Vietnam

(Only 2.5 months late...)

Our schedule for the trip was very tight, so we only had a day trip to Ha Long Bay, a day in a half in Hanoi, two days in Ho Chi Minh City, and then onto Cambodia. My quickie review of Vietnam? Beautiful, great food, great shopping, cheap, and boy do I wish we had spent more time there.

We flew into Hanoi late Friday night, and left for Ha Long Bay first thing Saturday morning. Despite the 4 hour bus ride (each way!) and the mist preventing distance views, the bay was stunning. It's odd to experience such silence, which you'll find was a trend on this vacation, while surrounded by tourists, but it's true. We went on a rowboat through the coves in the largest island, saw a girl no more than 10 years old master a boat better than I could hope to navigate any vehicle ever in my life, and visited one of the largest and most expansive caves I've ever seen. Seeing natural rock formations that took thousands of years to form a peak just-so, is awe-inspiring. Definitely leaves an impression.

The floating village's school

Beyond the natural beauty of Vietnam, the cities are a whole new ball game. Hanoi is truly amazing, with the most eclectic architecture I've ever seen. I'm not the most well-versed in history, but I think if it had been explained to me through the building styles of the time periods, my interest would have been piqued. To see French style buildings next to the large archways and stone work of some-other-style-that-I-can't-name, in bright shades of yellows and greens and purples was absolutely beautiful. Ho Chi Minh City was very different aesthetically. The city seemed much more modern somehow, with wide roads lined with large trees, more open spaces of lakes and parks, and scooters.

Oh my god the scooters.

I bought a postcard with a cartoon of a traffic light. Green light says 'I can go.' Yellow light says 'I can go.' Red light says 'I can still go.' Literally the most accurate thing of the entire trip. There are no lights, no pedestrian walkways. You just walk into oncoming cars, bicycles, and scooters and hope that they see you and move accordingly. Thankfully, they do just that. It's surreal, in the most terrifying sense, to be walking through traffic, vehicles weaving seamlessly around you like water flows through a stream. I'm not ashamed to admit that Bhavika and I were intimidated a few times, and had to be escorted across the street by policemen in official uniform. Clearly they were used to this kind of thing.

Of course, the other notable thing was the food. We did a street food tour in Hanoi, and what an investment! Trying so many different kinds of food, learning to recognize and get a taste for new ingredients, and even seeing the city through the familiar eyes of our guide really set the tone for our time there. Even better, when we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, we took a cooking class. Starting out with a tour of the local market, we could see coconuts in various stages of processing, fruits that I had never tasted, seen, or even heard of before, and more animal organs than Bhavi knew how to handle. For me, the fruit was the most fascinating. In Korea, fresh fruit is very expensive and is difficult to find anything I'd consider exotic. Not so in Vietnam, that's for damn sure. Anyway, the cooking class was phenomenal, and I left it with a recipe book and confidence in my spring-roll-frying ability.

One of the things I loved the most about Vietnam, and Hanoi specifically, were the people. I don't think we met a single unfriendly face, and many people offered us help if we were lost or confused. While we were at Hoan Kiem (a lake near the Old Quarter), we were approached by a pair of students. Now, I tend to be very paranoid when I travel, and people approaching me immediately sets off my 'stranger danger' alarm. But these two were about our age, and were very upfront that they were students at a Vietnam university wanting to practice their English. They were so friendly and inquisitive about our travel, especially so when they learned about our lives in Korea, asking how did Vietnam compare. The four of us talked for so long that Bhavika and I were a little late for our next appointment! But that's what travel is all about, meeting people and having experiences.

You can take a billion photos, but what's the point of going to another country if all you do is see it through a lens? Heck, I can do that through a computer screen.

Next post: Cambodia!
안녕!