the second leg of our trip took us to hanoi, vietnam for 4 days. this is in the northern part of vietnam and a bit more rural than in the south. we stayed near the "old quarter" and traded our fancy hotel in bangkok for a smaller "guest house." the room was decent...it was basically your road trip motel-like sorta place. as long as it had a/c, i was good to go. and for $6/person/night, you couldn't beat the bargain. we met connie's mom at the airport in thailand. she flew in from cambodia to meet us here, so that she could travel with us in vietnam. thailand has a pretty nifty airport, which was super clean and had the best thing i ate on the whole trip. i saw a burger king there and scarfed down a double whopper 20 minutes before my flight knowing that may be the last burger i eat for a while...it did not dissapoint. 
once we landed, and passed through some tough customs agents, we hit the road. all you could really see was green and random factories. here's canon, which was good to know in case we had camera issues. we also saw yamaha, panasonic and some other big-name companies... 
once we got into the city of hanoi, you really start to notice one thing. mopeds...everywhere...  
vietnamese child seats 
no he's not driving. we actually saw 6 people on one. kid in front, then alternating with an adult...3 kids and 3 adults total. good thing they don't have the obesity problem that the u.s. has. check this guy out...his bike has a back seat... 
one guy was even trying to move a small refrigerator. he had it strapped to the moped and his back. sorry i didn't get a pic of that, but we were all too busy doing this. 
yes, sudoku. it really did help pass the time on the flights, but somehow it carried over into the car rides and even as we waited for our food. 
the first night we eat at the place above wanting authentic vietnamese food. hated it. good thing we ran into this just up the street... 
they had crabs and clams that they were grilling on the streets. they basically placed them on these small grills and charged per pound. since we were "tourists" i'm sure we paid some sort of eating tax, sitting tax, you're using our tray tax, etc. but it was really good. before... 
after... 
later that night we decided to watch a water puppet show. it was pretty neat to see. the live band played traditional music and narrated traditional folk tales while the puppeteers would perform behind a backdrop waist deep in water.  
we were supposed to visit halong bay, but due to the excess rain that we experienced here, we were unable to go. people were actually being evacuated from that area, so we decided to take some shorter day trips. the first one was to hoa lu (hwa loo) where we saw some ancient temples of vietnam. 
they make you step over a high ledge to enter...they say it's this way so that as you enter, your next action would be to kneel and give respect. i think it was to keep the rain water out. 
the only drums i played for 3 weeks... 
some of the temple guards' weapons... 
some offerings...now i know why we give money instead. would you be happy with these offerings? 
this is the holy spirit showing us that they're always around wherever you go... 
we also saw a local rodeo here... 
after the temple visit, we went to tam coc...yes coc like cock (beavis and butthead moment). here we rode small row boats and saw some of the beautiful scenery the countryside had to offer. again it was raining, but that just made the scenery that much more amazing... 
a tree? 
nope, a banana tree... 
here is one of 3 caves we rowed through. at some points it was pitch black and we had to duck or else our heads would have hit the cave's ceilings... 
some mountain goats which mimi and christine thought were fake. they thought that they were put up there by the locals. yes, they really did think this. like they would take the time to climb a steep hillside with a goat mannequin? this was the type of stuff i had to deal with for 3 weeks... 
our motor... 
and his sidekick 
when their arms got tired, they would row with their feet... 
good to know that even third world countries are doing their part... 
later that night we celebrated connie's mom's bday, rosemary's bday, me and con's anniversary and the fact that we love america... 
the next day we went and visited the perfune pagoda. along the way the bus made a break at a little shop where you could buy gifts, snacks and take a pee break. here's some vietnamese viagra... 
yes, a real cobra head and a real scorpion it rained a lot on this trip, and again we had to take row boats out to our spots. this time there's only one lady who would row 4 ppl, and the ladies rotate twice a month to have a chance to earn some tip money. they are widows of men who were killed in a war or something that had to do with a war. when they aren't on the boat, they're working the rice fields. here's our lady... 
there were all kinds of animals in the water. they say that the most common were snakes. i didn't see any, but i did see some crocs. ok, not really, but christine and mimi wanted to help their lady by using mimi's crocs to row... 
here is the first of the pagodas which was in a huge cave 
oops... 
the cave pagoda was at the top of these hills, and the only way up was by way of gondola. when i saw this, i really couldn't wait till winter season... 
there are still landmines all along the floors of these jungles... 
here's a p.o.w. 
it was raining a ton. here's a restaurant at the bottom of the hill where the rain flooded the floors. 
and here are some steps just outside the restaurant... 
here's the second pagoda... 
more weapons... 
where the monks stay... 
on our last night, the girls wanted pho...i didn't, so i went on a walk. here's a street pho shop where the girls ate at (for a buck)... 
the girls were still hungry, and since i didn't eat the pho, we decided to also eat at this fish restaurant. their dynamic menu awed us... 
after dinner we just relaxed and enjoyed the evening. here we are taking rides on the cyclo and visiting the oldest church in hanoi... 
late-night snack to end our last night... 
once we left vietnam we heard that it had rained the most it had in 60 years. we were pretty lucky and got out of there in time before all the flooding hit. with all this adventure, i was slowly feeling the fatigue hitting me. luckily in cambodia, although still busy, it was a little slower pace. that part of the trip was a great eye opener and i'll share more about that in my next entry...good night. | 
