from one city to the next. First of all, rice paddies galore. According to one of our tourguides, Vietnam is the second largest exporter of rice in the world. Impressive for a country of its size. Almost without fail, in every rice pattie there will be an above ground coffin. Though I can't say for sure, I speculate that they bury their dead in these tombs to avoid floods bringing bodies back up to the surface. And everyone has them in their fields because a family's land has most likely belonged to their ancestors for a long time. Still, it's sort of creepy to have a constant reminder that dead people are everywhere and not safely concentrated in cemetaries, like in America.

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