1000 YEARS AND STILL COUNTING!

A CITY OF WATER EVERYWHERE, FRIENDLY PEOPLE AND GREAT FOOD.

WHAT A SURPRISE!

October 2010 is the 1000^th anniversary of the city of Ha Noi.



Tourists @ Beach on Hai Long Bay



The first 10 days of October included arts celebrations, fireworks, military parades, holidays for schools, etc. There are still many activities that will continue the full month of October. We had no idea that we would be here for such an important festival. A temple in the middle of one of many Hanoi Lakes with red bridge is an ancient religious temple now dedicated to a military hero. Perhaps because this is now a communist nation, religion takes backstage to that found in Nepal.

Vietnam has also blocks Face Book. One of the hotels had a work-around, but we cannot access it. Tom says it is because the government blocked the IP address. Google still available at the moment here.

Tom bargaining for his new "Boss" wallet.



A plentiful citrus fruit



Hai Long Bay- typical cruise ship

I also noticed that Habitat for Humanity has a couple of projects so far in Vietnam; nowhere nearly as many as Nepal, Thailand or Cambodia. Perhaps NGOs are not as plentiful as in other southeast Asian nations. I have no evidence of this idea, just my own surmise. My cousin Kim mentioned that upon a mission trip via her church to an orphanage in Vietnam, their group was followed regularly to insure that no religious proselytizing occurred.

Three and ½ days are not long enough to discover this wonderful area of Hanoi and Hailong Bay. I have a list of things to mention. We see lots of small rice paddies with corn growing once in a while on raised beds. I was told that the government plots assigned/given to families are not all adjacent to one another, so folks spend a great deal of time traveling between them to grow enough for their daily food.

Many huge factories with all the goods sent to US and elsewhere spread across the landscape. What appear to be hotels near the factories are really housing for the workers----many far from home villages for employment.

Tom and I are now sitting in the Ha Noi Airport awaiting a flight to Hue (pronounced: “Way”), a central coastal city & the area that originated the Ho Che Minh Trail during the American War. There is a beautiful mother with 2 babies sitting next to me.

There is an beautiful beach island near Hue where apparently thousands of Vietnamese are buried. We hope to get out there during our short 2 days in Hue. This beach was once famous R&R for GIs and for a TV series China Beach. What a contrast of purposes!

Correction:

I am reminded of an error I mentioned earlier about Nepal. The king and his family were murdered in June 2001, not 2000. Now I am reading Forget Kathmandu by Manjushree Thapa, a fascinating read. Thank you, Narayan, for recommending it. I had just enough rupees left to buy it at the Kathmandu airport upon my departure from Nepal.

Friends and Family, Please send your comments via this site or email is OK too. I would love to hear from you. Just remember, I may not be able to view Face Book for a while; maybe in Ho Che Minh City the end of the week.

OLD temple in central Ha Noi

Notice the proportions of  Vietnam to the world. A globe in central Ha Noi.