Posted on December 31st, 2003 by aj
Each street in the old city of Hanoi is named for the product that is sold there. Which doesn’t help at all if you don’t know Vietnamese. The roads weave around several lakes lined by cafes. Hordes of old people perform the local tai chi variant around the lakes well before sunrise. In the afternoon [...]
Posted on December 24th, 2003 by aj
Its time to reach back into the big bag of superlatives we left in Europe. Ha Long Bay is one of the wonders of the world. Its a few thousand limestone islands sprouting up from the sea capped with greenery. Every island is riddled with caves and tunnels of all sizes. On our first day [...]
Posted on December 18th, 2003 by aj
Near the city of Hue, on the Perfume river, we toured a couple monasteries and the tombs of dead kings, but the real excitement for everyone else was the S.E.A. Games! This year Vietnam hosted the SEA games. This is an Olympic style event, but not dominated by a greco-western motif. They play a lot [...]
Posted on December 13th, 2003 by aj
There seem to be a fair number of Vietnamese books and dubbed American movies about the USA’s own civil war here. More than once I’ve been reminded that my own country had a civil war, “but ours was very different”. It hasn’t even been thirty years here. Northern and Southern Vietnamese language and pronunciation is [...]
Posted on December 12th, 2003 by aj
As we travel up the coast it just gets colder and rainier. I’ll spare you repeat anecdotes. More enthusiastic locals, more grizzled southern fighters, more frustrated people with great English who can’t find good jobs. Hoi An is a nice old city filled with charming 200 year old French and Chinese houses. Orchids grow like [...]