planes, trains, n tuk tuks….

Vietnam immigration was a hassle as expected.  Seems our Lao Airlines buddies never made any call or got approval for our early entry.  (what on earth did they do with our passports for 2 hrs?)   After a lot more whispering and passing of passports we finally got ushered through.  a mutually beneficial decision since they didn’t really want us spending 3 days in passport control (Tom Hanks style in that movie) and we really didn’t want our longest stop to be the airport.  Boarded an airport shuttle minibus to the old quarter 45 minute journey away and costing 2$.  Not Vietnam dong, dollars.  ?   10 Vietnamese and me and b piled into a minivan then came all the luggage then came miscellaneous bags of rice piled on our laps!   It got to be so ridiculous that we burst out laughing hysterically which in turn made the rest of them join in at our amusement.

Peeking over our lap rice bags out thru the window you could see the most beautiful sunset EVER!  Greens/ pink/orange/yellow/purple all filtered through a fog that floated in a thin line low on the horizon like a level of clouds fallen.  This sky light bonanza framed by flat rice fields reaching the sky on the far horizon interrupted only by single swirling smoke lines from hundreds of individual fires.  Otherworldly.  Neither of us could stop watching long enough to get a picture, so you”ll just have to imagine.

the bus eventually dropped us off at the wrong guesthouse, a common scam here as they get kickbacks for doing so, but we were on to their routing and he eventually took us where we wanted.  Down a tiny lively alleyway we bumbled through to the lobby where the boys at the desk said they were full but had room in the guesthouse across the street, by the same owner.  We were too tired to question and offloaded our gear in B”s favorite room to date complete with balcony overlooking the alley and a TV!  our first bit of western culture since arriving.    Turns out it was most definitely a scam and a normal occurrence for a guesthouse to get written about in lonely planet (the backpackers bible) and then many others with the same name pop up all around it hoping to misdirect and profit.  Very cheeky, and i guess perfectly legal?  But the gall of them to stand in the real lobby is a little surprising!.

Hit the streets to explore.  Hanoi is yet another shock on this trip.  blowing all preconceptions out the window.  Firstly the architecture….each lot ranging from 8ft-15ft wide (actually some are even smaller) and 3-5 stories tall in what can only be described as Italian Revival style.  But think of Italian villas, smooshed together and elongated more like dutch proportions w/ balconies and open air roof decks with hovering roof above.  Shop fronts at ground level, flats above, very reminiscent of small Italian cities.  Bustling.  the first place we’ve been that seemed rather western, at least on the main streets through the city.  Take any alleyway though, and quickly you emerge into the  real behind the scenes life of Hanoi.  It all happens in the alleys.  Swapping, selling, eating on tiny (toy sized) plastic stools usually red or blue thrown about the narrow streets like an obstacle course.  People just set up food stalls from their living rooms and serve anyone who sits.  Raw meats on cardboard, god only knows how in this heat it doesn”t ruin.  Traditional Vietnamese life thrives in the side streets while modern consumerism has burst yrs ahead steps away.  I think you can tell a lot about a countries economic status by the (at least in the developing world) by the existence of a middle class.  Vietnam”s middle class is booming and the first city where people have shops and separate living space not just the multipurpose rooms.  In general VN is fast developing and the only Asian country that can keep the Chinese juggernaut in its sights.  It”s especially fascinating that although the people now are allowed to make their own money and pursue capitalism openly (and with fervor!) they still have no political say in how the country is run.   The gov. is throwing obscene amounts of money into public service projects mainly improving the roads, bridges, and ports trying to distract from this.  Probably increasingly bizarre to the younger generation that now has access to satellite TV and vast internet resources.

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