I get out of the city, and its exactly what I needed

So last week, I was sort of getting into a funk. People were annoying me, I was being uncreative, unmotivated, and just feeling generally not well. So, I was planning to visit Hanoi, which is the capital of Vietnam, old seat of the dreaded Viet Cong during the war days. My purpose for the visit was to try and get a visa to India, to see my great friends Anubhav and Nandini. I've not written about it here because I didn't want Nan's knowing about it. Anubhav and I were trying to make it a surprise, but sadly its not going to work out :-( So the cat is out of the bag, and I'm a little bummed about not making it to India, but I think Melissa and I will try to get it next year or something. Sorry Nans, I tried.

Hanoi is a hell for someone that doesn't like to be hassled. It was a little different from Hue. In Hue when you walk down the street the motorbike drivers try to get you to rent their motorbike and their guide services, or the cyclo drivers try to bike you around. That gets annoying, but in Hanoi, they'll follow you down the street. A pack of them, when there's no way you'll be able to use all their services, they just follow you until another victim happens along. I also had a horrible experience with the cab drivers, and hotel owners trying to cheat me out of money. I'd get a price for the trip before getting into the cab, then we'd get there and the guy would start whining about it being so far, and he wanted more money and so forth. One guy tried to give me half the change I was owed hoping I wouldn't get the exchange rate down in my head. That guy nearly didn't get paid at all, and I think he sensed that so came off my change. Then the first hotel room that cost me 20 bucks, a fortune for what I actually got, tried to charge me 5 bucks for a small bottle of water. So yeah, my experience with Hanoi, its busy, its dirty, and the people are greedy. It does have some pretty spots though, and I've been told I didn't get a fair look at it having only really spent 24 hours there. The rest of the time was on Ha Long Bay...

It is an amazing place, and my photos don't do it justice at all unfortunately. I paid $60 for 2 days and 1 night on a "junk" that toured the bay. Its extremely touristy, far more than is my typical pursuit but since I don't have my own boat and there's like 2000 islands in the bay its pretty much only accessible by taking a tour. The Lonely Planet Guide Book says that its really hit and miss on the tour you'll get, and the price is extremely variable. One person on my boat paid 85 for the same tour I paid 60 for to give you an idea. Our boat was probably mid range, we had decent rooms, but it wasn't very "new". I guess it is called a Junk. One room leaked, the girl that paid 85 got that one. She slept in a puddle that night. I didn't even know it rained, so boy did I feel like a jerk the next morning, being oblivious the rain. The food was excellent, but we had to run the German roaches off the table as we ate. They kept trying to walk onto the table with us, it was pretty gross, but we needed to eat, so we dealt.







Here's the dining room, looks really snazzy, even the roaches think so....






I met some great people, and I'm actually going to catch back up with them this next weekend when I visit Hoi An, so that should be fun. Aside from the roaches, and the leaky room, we had a great time. The chemistry of the 8 of us was great, and we just sat on the deck at night chatting about anything and everything. Much of it was American politics, Americans are not favorites in the world community right now, and these were international people. They think we're inept bullies and are terrified of what trouble we'll get into/cause next. I just sort of ducked my head, and didn't really know what to say about it, I didn't get us into the mess. They seemed to understand that, and felt sorry for me I think. The collection of nationalities represented were, 2 Australians, a family of folks from Denmark, a lady from London who is originally from the Ukraine, and a girl from Southern California.

There was a fantastic cave in the bay, I'll put a pic up, but go to the gallery to see more, you'll find the link at the end of this post. It was very awesome. We also went on a kayak trip, that would have been my time to get some great pictures, but it was a wet adventure so the camera stayed on the Junk. On day 2 we headed back to Hanoi, and I jumped in a cab for the airport, to argue more about money with a greedy taxi driver.

Despite the weird things here and there, this weekend away was great medicine for me. I've felt much better these past two days, and I look forward to this next weekend when I catch back up with my new friends. I would tell you their names, but honestly, I don't remember :-) This is typical of me, names just slide right off my brain, I'll never forget their faces, but their names just don't stick. I'll know their faces when I see them again though. Friends are made very fast when traveling, you don't know much about them, but you really enjoy the company for what it is, and then you move on. Kind of strange really. I'll spend an entire day with someone, and then at the end of it, I know I'll never see them again, where else would that happen except in a foreign country where one is starved for speaking one's native language?

Today I was invited to ride out to Nhi's village with her. She's my interpreter and she wanted to drop her neice home with her family and pick up some veggies while there. Talk about going off the tourist track, people stared at me, people waved and yelled "Hello!". It was really funny, they don't see white boys too much out there. I've put up some pics from the experience, I didn't take any at Nhi's actual house, but a few coming in and leaving. I try to be discreet with my photography, I don't want people thinking I'm making a specatcle of their lifestyle, so I left the camera in the bag. She took me upstairs to what was basically a shrine to her two late brothers and father. They had a whole room dedicated to them. She lit some incense for them, and told me a little about each of them.

In Vietnam the major religion is Buddhism, but really its more like ancestor worship, with a side of Buddhism. Every house, every store, has a little shrine where they have incense burning, and some offering bowls where fruit or vegetables are placed. Its usually the man of the house's duty to tend the shrine each day, though anyone in the family can do it. They have big dinners on the anniversary of people's passing all the way out to great grandfathers and who knows if beyond. Its very serious stuff here. I think they look to their passed ancestors for guidance and wisdom, and for them to look out for their family still alive. I've not verfied this officially but that's the sense I get.

In any case back on track. It was a great honor to me to be invited to Nhi's house, I really enjoyed it, and hope to go back. I didn't really say much, there's a large language barrier, so I just followed Nhi around while she picked vegetables for her dinner, and asked questions.



Here's what it looked like on the way to her house.












Some women washing their clothes in the river.





I think that's enough for now, I feel like I've been writing this forever and there's not much substance to it. Sorry Dr. Lewis :-) My next update will probably deal with the idea of my starting some sort of program here, that's going to be its own post though, so I'll leave you all with this piece to digest for a couple days, and when I get my thoughts together on the next mire I'm about to get into, I'll give you a synopsis. I miss everyone, nearly half way through though!

~Mickey

ps. Here are the latest pics, hope you enjoy, I don't have them captioned yet, but I'll try to get that done soon...
http://picasaweb.google.com/visionteacher/Hanoi
http://picasaweb.google.com/visionteacher/HanoiHaLongBay
http://picasaweb.google.com/visionteacher/MotorbikeTourOfHueNhiSVillage