The land of multiple incense burning & ice cubes on wheels

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Usually one stick of incense is good for me, but I guess there are a lot of people to bless here so there are always piles of incense burning at one time...

We are in Hanoi after spending over a week in Hoi An and Hue. After an interesting 13 hour (uuuuh) bus ride we arived in Hanoi this morning. I think we are all suffering from a little culture shock (I know I am) so to get rid of some built up tension we are going to a Thai boxing match tonight.

The bus ride up was interesting. After being in a sour mood from getting scammed at our last hotel, a little non english speaking lady changed all that.

First we got the shaft on the 13 hour bus ride, which isn't really a big deal...it was really packed and it was really small - not the tour bus we paid for. It seemed like a bigger deal after the hotel scam....anyways...I got to sit beside a cute, smiling little old lady that, like everyone else on the bus (including the driver) didn't speak English. She would say phrases to me and get me to repeat them. We did that for a while but I lost interest not knowing what she was teaching me. It very well could have been "white people suck a lot" and I would have been none the wiser 😊 She was impressed though. Apprently I was either doing really good or humorously bad...

As the bus drove on we started a game of foreign charades, trying to communicate to each other. I would offer her pringles and she would pretend to shiver to tell me how cold she was. A bus in Vietnam is really a misleading interpretation for "ice cube on wheels". The air con was so cold I felt like I was back in Saskatchewan in January.

I fell asleep after having a shivering fit. I woke up really warm and wondered if I had adjusted to -10 degrees, or if the air con was shut off. I looked at my little grandmother-like companion...She had covered me up with a little flower blanket. It was the cutest thing. With the hugest smile on my face I fell back asleep. This, my friends is why I like travelling 😊 Despite the length it was a really fun ride.

Anyways I had to share my little story. Ill have some pictures up soon, Ive got some gooders on the way.

Later!

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Comments

[holly]

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hey my little lentil... love to you!.. and a HUGE hug, too... ahh the shock of being in asia... *sigh* .. i do not miss it there one eency bit... just smile alot and don't let the asians who do try to scam you steal your positivity... i hope to chat sooon, sugah.. i am off to bed now.. i send you much love and hugs and smiles and homemade cookies... peace and love your little licorice stick... hollY

[mike from van]

omg! a.c. overload!
i know exactly what you mean about the ice cubes on wheels!! every bus ride we took in thailand had the a.c. on full for the entire trip! we had one trip that was 17 hours long and they didn't have enough blankets for all the passsngers so we had to pull the curtains off the window to keep the cold air off us!!! omg! Worst bus ride Ever!! Cheers to the little old lady and her flower blanket, "yeah" for nice people!!!