Bad Budget Traveller! No Banana Pancakes for you...

We are not very good budget travellers. We deliberated for what felt like days in Luang Prabang about exactly what overland route to use to get to Vietnam - talked to all sorts of people, tried to sort out details (oddly difficult to get info on that border crossing), started psychologically prepping ourselves for the three day butt-numbing journey. And then, at the last minute, we decided to fly.

And it was SOOO worth the extra money.

For a variety of reasons. Not least of which is that we've arrived right smack dab in the middle of Tet, the largest travel holiday the vietnamese have. Buses and trains are packed, so if we had gone overland we would have been stuck in the middle of that. And we would likely not have had time to make it all the way to Hanoi. And we are meeting friends in Bali on the 14th of March, so our time in Vietnam was limited (especially since we are planning on spending at least 10 days n Cambodia working with the Landmine Museum. They are one of the few organizations in Cambodia that invites short term volunteers, and we are ready for something different than seeing the sites and endless time to do what we please. Tough life we have going on right now). And we were both sick, and really not feeling like 12 hours a day of bus/boat/truck time. And we are from America, and that oh-so powerful dollar sure does come in handy some time. And you get the picture. We convinced ourselves despite the extra cost...

Anhow,what would have been a three-day overland journey, what most guides refer to as "tortuous", from Luang Prabang to Hanoi, was turned into a 4 hour trip from guest house room to guest house room. It felt like a small miracle. That, combined with the true healing done to my condition by a few Cipro pills made me a believer once more in the marvels of the modern world.

Hanoi is outstanding, and after the sundued societies of Laos and Thailand it feels like we ar back in the land of the forward again. Almost like Central America (but not quite...). It is truly a lovely city, with an overlay of the most chaotic streets imaginable. Check our short video. Plus its tet, and even though everyone says its quiet compared to Tet eve, it still seems as if life is still all about running around on the streets and throwing firecrackers. The motor scooter rules here, and stops for no man or woman, car or bus. You routinely see the whole family and their bags on the Honda 100cc, and somehow they manage to pull it off with aplomb. The old men are dead sexy, and, I suppose because they came of age during the French colonial period. They are all about berets and dark sunglasses. The lake in the center of the Old Quarter, where we are staying, is particularily beautiful, and formed the center of the historic city.


A few other photos, one a sculpture made of downed plane parts, mostly U.S., from the Vietnam war. For us, this is a particularily fascinating side of being here, and we are trying to make sense of the story as told from the Vietnamese perspective. This photo was from the Military museum, whichwas full of captured military equipment, downed plane parts, and old bombs and amarmaments. The recent war (with the French, Japanese, U.S., China and Cambodia) defines modern Vietnam. We also walked by what remains of the "Hanoi Hilton" today, the old jail where downed U.S. pilots were imprisoned and tortured during the Vietnam War. Notable amongst them was John McCain, now a presidential contender. The irony of the prison is that now only the front remains. The rest of the structure has been torn down and replaced with the ultra-modern "Hanoi Towers", which looms above the old gates.








A quick link to a real adventure. Our friend Abby Fenton just started on an expedition to the north with a group seeking to document some impacts of global warming. Their website and blog are here.