They boat like they drive, except without the swirving.

The capital city of Vietnam, Hanoi, should also be called "Hotter than the surface of the #&%^$@# sun!" Humidity is at 80% and I have never sweat so much in my life. 10 minutes outside and it looks like I just jumped in a pool! haha. Anyway, enough about that... am not complaining, simply stating the facts. Would still take traveling in the heat over the rainy TO summer any day :)

After a 5am wake up call to get off the train, we went to breakfast at a place called KOTO (Know One, Teach One) that takes in street kids and trains them to be chefs or hospitality workers. The food was great! Next it was off to the tomb of Ho Chi Minh. Dress code was in full effect, and the guards "shhh'd" anyone talking inside. It was really eerie to see "Uncle Ho"... he has been preserved in his shrine and it looks like it is a live man sleeping in a glass box. Creepy!!! Although, to be honest, everyone tried to stay in there with the dead guy as long as possible because that was the only place within walking distance that had air conditioning!

Overall, Hanoi was not our fav of the Asian cities, but it has some great areas. In the Old Quarter, all of the streets are named for an item, and then that street is literally jammed with a million stores selling that one thing. For example, we saw "bra/underwear street", "paintbrush street", "shoe street" (still none in my size!), "fabric street", etc etc. You have never seen so much merchandise crammed into such tiny spaces! The images everyone thinks of for Vietnam are actually true here... the women wear conical hats and carry the baskets balanced on sticks. They also wear crazy coloured outfits that look like PJs... and also hold hands a lot! See the 2 ladies below out for a night stroll. In the daytime, the ladies are OBSESSED with having white skin, so they cover up every inch of skin (including hands and feet and face) with jacket, face masks and nylons... now that is dedication to beauty, especially in this heat! Also, not sure if we should be alarmed, but everyone here seems to be wearing the SARS face masks... yikes! Is there a memo we didn't get about an outbreak? In the mornings, before it gets too hot, many Vietnamese people (mostly older folks) head en masse to any public space with greenery and do their group "morning exercises". It is so cute to see them all bending and toe-touching together. It reminds us of our Grandpa Hoot doing his morning exercises every day when we were little. Another thing we loved about this city is the cinema we stumbled upon. As we were having lunch by the lake, we were given a brochure for a theatre that was playing movies about Vietnam. Per the instructions on the brochure, we turned down an extremely dark and sketchy residential alley, and just as we though we were lost, came to the end to find a beautiful French style cinema!! We had some excellent food there, then watched a movie about the Vietnam war! A very well kept secret in the alley. A girl from the US who had been living in the city for 6 months was amazed that we found it on our first day.

Also while in the city, we took the opportunity to see the art form known as "Vietnamese Water Puppetry". Literally marionettes acting scenes on a water stage. A very interesting cultural experience, especially the part where the Italian dude behind us stuck his head right in between us and filmed THE WHOLE SHOW! I kept leaning over to talk to Mars so that my head was in his way :)

Breaking up our stay in Hanoi, we took an overnight boat trip to beautiful Halong Bay. After, of course, a drive in rush hour traffic where we got to see people driving on the sidewalks and people doing morning exercises, we arrived at the boat terminal. We boarded a sleeper boat and cruised around the karst cliffs that rise from the sea floor. We stopped at the "Surprise Cave" (named for the French that were surprised when they entered it) and were amazed at the size of the cave... it looked like a movie set, except for the massive group of Koreans wandering around. Mid-day, the whole group took kayaks out to explore the area. Mars and I were in a double kayak, me in front. We were paddling along at a leisurely pace with the rest of the group in a stretch of wide open water. I was just taking in the scenery and Mars was steering. "Paddle Left" she said. "OK" I replied and paddled. "No, actually paddle right." "Ok" (me, still not looking back, as her voice was totally calm). "Bail Out" she said in the same calm manner. Without hesitation, I got up to jump and looked back just in time to see a MASSIVE boat run directly over our kayak just seconds after we jumped out together. As we were told later, "it's a good thing you two are in synch!" Everyone who saw it was really upset by it, and our guide was screaming at the crew in Vietnamese. Once we got back in our kayak and collected our paddles and life jackets that had been tossed everywhere, the notorious boat returned and our guide said that they wanted to apologize to us. As we paddled up to the back of the boat, one guy was on the back with his hands together bowing in apology. As we started to tell him that we were OK, the boat began to BACK UP ON TOP OF US AGAIN! Like road kill, you gotta run over it a few times to be sure, I guess!! Looking back on it, we could have been really badly injured, but we've been together since birth, so when Mars says "Bail out", I bail out. End of story. We spent the rest of the evening jumping off the top of the boat and singing karaoke (except the karaoke machine was broken so we rested one mic on my iPod speakers and used the other for singing!). Not sure where that bottle of wine and that bottle of vodka went, but it was a fun night!

Our last night in Hanoi we wandered around exploring more of the city. I found that my name was on many shop signs... apparently "Kim" means "Sewing Needle" in Vietnamese... good job with that name, mom! We watched as what had to be the entire city gathered to set up the night markets. The dude squatting in the middle of the street is how almost all of the Vietnamese people set when they are "at rest"... how uncomfortable does that look? They can stay for ages like that! Also, check out the lady in the conical hat behind him. We finished off our time in Vietnam by taking a siclo back with a hilarious driver and, even at night, we got stuck in a big traffic jam. Just too many people in too small a space.. I love it!

Goooooood Niiiiiiiiiight Vietnam!!!