Past month or so....

Propane delivery during the monsoon

It has been a while since my last entry, over a month.  I suppose that is a sign that this is becoming part of my daily life now.  It is starting to feel a more comfortable and routine to me. We have done many things and explored new parts of the city.  We were shown a fabric district with many stores carrying fabric of all kinds and for cheap.  While we were there, it poured and the streets flooded.  It was fun to sit in a coffee shop and watch the cars, bikes and scooters try to navigate through the small pond that had formed in the street. Now we need to take it to a tailor and get custom made clothes.  I think the largest adjustments here is the lack of convenience that we’re used to in the U.S.A.  Many people in the U.S. are accustomed to going to one place to get groceries, clothing, toys, house hold needs and so on.  Here you have to go to separate stores or districts to find what you need.  We have to plan out our route if we need to look for something for the house or to get groceries, some of which don’t have fresh meats, thus leading us to yet another market.  It can become an all day event, but if you embrace that, it can be fun.  Unfortunately, Krisy has been feeling ill from the first trimester of pregnancy, so she either doesn’t last long or doesn’t come.

fabric market

Two guys on a bike enjoying the flood

people navigating through the flood

One major thing we did since the last entry is we went to the capital of Hanoi & the beautiful Halong Bay in the northern part of Viet Nam.  It is about a two-hour flight from HCMC to Hanoi and a four-hour bus ride from Hanoi to Halong Bay.  We planned the trip not initially realizing that it was a big holiday weekend.  September 2^nd & 3^rd are important days for most of the Vietnamese people; the 2^nd is their actual day that they gained independence from the Japanese/ French.  September 3^rd is the anniversary of the death of the person who led them to their independence, Ho Chi Minh.  Being that Hanoi is the capital, the city was packed with people to celebrate and to go the very Russian looking mausoleum to see “Uncle Ho” as they call him.  Krisy and I took a cyclo or bike taxi to the mausoleum, but the line was longer than any other I had ever seen, so we passed on seeing his embalmed body.  Nearby is the One-Pillar pagoda and Văn Miếu, or the temple of literature (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Literature). It was the first university in Viet Nam, which was founded in 1076!  It was an amazing place and to see where the scholars taught Confucianism on stone tablets 934 years ago.  Hanoi was interesting and different that Saigon in that the people would frequently ask to take a picture with us.  We don’t know if they were in from the countryside, but it is definitely a different vibe in the north. 

Line to see "Uncle Ho"

A Viet girl and me at One-Pilar Pagoda. Peace

Krisy with the tablet at the Temple of  Literature

Flags flying high for Independence Day in VN.

Hanoi at night before fireworks

We were in Washington D.C. for our Independence on the 4^th of July while on our 3-week motorcycle trip across the U.S.  I paused and thought that it’s not often that people get to be in two different national capitals on the opposite side of the world for Independence day in the same year. This year also marks the 1000-year anniversary of the city of Hanoi.  The celebration was fun to see.  People celebrate similar, they watched fireworks, ate food from street vendors at a street fair, laughed, and loved those around them. As the firework show ended, people flooded towards the exit streets on foot and some on scooters.  It seemed as though all of the streets converged into one intersection and the crowd came to a halt.  We were packed in and it only took one person to fall forward or start pushing before things got bad.  I felt the crowd starting to sway and surge, so I got my pregnant wife out of the situation.  There was much more to do and see in Hanoi, but we only had a couple of days before we went to Halong Bay. 

Halong Bay is considered a world heritage site by UNESCO and like many amazing places on Earth, it is a huge tourist destination.  I would relate it to the same feeling I had when I first saw Machu Picchu in Peru.  As we arrived to the bay there were tourists everywhere, many, many more than I had imagined.  The pictures make it look so pristine, untouched, and undiscovered. The docks where all of the boats depart is busy, it smelled and is polluted from the byproducts of tourism. It got better as we were on our boat and headed to the heart of the bay.  The steep limestone formations that rose out of the water were similar to those in Peru, because they seemed to rise out of nowhere.  It was breathtaking to see the calm waters with limestone formations coming out of the water for as far as the eye could see.  For thousands of years, people have made their livelihood fishing in Halong Bay and continue today.  At one point our boat stopped at some caves similar to many in the U.S. and we got out and hiked through them with all of the other tourists.  They were amazing, but we both have seen similar caves back home.  We then went to an area where we could kayak and because Krisy wasn’t feeling well, I went solo.  It was nice to get closer to the water and I was able to get a better look at some of the families whom live on boats there year round.  I didn’t want to violate their privacy, but as I got closer, almost every one of them would wave at me almost as if they were inviting me over.  We stayed on the boat one night and after the boat anchored, some of us went swimming before dinner.  

A friendly fisherman

Typical Halong Bay boat called a "Junk"

The trip ended the following day and we started on the four-hour bus ride back to Hanoi, which didn’t settle well with Krisy.  She wasn’t feeling well by the time we got back, so we ate and I wandered around by myself for a couple of hours.  The celebration was still going on and there was live music and a large street was closed off with booths selling things to the locals.  The following morning, Sunday, was the day when all of the farmers, butchers and whomever else, come to town.  People had live fish, fresh veggies, were chopping meats and so on, it was fun to see before getting back on our flight to HCMC.

Fruit on its way to market

Butcher