Nam

Since we are over here in Asia, we figured we should go see another country too. We thought about Korea, China, Malaysia, and Russia, but decided on Vietnam. I think it has a more exciting sound to it, since Americans have only one image that comes to mind about the country. Also, once you get there, it’s really cheap.

Here I am in Hanoi

So, over our two week haruyasumi(spring break), our moms came for a week and then we went to Vietnam for nine days. It was amazing. We had a hard time deciding on which region to visit, but after discovering Halong Bay, opted for the north. We flew into Hanoi, spent a few days there, then took a boat tour of Halong Bay for three days and two nights, and headed back to Hanoi for a few more days.

Hanoi was crazy. It was loud, dirty, busy, old, and I loved it. The architecture was beautiful and unique- lots of French influence. The traffic was like nothing I could have imagined nor do I think I could adequately explain it. Motorbikes everywhere, no crosswalks, you just walk and they go around you. There were street venders wearing conical hats(not in a touristy way)trying to sell anything they could. This bothered me at first, but I learned how to deal with them. The sidewalks were filled with people sitting on low plastic stools, like ones that you would find at a dollar store and think, what would anyone use this for? They would be cooking, visiting, smoking, selling things, monitoring their shop, or just sitting. I especially loved the groups that were cooking, because those were the ones that smelled so good to pass by. There were also very bad smells in Hanoi too. Lots of good and bad smells.

Crazy traffic

People crossing the street

The city has many districts, the main ones being the old quarter, the French quarter, Hoan Kiem Lake district, Ba Dinh and Dong Da. All the things to see are within a thirty minute walk from the middle of the city, so we stayed in the middle and walked everywhere. We stayed in the old quarter in a place called the Sunshine 3 Hotel. We later saw the Sunshine 2, but I don’t think we ever stumbled across the original. There is quite a range of accommodations in this city. You can pay anywhere from 7 USD to 250USD for super fancy place on the edge of the city. We thought we would splurge and went for a 25$ a night place. For 25$ we got a really nice room with a mini bar and a computer with internet(this included a traditional Vietnamese breakfast of pho, a type of noodle soup or a few other options- we liked the pho). We lived like kings! Dan was excited because he could actually drink what was in the mini bar, unlike the US where a beer is like 10$, the hike up on the price would put it around 1$. The Vietnamese currency is the Dong, and we figured that about 50,000 Dong is about 3$.

All this plus two more beers was 5$ USD

The first couple days, we saw the sights and checked out the most intriguing restaurants from our book. Our favorite was the Tamarind café. It wasn’t the most traditional, but the food was amazing. Another cool restaurant was a place called KOTO. It trains disadvantaged youth to work in the hospitality industry. It was a really cool place and the food was great. We went to Ho Chi Minh’s house, a few temples, cafes on the lake, markets, the water puppet theater(amazing), museums, galleries, and lots of shops.

Temple of Literature

Hoa Lo Prison("Hanoi Hilton")

Ngoc Son Temple

Water Puppet Theater

Nha Tho(St. Joseph's Cathedral)

We had read about these places called Bia Hoi, sidewalk street stalls selling ridiculously cheap beer. We heard it was the cheapest in the whole world. They were all over the city, but we found one, liked it and stuck with it. We also happened to meet an awesome French couple, Julien and Elojie, there. We met up with them several more times throughout the trip. Anyway- Bia Hoi supposedly means fresh beer. They have to sell it quickly so it doesn’t go bad. Hence a glass was 3,000 Dong, roughly 18cents. The people that ran this place had the cutest three year old granddaughter, who decided she liked me and sang me a fifteen minute song.

Bia Hoi with our new friends Julien and Elojie

Hanoi has a great/strange art community. There are really cool art galleries everywhere selling original local art, but there are also little galleries with young artists painting reproductions of famous paintings. They are all over the place and they all have the same reproductions. I don’t know how many times I saw Picasso’s Guernica. The artists were really skilled, but it was strange to see them pumping out old European masterpieces.

After a few days in the city, we got up early to meet our ride out to Halong Bay. We booked with the cheapest tour we found. There were tour places all over the place selling the same tours for different prices. The guy seemed sketchy, and an hour after when we were supposed to be picked up, we were still waiting. I thought for sure we had been had, but then we were picked up, driven(wildly) to Halong and had an amazing time. The only weird part was that for the different sections of the trip we would have different guides.

A junk on Halong Bay

Us in a cave

floating fishing village

We boarded our boat(they call them Junks), had lunch and cruised around the bay. As we went we started talking to all the people on board. There were folks from the states, Montreal, Vietnam, Ontario, South Africa, Malaysia, France, and Holland. We had the coolest group of people with us. Everyone was really interesting and traveling to wonderful places. The first day we cruised around, took pictures, went kayaking, and at night we stayed in cabins on the boat.

Our cabin

The second day we went to a large island called Cat Ba. We went hiking and checked into a hotel with our crew. After the hike we realized a couple people had some money taken from their bags, but another switch in tour guides made it difficult to do much about it.

Simone, Liz, and Dan hiking Cat Ba island

view from our hike on Cat Ba looking at Halong Bay

ladies of the boat(me, Marie Michelle, and Ellen)

That afternoon we walked around the little town and found a café. One of our new friends, also named Dan, a Vietnamese American, taught us how to have Vietnamese coffee. The next day we went back on the boat then headed back to Hanoi on another wild bus ride.

part of the crew

Going back to Hanoi, we were able to see anything we had missed the first time, and revisit the restaurants and cafes that we really liked. Overall, the people were really nice and the city was beautiful. Meeting all those people traveling all over the world was inspiring. We heard about some really nice beaches in Cambodia from our new friend Dan. I could use more of a tan and further stick out from my Nihongo coworkers.

Tamarind Cafe

Tropical Fried Rice(so good)

The next few pictures are supplementary and need some added explanation. Rice wine is a very popular and traditional drink in Vietnam. It is often infused with dead things, often snakes, but sometimes other things, to bring supposed health benefits. Some of the dead things are supposed to bring men strength and stamina...
As those of you who know me well enough would probably guess. I didn't get too close to these large vessels of deadness. Dan took these pictures.

Moms come to town

So, it had been almost seven months since we had seen our mothers(and fathers and sisters and brothers) and we were really looking forward to their arrival. I personally, like I do with all fun approaching things, had been counting down days and weeks for a while now(probably since the last fun, exciting thing). So, when Marianne and Dianne finally got here, we had a great time, talking, showing them our favorites, and introducing them to our lives this year.

The first night we took them to an izakaya that we really like called Za Watami. It just so happened that two of our favorite teachers were there for a basketball party(they coach basketball) so the moms were able to meet them.

The next morning, we had to go to school for “closing ceremonies”, so the moms came along to our respective schools. It was just for a couple of hours, but they got to see the schools and the students. We were home early and able to go into Kyoto for lunch and the beginning of our intense look at the city.
We thought about going to Hiroshima, but that would mean cutting into the nice relaxing mornings we were having with our moms, so we opted to stick with showing them our nearby cities, Kyoto, Otsu, Kusatsu and last but not least Ritto.

It was a wonderful week with them and now I can begin the real countdown. Only 70 workdays left here in Japan. I don’t want to give the impression that I am not loving it here, I am, but I also can’t wait to get back to the wasteful land where the word for husband doesn't also mean master.