Still in Hanoi…
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We’re still kicking around in Hanoi, taking our time to enjoy this city of ancient trees and decaying old French frescoed buildings amongst pagodas and rice paddies.
We visited the Museum of Ethnology today – a worthwhile venture, as it explains the housing, traditions, ceremonies, religious beliefs and dress of the 54 different ethnic minorities in Vietnam. We were intrigued by the different houses – many of which there were examples of on the property. There was everything from long houses to stilt houses to mud/brick houses to community gathering houses with 30m high thatched roofs.
Halong Bay to Hanoi
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We were in Halong Bay yesterday during a standard wet season down pour. Essentially, we arrived there during a rain storm and the bay was blanketed in cloud, but as we left the harbor the sky started to clear and the limestone islands started to reveal themselves little by little until we had a full view of the place by noon. The islands are a seemingly infinite maze of limestone cliffs rising straight out of the water as great white spires, stained black by the weather. The bases of several of the islands have been lapped through by waves and have holes large enough for fishing pirogues to pass through. Every island is topped by greenery, and several of them had sea eagles circling them.
Hoi An to Hanoi
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We’ve just made it to Hanoi on time for a huge rain storm – it is rainy season. We flew here this morning from Hoi An.
We just loved Hoi An. It’s a small town (pop. 80,000) with a vibrant artistic community of painters, potters, wood carvers, silk weavers and tailors. The old section of town is full of beautiful little shops selling the most colorful array of hand crafted goods. The shops are all little one or two story ancient houses with beautiful colorful Chinese lanterns and caged birds at every entrance, and flowering vines climbing the outside walls or falling from the roof line. It’s wonderful. We finally feel like we’re on vacation after the worthwhile, but emotionally difficult tour through Cambodia.
Saigon (Ho Chi Min)
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We’re still in Saigon, and have been taking some time to relax and recuperate from the two of us feeling under the weather. In between rests we’ve taken a cyclo tour of the city – it was pretty funny to see a bunch of Westerners being pedaled around the city through stop lights, into oncoming traffic, in between buses and cars, and around Vietnamese carrying enormous baskets of fruit, clothing, vegetables, shoes, etc… to market. Of course the lack of traffic rules is alarming to us, but we haven’t seen one accident, and you get use to the constant cacophony of moto, car, bus and truck horns that we would associate with a wedding procession down the street.
Phnom Phen – Chau Doc – Ho Chi Min
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The last few days have been an absolute whirlwind of emotions and travel.
We visited the Teoul Sleng Prison and the Killing Fields in Phnom Phen – places of such recent horrific history that it takes a few days to recover from the shock of the brutality humans are capable of towards each other.
