Goodbye Hanoi & fresh beer.

Tonight we leave Hanoi and head south to Saigon. We will spend a day in Hoi An (near Dannang) and a couple of days (including New Years) in Nha Trang. We will arrive in Ho chi Mihn city (Saigon) on the end of the week.

It has been a crazy and fun time in Hanoi. It will be nice to get out on the coast and hopefully somewhere quieter with cleaner air. Each of us has spent at least one day not feeling well, and everyone seems to now have at least a sore throat. Linda has also been coughing for the last couple of nights. Hopefully some fresh air will help.

We never did get out to Halong Bay to go rock climbing. The days we had planned to climb turned out to be raining, so we stayed in town. We did make good use of our time, finding a supermarket so we could get food fro the train, attending a night of songs at the Hanoi Opera house, and attending the Water Puppet Theater.

We also went and saw the school that Epiphany had been staying at while she was studying here. We walked out to the school. On the way Epiphany & I sat on the street and enjoyed 'fresh beer.' It was one of the highlights of the trip for me. The beer is brewed fresh each morning and delivered to street vendors who serve it straight from the keg. The beer is apparently available in three varieties, but what we found was the most popular, a light, almost sweet Lager. The fun part is you sit on little plastic 'kindergarten' stools and drink it while the world goes by.

While we were out near Epiphany's school we also bought lunch. Pork sandwiches for Linda & Epiphany, and rice and vegetables for me. Once again we sat on the little 'kindergarten' stools that seem to be anywhere in Hanoi. This time we did have a small table to eat at however.

I will miss Hanoi. I will miss our nice little hotel, with such friendly and helpful staff. I will miss the morning coffee here, dark, strong, and very smooth, the best I had in Hanoi. I will miss Hoan Keim lake and its surrounding park. I will miss all the little restaurants, the Pho', vegtables, coffee, ice cream. I will miss breakfast on the top floor of our hotel, with the view of the lake.

But further adventures beckon. We have time for one more meal in Hanoi, and then we catch a train south tonight, arriving in Dannang in the morning. From Dannang we go to Hoi An where we will spend the night.

Goodbye Hanoi, it has been wonderful!

Hanoi - Old Quarter

Hanoi is a frenetic, noisy, chaotic place!

Yesterday Linda & I explored the Old Quarter of Hanoi, which is where our hotel is located. It is filled with small shops, people, cars, and motorbikes, motorbikes, motorbikes!

Consumerism flourishes here in the Old Quarter! There are countless shops selling everything you can imagine - textiles, clothing, shoes, wallets, purses, bags, belts, watches, electronics, dishes, pots, pans, gifts of all types, and countless varieties of produce, food. Motorbikes bicycles & trucks run back and forth transporting goods to the shops. Shoppers walk, bike, motorbike and wander about. It is pretty much total chaos, and crossing the street is an adventure in and of itself. It is amazing that there are not more crashes.

We wandered the narrow streets and alleyways, getting totally lost and then worked on finding our way back to our hotel. It was a frenetic and exhausting adventure!

We also spent time today on a stroll around the lake beside our hotel. While we were exploring our little part of Hanoi, epiphany was moving from the dorms at school to the Opera Hilton Hotel and finishing here last paper. We joined her in the evening for dinner at a small restaurant.

We have not yet made out plans for today, but I am sure it will be another adventure. If it does get dull or boring, there is always going out and trying to stay alive while crossing the street!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

View of the de-icing truck from my window seat.


Chigago, New York, Iowa, nope SeaTac airport!

Hello from Vietnam!

Yes we actually made it to Vietnam. It was looking rather close there for a bit. Friday I got a call from the Shuttle folks telling us that, due to the snow, they would be unable to pick us up at our house. We would have to meet them at the Shari's on Union. I had visions of us lugging our bags on the Pierce Transit bus on a snowy Sunday morning. Epiphany's friend Kim came to our resuce and drove us out to the Shari's.

We got to the airport ok, checked in and to the gate. As we were lined up to board the plane we heard the announcement that all of the subsequent flights out of SeaTac were cancelled for the day!

We spent a long time waiting on the tramac for the de-icing truck. We finally took off, almost two hours late! We were on our way, but it looked like we might miss our connection in Seoul as we only had a two hour layover.

Fortunatly we had good tailwinds and made up some of the time and we landed with an hour before our plane would leave. It gave us enough time to get through security and to the gate in time for boarding.

All we have seen of Hanoi so far is a very rapid drive through the town at night to our hotel. (Everything folks say about driving in Hanoi is true!)

It is one in the morning here, and I have no idea what time it is at home right now as I am very tired. Epiphany, Linda, and I have been visiting for a bit, but now it is time for bed for me!

Christmas in Vietnam

It has been an odd Christmas season for Linda & I. Our house has no Christmas lights, no decoration, no tree, not even the most important part of Christmas, hanging the stockings! We have done virtually no Christmas shopping. We did not throw our annual Christmas party this year. From all appearances we are skipping Christmas this year. We did dig out the Christmas records and CDs, but that is it.

Linda & I are headed off to Vietnam to spend 3 weeks visiting with our daughter Epiphany who is with the UPS Pacific Rim study abroad program. We will be leaving Sunday. (if we can get to the airport, and the planes are flying!) We will be spending the Christmas and New Years holidays in Vietnam with Epiphany. It just didn't make sense to put up the lights and decorations, buy a tree, and do all the regular Christmas stuff when we won't be here.

We will be celebrating Christmas eve with the PacRim group. Christmas morning we will do a small celebration in our hotel room - we are bringing Christmas stockings with us. For the rest of our Christmas celebrations, Epiphany is in charge and is planning a day out in Hanoi.

It has been a bit odd to not be involved much with all the holiday preparations this year. Any Christmas shopping we do will be in SE Asia. We will also be missing our daughter Rachel & her husband Josh's first Christmas in their new house in Portland, something I regret, but one can't be two places at the same time.

Linda & I are certainly looking forward to our vacation, we have not had one in a long time. Merry Christmas to everyone, hope you have a good one. I will try to write from Asia. If not I will update you all upon our return in January!