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Beers on Street
$.15 cents per beer. The cauldron in the back right of the pic is where all the beer is made and kept. It was patriotism, not communism, that inspired me
Ho Chi Min, leader of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam
With a population of 3.5 million people, Ha Noi is Viet Nam's largest city. The majority of these 3.5 million people are always out on the crowded streets, either selilng stuff, chilling out and eating or driving on their motor bikes. There are very few cars here as it would make no logistical sense. Its quite nerve racking just crossing the street, but this is how you do it. You stand on the curb, and you look to your left...which is where you'll see hundreds of these little motor bikes/scooters zipping towards you. I can only compare it to standing on the curb in France and looking to your left and seeing hundreds of bikes zipping to wards you...at which point, it dawns on you that the Tour de France is on and you see the yellow jersey whip by you. Unfortunately, in Ha Noi, there is not just one lead pack. The stream of scooters never ends, so what you do is slowly take a step out and begin walking across. You have to walk slowly, even though your instinct is to run. Running, will get you
Morning Excercise
I got some funny looks when I ran around the lake without a shirt....and some hoots and hollers too. killed. Once you make it to the median you're happy that you're still alive and impressed with yourself, but then remember that you're only half way there! So you look to your right and proceed to repeat the steps mentioned above. Now, there are many exceptions to this street crossing, as usually there are bikes driving in the opposite direction. Here, people only yield to others if there vehicle is bigger than them. So, even over here I guess you can say that "Size does matter". Other than that, the only rules of the road over here are...well, there are no rules! If you think a Toronto City worker's grass cutting job is cushy, a traffic controller here has it made. They do nothing!!! The anarchy that insues on the roads is unbelievable. These guys put everything on the backs of their little bikes too. Whether its their 3 children and wife or a whole kennel of pigs ready to be cooked up, nothing surprises me anymore. Yesterday, I saw a guy with a full size refridgerator on his back as he whipped in and out of traffic.
Many mornings I woke up early to run around the lake
in the Old Village with all of the locals. This is a sight to see. Everyone does funny little stretches and I had to swirve in and out of make-shift badminton nets. My high school badminton coach would be happy that I stopped a couple of times to represent Canda well.
We took a 2 day one night cruise into Halong Bay. It was quite fun and although cloudy, reminded me a little bit of the New Zealand fiords landscape, except on a much smaller and spread out scale. It was a great place to meet a few new interesting people as well.
After Ha Noi, we made moves south down to Hue. We had the wonderful opportunity to have a private full day guided tour of the 17th parallel. This is where the border b/w North and South Viet Nam was and was a major fighting area during the war. Our private tour guide named "Hoa" took us to some amazing off the beaten track sites, where we saw no other tourists (these moments are usually few and far between over here, so its a pleasant few days when you're the only white people in the area
and people look at you kind of funny).
He first took us to an American General lookout point. On the 15 minute trek out there we were specifically told to stick to the path as every once in a while there is an unknown land mine that is "disovered". Then almost to prove his point, Hoa pointed out a couple of old "dead bombs" (see pic) that had been found by farmers in the past couple weeks who had been digging out new trenches to plant new trees. The day continued as we made our way to a mass cemetary for those who lost their lives in the war. Although it was in the South, all those who were buried here, were from the North. Scattered all over the place were fake American 100 dollar bills. Many of them were burned as many who lost loved ones (along with many others from the North) have strong resentment towards the greed and power of the American gov't. This being the case, I was surprised and still am to this day to see how prevelent the American flag is over here. While the country remains communist many locals walk around with t-shirts
saying "U.S.A" and I even saw one guy saying "Everything is bigger in Texas". The next stop was the Ho Chi Minh trail. The Vietnamese name of the trail was the Truong Son Road, named after the mountains and jungle it passed thru. The trail itself was a secret one that ran from the North thru Laos and Cambodia into southern Viet Nam. This trail was thru the thick jungle and used to smuggle weapons and more troops to support the Viet Cong fighting in the south.
Ho Chi Minh himself was the man in power in the north since 1945 when he announced the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam. When I first arrived in Nam, I saw this old mans face on shirts and everywhere else. The man looked alot like Mr. Miyagi from the Karate Kid....I thought to myself, that movie was pretty good and he was a great teacher, but should he really be on everyone's t-shirts?? My ignorance quickly evaporated and learned who he was.
He was a very brilliant man, to whom many looked up to and to whom all respected. They knew his passion for his country was unrivaled and his ability
Scorpion Dinner
next on the menu...tarantula in Cambodia! to lead them to national independence was superior to any other countries most merciless attempts to interfere. To attain this goal he would stop at nothing and shocked the world when the highly superior, stronger and better equipped American army withdrew on April 30th, 1975 after 6 years of heavy fighting . The straw that broke the camels back was when the capital city of Saigon had fallen to the Viet Cong from the North. Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City the following day. After nearly 60,000 soldiers killed, the American public had stopped believing the American propaganda behind the war and much like todays war in Iraq, felt that their gov't and troops had no business being there. By April 30th, 1975, Nixon had already gained the American publics praise by withdrawing many American soldiers...even though they were secretly bombing both Laos and Cambodia at the same time.
I could go on writing about everything I learned, but you can learn just as much just by googling it I'm sure. The reason why day trips like this are so interesting and memorable to me, aren't because of the facts that I remember, but because this war was
Dead Bomb
take the pic....and get the heck out! something that my parents, aunts and uncles have talked about for years. While I never pretended to know anything about the war itself, I always knew that it (and the cold war) was a critical element of the world that grew up in. While many of them have wanted to, none of them have had the opportunity to visit here and see the things that I've seen, so I look forward to sharing some of my stories with them upon my return and hope that they will do the same for me.
Other things we did:
-went out for dinner for Tim's bday and I ate a SCORPION...quite crunchy and then chewy. On the menu you had to order 2....so I asked a table full of 5 guys and 3 girls to see who wanted to join in with me. Sylvia stepped up in a big way. All Cameron kept saying was "no chance" (see pic)
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Bonsai Bonker
non-member comment
What makes ya think mine don't look like those?