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This has always been true. The victor in every war gets their version of the truth placed in the annals of history. We Americans, however, are not accustomed to being on the wrong side of the victory ledger. We have always written the book.

Phung, the head of our tour guide team, said this to us as we were getting off our bus at the War Remnants Museum in Saigon. He was warning us that we would not necessarily like what we saw. The museum opened in 1975 in the building that housed the US information agency. It first opened as the “Exhibition House for US and Puppet Crimes.” This was later changed to “Exhibition House for Crimes of War and Aggression,” and, finally, in 1995 as US/Vietnamese relations were warming, the museum was given its current name.

My Dad was a rescue helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War. His job was to pick up downed fighter pilots in North Vietnam and bring them home. Many of those pilots are still alive today and grateful for his heroism. I will forever be proud of him. As such, viewing this one-sided version of the war was particularly hard.

That’s not to say the US didn’t do things that we all wish they hadn’t. Agent Orange — a defoliant used to kill jungle growth — had devastating affects on the environment and the people in its path for decades. Napalm, also used to clear the jungle — but, much more quickly — burned down villages and killed many innocent people. The Mai Lai Massacre was unforgivable. These acts were well documented in the museum. They invoked the intended emotional result on all of us. There were many omissions, too. The involvement of the Soviets and Chinese were never mentioned. The crimes of the North were also omitted. War is ugly and no one wins. The leaders of countries at war often make poor judgments for tactical advantage. Perhaps all isn’t fair in love and war. If the museum did anything well, it made this point strongly.

The Cu Chi Tunnels

We drove about 40 miles northwest of Saigon this morning to visit the Cu Chi tunnels. They are a network of tunnels in the jungle town of Cu Chi that the Viet Cong used to hide from French troops and American GIs. The tunnel network is miles long and traveled from home to home, out to the Saigon river, to the Ho Chi Min Trail, and even under an American airbase. We had a chance to learn about the clever tactics of the Viet Cong and the harsh conditions they lived under. The Tet offensive on Saigon was largely launched from here according to Hien, our guide.

I had a chance to crawl through one of the tunnels. Lisa started to go, but, her claustrophobia got the better of her and she waited for me up top. While the tunnels went as far as three stories down, I simply walked through the first level. Imagine duck-walking for about 200 yards. And, the tunnels have been enlarged. Originally, I might have had to crawl and squeeze through the space.

I popped up and there waiting for me was a smiling Lisa, glad I made it, but, even more glad she stayed on top! I also got to fire an AK-47. Seventeen dollars for ten bullets. Capitalism at its best.

Mr. Cuong

One of our more poignant moments was our personal meeting with Mr. Cuong. Mr, Cuong was a photographer for the Associated Press during the war. He was there during some of the most historic moments. He was at the Presidential palace when Saigon fell, he photographed the evacuation of Americans and Vietnamese on those final days, and he was in many battles, recording the images of war.

We had a chance to sit with him in his modest home above a convenience store and ask him questions about his experiences. He was generous, engaging, and even complimented my photograph of his camera collection!

Saigon — A Western City

Saigon is definitely not Hanoi. Driving in from the airport, we immediately noticed that the city is more affluent and more Western than Hanoi, which has had less economic advantage. There are still millions of people on motorbikes. Crossing the street is still an adventure. But, there is a coffee shop on every street corner and many very upscale stores and hotels. While we feel right at home here, it has a much less exotic feel then we’ve enjoyed on the rest of our trip.

Off to the airport for our return trip home. We’ll do a final wrap-up on the trip once we get settled in Danville.

Mr. Cuong

The Mekong river begins as snow in the Tibetan Mountains. It flows through China, Myanmar, Laos (where we took a riverboat ride earlier this week), Thailand, and Cambodia, and finally Vietnam where it flows into the South China Sea (or as the Vietnamese call it, the East Vietnam Sea). The river is a rich source of food, water, and power for every country. There is much legend and history associated with it as well. As it approaches the sea, the river — much like the Mississippi River back home — forms a large and fertile delta. It is characterized by many tributaries and canals that branch throughout the region.

Lisa and I set off yesterday morning for the two-hour drive from Saigon to the delta. Our guide, Hien grew up there and was a fountain of information for us. His family had a rice farm and seven children. Hien’s older brother was old enough after the war, that he became one of the hundreds of thousands of “boat people who fled Vietnam to avoid persecution. He settled in Tennessee, got a job with First Fidelity Title company, and sent money home so Hien and one of his sisters could go to college. Vietnam provides elementary education for free. If you want to go to middle school, high school or college, you must pay. This isn’t possible for many Vietnamese families. Hien was lucky. His four youngest siblings still work the farm.

The ground is so fertile and the growing season so long that they can produce three rice crops per year. This compares to two crops in North Vietnam and one in Cambodia. But, the area was unique to what we’ve seen before because of the tropical fruit orchards on the many islands in the delta. We tried many fruits, some of which we had never seen or heard about before, like rambutan, longan (a relative of the lychee — it looks like an eyeball when peeled), and mangosteen.

We arrived at the river and boarded a small junk boat. We headed out to the floating market where merchants sell their crops. Unfortunately, it opens early in the morning, so, we arrived to late to do any shopping. But, we were able to see the “belly boats” the market people live in. They cook, work, and relax on deck and sleep down below. The boats are anchored in an area that looks a little like Venice — if I had only wood and built it myself. But, there are canals, boats, water taxis, and ferries with activity being a constant.

A belly boat.

We then landed and checked out a place that makes rice paper, rice wine (some with snakes in it!), puffed rice cakes, and coconut caramels. Lisa liked the work of a local artist and bought one of his oil paintings.

Rice wine still.

Lisa wasn’t a fan of the rice wine.

Puffed rice is made a lot like popcorn.

Finally we boarded a little saipan boat for a ride up one of the many little canals that are used to get to homes on the delta islands. What a ride. The boat guy uses two oars to steer and propel the boat. But, unlike the typical rowboat, he stands and faces forward. Stephanie would have thought she was on a Disney jungle cruise. But, this was real. Here are a few pictures. Judge for yourself.

And, finally, we had lunch on one of the islands at a local family’s home. They do this for ecotourist visits. We were, however, the only ones there at the time. Before sitting down, we visited with their pet python. He didn’t have a name. But, they seemed to love him as they had had him for 14 years.

We then had one of the best, most fresh meals of the trip. Elephant fish (a new first), fresh water prawns, pork, fresh fruit, pho (Vietnamese soup). Delicious. Once again, we found friendly people content with their lives and proud of their heritage and land.

Before heading to the airport in Cambodia, we made a quick run to check out the local market. Fruits and vegetables; your assortment of frogs, fish and crabs; meat of all kinds; 50 cent beer; and souvenirs for tourists were the order of the day. But, as we walked around, we chanced upon a curious place called Dr. Fish Massage. The good doctor promised to make one “happy and funny.” Lisa, being a connoisseur of massages, said, “no way!” I, being one who can’t resist goading Lisa on, told her that if I could get a Hanoi haircut, she could get a Cambodian fish massage. She took the bait (pun intended).

It’s quite simple — one puts their feet into a fish tank and the fish nibble on your feet. Not sure what they’re eating exactly. But, they seem to like it. Well, Lisa took off her shoes and socks and hesitantly lowered her feet into the tank. The fish, somehow expecting a delicious meal, attacked. Lisa shrieked. After about 15 seconds of giggling and squirming she said, “can I take them out now?” I said, “no.”

She lasted about three minutes.

I asked the woman how much for the effort and she looked me somewhat amused and said, “one dollar.” I think Lisa set the new Cambodian record for shortest massage.

We’re off to Saigon now. We’ll catch up to you there.

This morning we had a special session meditating and chanting with Cambodian monks. A group of four of them came to our hotel and took us through the steps of meditation and breathing. We all sat there meditating with them for almost a half-hour. As the time elapsed, you could hear each of us twitching and moving a little. A half-hour is a long time to be still! I peeked at the monks and they weren’t moving a muscle or restless at all. We were all a little relieved when they told us we could relax and quit meditating. They discussed the five tenets of Buddhism with us. They are:
1. Do not kill another living thing.
2. Do not take what is not yours.
3. Do not cheat on your spouse or loved one.
4. Do not lie.
5. Do not take intoxicants or drink alcohol. (Ooops!)

Well, I guess four out of five of the tenets isn’t too bad. ( Although, I will also admit to killing a mosquito or two that I have found in our hotel room.)

When we asked how long we should meditate each day, they said that five or ten minutes first thing in the morning and five-ten minutes before we went to bed would give us a happy, peaceful life. More food for thought!

As we leave Cambodia, we are struck with the differences with life here from life back home. The people are very friendly and polite but they have all been through so much and are continuing to have struggles. All of the people we met talked about the corruption in the country and the lack of education and health care. 75% of the people living in the country-side are illiterate and school is not mandatory. The country is young; 50% of the people are under 15. Young children surround you begging you to buy trinkets from them when you walk around the temples and it is hard to witness.

And, yet, when we visited the floating village the people all seemed so content. The kids were all playing in the water and running around their homes laughing and smiling. There were even two teenage boys showing off hot-rodding around with their boats proving that boys will always be boys no matter what culture they are in. It reminded me of the stories of the African Village People in the documentary, “Happy”. Happiness is truly relative to your situation. These people would be miserable if they were transplanted to the United State and we could never survive a day on the village without our technology and need to be constantly busy and challenged. Can you imagine Brad not being able to watch sports or get on twitter?

One other fact of life here that we haven’t mentioned is the heat in Cambodia. It is about 90 degrees here with 100% humidity. Add to the equation that you need to cover up because of the requirements of keeping your knees and shoulders covered and the fact that you want to protect yourself from mosquitoes and you get a feel for why the group always looks like we are glistening in all of the pictures!

We are leaving Cambodia soon and are heading to Saigon. We only have two more days on our trip which is hard to believe and is making us a little sad. We have made friends with a great group of people on our tour and it will be hard to say good-bye to everyone. Although Brad and I have never blogged before, we have enjoyed reviewing our day and putting our thoughts down into this blog. We are feeling a lot of responsibility now that everyone in our group here is following us and all of you have made so many great comments back to us! Chris told me that we would find the statistics from the blog to be interesting. We have had almost 1000 visits to our blog but most interesting is that we have quite a large contingent from Singapore following us as well as people from Laos, the UK, Switzerland, and Australia! Brad’s photos were even put into an on-line publication about Cambodia. I think that maybe I should talk Brad out of following his dream about opening a pet supply store and maybe we could become professional travel bloggers and photographers. Sure sounds a lot more fun than schlepping dog food!!

Here are some final pictures of our experiences in Cambodia.

Tuk-Tuk Ride Through Siem Reap

Visit to a Silk Factory

Our fearless leader, Chris, enjoying some cocktails with the ladies!

Before Sunrise.

It was still dark when we rose this morning to visit Angkor Wat, the 12th-century temple touted as the largest Hindu temple in the world. One can only be awed by something that was viewed by people standing in the same spot nearly one thousand years ago. We left early to catch the splendor of viewing the structure at sunrise, and to beat both the heat and the crowds. Our guide, Soeun, is a master at getting us to the right place at the right time. He walks quite fast — likely a function of his knowledge of the perfect time to be at the perfect place to get the perfect photograph. Lighting on the temples makes all of the difference.

But, his pace could also have been influenced by his background. Cambodia, like all of the Southeast Asian countries, has a colorful and troubled past. But, Cambodia’s troubles have much more recency to them. The “Killing Fields” happened in our lifetime. For us, it was something we heard about in the news or saw in the movies. For Soeun and every other Cambodian, it was real life.

The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. The regime launched a reform policy that sought to eliminate all opposition. Famine, a lack of medical care, and mass executions killed over two million citizens during the period. Every family was — and still is — affected by the Killing Fields. Soeun was lucky — both his parents, who were farmers, survived. But, he had ten siblings, five of whom were “disappeared.” It makes sense that he should walk quickly.

We were told by another guide as we arrived in the country, that everyone over 45 has mental illness as a result of the stress they were under during the Khmer Rouge reign. Who wouldn’t be so deeply affected by such horror? There is an edge to the people that we didn’t feel in Vietnam or Laos. Still they are friendly, welcoming, and hopeful for a better future. But, better educational and medical systems will be needed for them to make good progress.

Lisa Removing her “troubles”in the happy room

The Oxcart and the Floating Village

We went back back to the hotel for breakfast then set off for another adventure. Tonle Sap lake is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia and sits smack in the middle of Cambodia. It is unusual in that it shrinks and grows dramatically based on the season. During the rainy season the lake can quintuple in size eating up large swaths of land. We’re at the end of the rainy season so the lake is large and takes about 20 minutes to drive there from our hotel. In the dry season it will take over an hour to get to the much more distant lake shore.

On the way we came across a boy with an oxcart and two water buffalo. He was selling rides on the somewhat deserted road to the lake. We took him up on it. How often does one get to ride in an oxcart (water buffalo cart?)? After hooking up the buffalo, the boy motioned us into the cart. The ride was s-l-o-w. It is very hot and humid here so it wasn’t long before Lisa said, “Are we done yet?” Then, to make the trip even more exciting, a carful of our tour mates drove up beside us, pointed, laughed and began snapping pictures. Our very own paparazzi vehicle.

Well, after about ten minutes and two hundred yards, we exited the vehicle. One more item scratched off the bucket list.

Cambodian barber shop. Too bad I got that haircut in Vietnam.

Anyway, we drove out to a boat launch and got in a rather strange looking boat to take us to the floating village. The village is a fishing hamlet on home made Cambodian houseboats. Because the lake is so transient, the residents of the village need to stay mobile so they can move as the lake does. Since they are fishermen, it wouldn’t make sense to be far from the lake shore during the dry season.

After about 20 minutes we arrived in a different world. The homes — more like floating shacks — were assembled in a town that came from another era. They used car batteries for power. There was a shop that used a gas-powered generator to recharge the batteries. The houses floated on bamboo poles bound together and they mostly used palm fronds, grass, or wood for walls and ceilings. It gave Lisa and I an indescribable understanding of the conditions much of the world lives with. We felt simultaneously lucky and awed at the experience.

Yet, children played, dogs lounged, mothers cooked, babies swung in hammocks, people smiled and waved. Happiness truly is more than can be provided by material goods. This community, always on the move, is anchored by those things that bind us all — friendship, community, family.

A floating school

Our funny-looking boat.

Sunrise.

We left our hotel early yesterday to give alms to the Laotian monks. Every morning, Buddhist monks walk the streets of Luang Prabang accepting food from the citizens of town. These monks sole source of sustenance is what they receive through the generosity of others.

We arrived at our place on the street to find rugs to kneel on all lined up on the sidewalk and bowls filled with our offering. Now, normally citizens provide grains of rice, bananas, and other staples of the area. For some reason our bowls were full of those wafer cookies we used to eat as kids. You know the ones — brown, yellow, or pink wafers with white creme in between. Well, we had the yellow ones. No one ever explained the significance of this offering. I surmised that even monks need a little sugar now and then.

I lined up first on my rug with Lisa and the rest of our group to my right. I was a little nervous as I wasn’t sure how to make my offering. Right hand, left hand, both hands? Look them in the eye, look down? Say something? Fortunately there was a local woman about a half a block down to cue my behavior. The monks came dressed in their orange robes walking down the street barefooted in single file. The held silver-colored pots with lids. As they approached us, they opened the lids on our pots and we deposited the sugar wafers.

The monks were very young. Most Laotian males become monks for a period or two during their youth. Contrary to what most people know, they don’t need to remain monks for their entire lives. This is a time they learn about Buddhism and practice its teaching. But, most typically exit the monastery eventually and lead normal lives.

Back to our offering. The first group came through uneventfully — us putting wafers into the pots. Then came more monks. Our baskets were getting low on wafers. I began to panic. What if we run out? I never thought there’d be so many monks! Fortunately, a couple of people in our group slept in so I grabbed their baskets, took some wafers and passed them down to Lisa and the others. But, the monks kept coming! Just when I thought some of the monks might go hungry, a local woman rescued me by giving me a whole basket of crackers. Saved, I made sure the local monks would eat today. But, the monks kept coming.

Som Pong, our Laotian guide came over and said I shouldn’t take any more crackers from the local women. They charged for them. Oops. He said the monks would eat just fine and that we would not receive spiritual demerits for excluding some of the monks from our offering. Relieved, we got up, I paid the women for their crackers, and we left. Despite the shortage of sugar wafers, it was very rewarding to participate in this local custom.

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Next stop, the morning market. The locals set up a farmers market of sorts each morning in the middle of town. Now, a word about Laos. It is a heavily jungled, mountainous, land-locked, undeveloped country. As such, the people here have learned to eat everything and leave nothing to waste. This was very apparent as we walked the several-block market full of everything from local fruits and vegetables to every sort of fresh wildlife imaginable– and all their parts. We saw live frogs, eels, buffalo, (including Lisa’s favorite, buffalo lung), fish, and even wasp larvae. We were impressed by the variety and availability of food in this market. While the region is not affluent by any means, people are not going hungry. This is a very good thing. And, while the food may seem foreign to us, it makes sense in the context of the geography and culture of the region. That doesn’t mean some of our group didn’t leave the market with just a little less appetite than when they walked in.

The Mekong river winds from China through Laos and Cambodia and drains into the South China Sea in Vietnam’s famous Mekong Delta. We took a riverboat ride down the Mekong midday. This wide muddy river provides food and water for millions of people. While pondering this thought, I waited eagerly for each one of Amanda’s texts giving me updates on the A’s-Tiger’s game four. I shouted out load and jumped for joy when she let me know of the miraculous A’s comeback win. Then I sheepishly sat back down when the blank stares from my tour mates told me they didn’t know or care about the A’s-Tigers outcome. I once again began to ponder the history and significance of the river.

After returning to Luang Prabang, we rented bicycles and toured the town. A good local lunch, a visit to the main temple, a tour though a museum and a ride along the river were all enjoyable. But, what’s a tour of the town without shopping. Laos is a country early in its economic development process. You may remember from your econ classes that first comes agriculture, then textiles and raw materials, then manufacturing. While Vietnam has an emerging manufacturing base, Laos does not. This was perfect for Lisa. She had been looking for a tapestry for the Boulder condo and this turned out to be the perfect place. The local weavers loved her as she emerged with a nice wall hanging. A quick visit for earrings to the local silversmith and the shopping excursion was complete.

Our final stop before dinner was to a place called Big Brother Mouse. It is a local non-profit that works with underprivileged local kids on English, French, and Chinese language skills. This allows them to get much better employment in the future.

Lisa and I walked in to a room full of eager young teenage boys (yes, only boys, unfortunately). They were so excited to have Americans in their classroom to help them better understand the English language. The lesson they were working on was the nuance of slang. Easy. We know lots of American slang. The first one was, “food for thought.” Uh, oh. How does one explain this concept to kids who are just learning the language. Lisa and I traded off attempts at explanation. “You know, it’s like, uh, feeding your brain with an idea.” “You say something provocative, oh, what’s provocative?” This was going to be harder than we thought.

We worked our way through a few easy ones (eat like a horse, see eye to eye) and then got to “play hard to get.” This was easy as Lisa does this to me all the time. We acted out a scene where a girl is playing hard to get with a boy and got everyone laughing. Another of our friends, Bridgett, was explaining the English definition of various herbs and spices. I was impressed as I hadn’t heard of many of them. After 45 minutes of explaining words, teaching pronunciation and showing pictures of our family, we had to leave. The boys were disappointed. They wanted us to stay all night! This activity turned into one of our most rewarding activities of the trip. We’ll never forget their eager faces, gentle personalities, and desire to learn.

The People of Laos; We are family now.
(by Lisa)

In our two short days in Luang Prabang, Brad and I felt like we were able to interact with enough Laos people to get a feel for their nature. They are a very gentle, unassuming people who are very proud of their town and country. They are quick to smile and are extremely polite and courteous. When we were at the market, Brad wanted to take a picture of a chicken (see below) and lied down on the ground to get the picture. The people of the market thought this was hilarious and all got a good laugh at the crazy guy on the ground with a chicken!

Our guide, La, befriended us quickly and by the end of lunch he declared that we are all family now because we had gotten to know each other so well. Another surreal moment was when we were riding our bikes around the town passing by groups of monks in their bright orange robes seeing them interact with one another. We now have one up on Chris and Matt because I don’t think even they have ridden their bikes through groups of monks! Of course, my highlight was interacting with the boys at the school when we helped them with their English. They were so personable and enthusiastic to interact with us. I really, really wanted to go back and spend the day with them today because we had so much fun with them.

One last note for my yoga friends. We were able to take a serene, relaxing yoga class at our hotel this morning. Our group was situated on a teak deck overlooking a pond with lily-pads and temples in the far-off hills. As we practiced, we could hear roosters crowing and birds chirping and the occasional motor bike. I felt very far away from Danville and The Studio that’s for sure. Our instructor was from Boston. She and her husband decided to get out of the rat race of the financial industry and travel the world last year. They both decided that their favorite place was Laos and are trying to make a life here. “Food for Thought” for all of us…..And, yes, that’s another of the slang words we had to explain to the boys!

Brad’s Chicken

As I write to you tonight, I am relaxing in our room covered with mosquito netting and my wrists are covered with about 20 string bracelets from our Baci Ceremony in Laos. We arrived in Luang Prabang, Laos this morning and checked into the La Residence Phou Vao Resort around noon. The stress and craziness of Hanoi just melted away the minute we set foot in this rural, quiet country. Thankfully, we had a rest day this afternoon and were able to lounge by the pool and catch up on some reading before heading out tonight to a local village Baci (welcoming) ceremony.

A Baci ceremony is the Lao ancestral ceremony that celebrates special events such as weddings, homecomings, births, or welcomings. It is the oldest and most traditional Lao ceremony, which gives blessing for health and prosperity. It is hosted by the senior village Shaman and special food and drink were prepared for us. The ritual involves the tying of holy cotton threads by all of the “welcoming committee” to give the blessings of the spirits to specific people or activities. We were told that the numbers three and seven are special in Laos and we should keep the cotton threads on for at least three or seven days for good luck and prosperity. As with most ceremonies, not only did we find there was much chanting but there was also the drinking of shots! For this ceremony, we all had to drink rice whiskey shots and, of course, had to accept all of the food that was offered to us. Although our ceremony was less than an hour, we were told that these ceremonies can go on for several hours with much eating and drinking of rice wine and whiskey!

We walked through a village to get to the Baci ceremony and were struck by the wide variety of housing. There were metal shacks built up next to colonial two -story “mansions” right next to more metal, open-door shacks. We asked our guide how they could have such a variety of houses in the same block and he said that it was because family always lives together. If someone becomes rich in the family, they stay close to their relatives but they buy the biggest house they can afford. They would never dream of moving away from where their family lives.

After dinner, we had a nice relaxing dinner by the pool at the resort and were entertained by the local dancers and musicians. We are all getting to know each other quite well now so there is much socializing and a little craziness especially after the shots of rice whiskey!!

We have to be up and ready to go at 5:30 am tomorrow morning to go into town to observe the monk’s alms rounds so I better finish this blog for the evening. Brad is already next to me snoring so I think I will it call it a night and give you a full report about our day in Laos sometime tomorrow evening!

Here are some pictures of Laos and the Baci Ceremony.

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Baci Ceremony

Our guide Du… The best guide in Vietnam!

Brad’s Hair Cut on the Street

The Streets of Hanoi. The frogs are for you, Stephanie! An example of a Hanoi Mini-Van, the small blue plastic chairs everyone sits on, and Lisa looking like a giant.

Water Puppet Show

Cooking Class to help Disadvantaged Youth

Dinner at a Private Home Dressed in Traditional Vietnamese Formal Wear

So much to tell, so little internet to tell it with! Brad has taken some amazing pictures of the people on the streets and the sights around Hanoi but the internet in our hotel is so painfully slow we had to wait until we left and reached the country of Laos.

A word about our hotel and our group before I go any further. We are staying at the Sofitel Metropole which is a French Colonial hotel built in 1901. It has been visited by many statesmen and famous celebrities throughout the century, most notably Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Kennedy. There are a series of tunnels and bunkers underneath the hotel that were used by the likes of Jane Fonda and Joan Baez during the Vietnam War. And, yes, Bob there is a cool Buddha Store in the lobby. We are with a group of seven other couples and a guide leader who are on the same ten-day tour with us. They are from all over the United States and Canada. We have enjoyed getting to know them and it seems to be the right size to move around S.E. Asia.

And now, on to the $2.50 haircut! Yesterday was our day with a private guide to take us back out to see the sights of Hanoi. At breakfast, we were reading some articles about the sights in Hanoi when I came across an article about the street barbers. These barbers literally hang a mirror on a wall with a wood shelf and a chair and cut hair with their scissors all day. We had seen them the first day and were quite curious. Brad had to cancel his monthly haircut before we came and was getting pretty bushy hair with all of this humidity. (Sometimes even Brad’s hair gets out of place….I won’t even tell you about the nightmare my hair is with this heat and humidity!) I suggested to Brad that maybe he should try a street barber. Brad was game and so the quest was on with our guide, Du, to find an appropriate barber. After much searching (and some confusion where he thought I was the one who wanted to go to the barber!), we found our man on a street corner. The pictures below should tell the story quite well but needless to say Brad is sporting a new Vietnamese haircut and the cost of the whole experience was $2.50 and a lot of laughs and a little nervousness on both of our parts! Personally, I think Brad looks really good in it; a little Tom Cruise-ish from Top Gun. (We found out today that the street barbers are actually illegal so we might have had an entirely different story to tell if the police had stopped by!)

We have had the best guide for the last three days. His name is Du and he has an amazing knowledge of Hanoi, the Vietnamese culture, and has perfect English. He told us that he started his career as a teacher but teachers only got paid $20 a month and he couldn’t feed his family on that amount of money. So, he went into guide work which seems to be paying him much better. He has been a wealth of knowledge to us about the culture.

We haven’t written about the food yet but we would be remiss in going any further in this blog without sharing our favorite dishes. Everything here is absolutely delicious and it is very easy to eat on the lighter side because most things are stir-fried and contain a lot of vegetables. We ate at a magnificent restaurant last night and had spring rolls, mushroom soup, roasted duck with mandarin sauce, stir fried vegetables, seafood, and creme caramel for dessert. Mostly, we eat whatever is ordered for us and put in front of us and have enjoyed it all! A note to Mary Stevens, so far I am handling this food much better than when we were in Spain!

One last cultural note, I am starting to feel like a giant around here. Most of the women can’t be more than 5’2″ and weigh about 90 lbs. Many of them like to pose with me and I am heads taller than them. I did get a Vietnamese massage yesterday and the tiny Vietnamese woman just jumped on my back and started massaging me. Nothing quite as provocative happened as it did with Brenda in Thailand but she did do a lot of sitting on me and there was much cracking of my back and neck muscles!

The President on Holiday, the Cyclo Tour, Water Puppets, Vietnamese Cooking Class and Taxes

We had to leave the hotel at 7:30 this morning so we could beat the crowds at the Ho Chi Min mausoleum. It is customary to leave the heads of state for Communist governments lying in state indefinitely. Ho Chi Min was the founder of the Communist Party in Vietnam who ousted France in 1954 and lead the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War (or the American War as they call it). He died in 1969 and has been lying in state in Hanoi ever since.

Well, as we were heading over to the mausoleum to view this former president, our guide informed us that Ho Chi Min had left the country. He was in Russia. Apparently he likes to spend Fall there to get, um, cosmetic surgery done. He left a little earlier than usual this year. Eager to get that face lift done, I suppose. It wasn’t announced ahead of time as they don’t want someone absconding with the old guy.

Yesterday our tour leader announced that we would all take a cyclo tour around the Old Quarter of Hanoi. The Old Quarter is a bustling section of the city with outdoor markets, street vendors, restaurants and stores. It is rumored to be the most densely populated area in Asia at .8 square meters per person. Try to imagine living in a space about the size of your couch and you get the idea.

A cyclo is basically a rickshaw attached to a bicycle. Since you are only allowed one person per cyclo, we started off in 15 separate vehicles. Now, if you think crossing the street in the wild city traffic is scary, try pulling into traffic in one of these contraptions. Well, while we had low expectations for the tour, it turned out to be fascinating. We got a slow-motion perspective on the heart and energy of this city. Interesting people, stores and buildings; a close-up look at the tangled power line-laden infrastructure; what we dubbed Vietnamese minivans (single motorbikes with two parents and two kids riding on them); Communist “news” being broadcast over loudspeakers. If you are ever in Hanoi, make your first activity the now-popular cyclo tour.

This afternoon we visited the Hoa Sua School for disadvantaged youth. This school provides free vocational training for orphaned, handicapped, and poor children in Hanoi. They teach the kids how to embroidery, cooking, housekeeping, hospitality services, etc, so that the kids can get jobs in the tourism industry. We went to get lessons in Vietnamese cooking. Our visit provided financial support for the school and a great experience for us. Expect a sampling of our new skills (?) when we return home.

Yesterday we showed you a photo of the typical skinny, tall buildings we see here. Today we learned why they’re designed this way. Apparently, real estate is taxed by the amount of frontage the building has. So, a 30-foot wide building is taxed much higher than a 10-foot wide building even if their square footages are the same. This is why many homes here are no wider than a single-car garage, but, are very deep and three to four stories tall. We even saw a building that was about 5-feet wide. Imagine living in that!

We’re had dinner tonight in a private home in the Old Quarter. We were treated to a surprise and were measured for traditional Vietnamese formal wear. Check out the pictures below. We made quite a scene walking through the Old Quarter.

Tomorrow, we board a plane for Laos and many new adventures. Until then . . .

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