Hanoi

Been in Hanoi for 2 days now...I have some pretty mixed feelings about the city.

The thing is, I have never been to a city that I straight up despised...and although this place has grown on me (It really is a beautiful place, a bit like Paris in certain areas)...the congestion of scooters and the constant honking of horns, is driving me INSANE!!!!! I actually hit a point yesterday, when I looked at my mom and said, "I can't hear what you are saying...I can't hear what I am saying...and I really can't hear myself thinking...I need a lot of coffee and a quiet space, right now!"

She complied, and things got better...once I learned to live with the horns.


Okay, angst aside...this place is awesome. There is literally a kodak moment around every corner. People walking around with baskets of merchandise balanced on a rod (like a scale)...school girls in beautiful white uniforms and the traditional hats (I'd call them rice paddie hats, but I feel that might be a bad description.) riding bicycles....cows and ducks freely roaming the streets and rice paddies...The images are amazing.

And then there are the things to do...Last night we went to the Water Puppet show. Everyone who has gone before said it was a must-see...but no one was able to describe it accurately...Well, it was fantastic...a folk art passed down thru generations for over a century...the farmers used to create puppet shows on the rice paddies for entertainment...this was one such show. The puppets were wooden, and flowed smoothly thru the water, almost as if they had a mind of their own. Okay, that isn't a great description, but its the best I can do right now....I will put up pictures later, when I am back home.

Today we went to Ha Long Bay...I had a moment when I woke up from a nap and had to smile when I realized I was sleeping on the deck of a Junk (one of those big huge boats with the orange, yellow, or red sails that you see in movies about Vietnam) surrounded by thousands of small limestone islands and beautiful green water...I had to pinch myself as it really could only have been a dream. The boat we hired was ours for the day...it worked out that it was only my mom, me, and a tour guide...there was actually a bigger crew on the boat then in our group...They made us feel like queens, serving us a 12 course meal, and tending to all of our needs (man, I love traveling with my mom...she always makes stuff like this happen!!)

Then we visited a cave...It was stunning...Huge...amazing!!! in fact it was called the cave of amazement...appropriately named! But, a cave is a cave, so I really don't have much to expound on.

Tommorrow, we are going to tour through town (hopefully I won't go postal all the horn honkers)...that's it for now...I'm out of time at this internet cafe.