Anyways, just a final post on the last leg of our trip which was Vietnam...a country which many travellers we met elsewhere told us they disliked; a country which our travel books said was dirty, noisy, and full of people trying to scam you; a country we almost didn't go to because we (read: I) was so scared by everything we'd heard about it. Well, I'm happy to report that it did not live up to its bad reputation! On the contrary, it was one of the highlights of our trip!
We arrived in Hanoi on the eve of the lunar New Year (called Tet in Vietnamese). The mood was festive, the city was up in lights, and people were out to celebrate! In Hanoi we had the good fortune to be able to visit a Confuscious Temple on the day of Tet (new years day). This is a day when families dress in their best and go to temples to pray for good luck and fortune for the coming year. It is believed that the first day of the new year sets the tone for the rest of the year - so if on Tet you do good things and go to the temple and pray, etc. it certainly bodes well for you for the next 365 days!
Some pics of the festivities:
One offering seen at a temple. I think those are sweets in the boxes. Given, um... recent history.... obvious irony that US money represents prosperity. 
People also have altars to their ancestors in their homes and shops. I walked around a bit on "Tet Eve" and, as it approached midnight, I saw a lot of people putting new things (offerings?) on the altars, making sure everything looked just right. Some were simple with just fruit, others were more elaborate - I saw candy, cookies, cheese, beer, whiskey, cigarettes, wrapped Tet gifts, and a whole cooked chicken on various altars.
The next day. The party's over....
Over the next few days as we explored Hanoi, we were surprised to find our preconceived stereotypes melting away - our experience was really nothing like what people had told us. We found people to be very friendly, and quite helpful. The streets were a bit dirty, but compared to India it was actually quite clean. And overall we felt quite safe and relatively comfortable throughout our stay in Vietnam.
Tet was a good time to be in Vietnam, as we got to experience some of this festive spirit, but it was also a bad time, because many things close for around 10 days following Tet. So, many trains weren't running, alot of museums were closed, and buses were fully booked b/c many Vietnamese families use this time to visit family or to take a family vacation to the beach or to the mountains.
We did however get to visit the Prison Museum in Hanoi, which was quite interesting. This is the prison where Vietnamese freedom-fighters were imprisoned by the French during the independence struggle. It was also the prison where many US pilots were held as POWs during the American/Vietnamese war (the sarcastically named "Hanoi Hilton"). And just like most governments, the Vietnamese government chose to magnify the injustices brought upon them by the French, and minimize the injustices they themselves brought upon the American POWs. I guess politics is politics, and propaganda is propaganda - the world over!
For example, there were lots of pictures of Vietnamese prisoners tortured by the French.....
After Hanoi, we visited Halong Bay - a bay in northern Vietnam with rather unusual and unique rock formations jutting out of the water and into the sky. Many of these cliffs have caves - some quite extensive and spectacular. We took an overnight boat trip through the bay and did a bit of kayaking the following morning. Unfortunately the weather was fairly terrible - you may have heard of the crazy snow storms China was having around this time - and Halong Bay is very close to the Chinese border and so we got some chilly and rainy weather as a result of this weather system.
A huge cave we stopped at on the boat trip:
Given the cold weather, we decided to make a beeline for south Vietnam to the sandy shores of Nha Trang (pronounced Na Cha). It wasn't quite beach-going weather here either, but at least we didn't have to wear our coats! And we managed to get a few scuba-dives in, which was nice!
From here we went to Saigon (now officially known as Ho Chi Minh City post-reunification). Saigon is a name well-known to most North Americans, as it formed the headquarters for the US war. It is a very lively city, somewhat resembling Indian cities in the ways of the bustling informal economy, the number of street food vendors, the sounds and smells one encounters walking down the road, and the wide array of modes of transportation one sees on the roads.
I visited the Cu Chi tunnels on a daytrip from Saigon (Jenny didn't make it because her tummy was needing to stay close to a toilet that day! Thanks, sweetie.). During the French and US wars, the Viet Cong constructed a series of secret tunnels about 2 hours from Saigon in a place called Cu Chi. These tunnels were an incredible feat of engineering - they were three stories deep with parallel tunnel lines running at various depths. The total network spanned over 200 kms! The tunnels were so small that the Viet Cong soldiers needed to frog-walk through them - sometimes for 5 km at a time! They built various ventilation pipes out of bamboo to ventilate the deeper tunnels. And at various points there were underground bunkers - some used for living, some for military planning, and some even used as underground hospitals!
We got the chance to crawl through one of these tunnels to see what it felt like. These particular tunnels have been widened slightly to be able to fit the "western-sized bodies" of tourists , and yet it was so claustrophobic that i took the first exit available out (only 15 metres past the entrance)! A few others continued on for the full 120 metres, but came out looking quite harrowed and sweaty. I cannot imagine the will and conviction one must have to have for their political cause in order to live with those conditions for years on end, and to travel those tunnels carrying weaponry and other supplies on a daily basis! The human spirit is truly an incredible thing - and one realizes how much we are actually capable of if we were to just put our minds and convictions to it. It is just unfortunate that the sorts of things that historically have motivated humans find this sort of conviction have tended to be fueled by hatred, war, power, and greed. 
A few more scenes from Vietnam.....
A woman selling food at the Tan An bus station:
A market in Saigon- friendly for pedestrians, and a drive-through for those on motorbikes!
In the category of other things you wouldn't see in North America... a stray kitten who visited me in a restaurant in Nha Trang. There were also a few cute puppies running around.
Almost everywhere we went on our trip - Italy, India, Laos, and Vietnam - was a motorbike culture. From Vespas to serious motorcycles, they were everywhere. But Vietnam wins for most motorbikes. Here we are in a taxi, caught in a rush hour motorbike scrum at a roundabout:
Ashifa made a comment in India: "India doesn't need HOV lanes. Every vehicle is a high occupancy vehicle." Same goes for most places we visited in Asia (Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, the most "modern" being the exceptions - full of cars). They also don't need SUVs; in the absence of Costco, a motorcycle can be your family vehicle! Ashifa's best sighting - dad, mom riding sidesaddle, and two kids - the youngest being breastfed by mom as they zoomed through the city. (My best sighting was a bike with a dead hog strapped to the back, feet up.)
And, if traffic is bad, you can always ride your motorbike on the sidewalk:
One of the nicer legacies of the French colonialists in both Laos and Vietnam is the baked goods! Indians do not really do baked goods, and when they do them they don't really do them well, so it was nice to find delicious baguettes, croissants, and cake in Southeast Asia. 
And, finally from Vietnam, a toast to my dad (who had a small involuntary "vacation" in Vietnam about 40 years ago) - with the beer he remembers from his visit:
After a few days in Saigon, we made our slow wind back towards India with the intention of flying back to Toronto (via Milan) on our scheduled flight for Feb. 20th. As Jen has mentioned however, our airline (Alitalia) decided to change our flight schedule which meant we wouldn't make our connection from Milan to Toronto. MANY others were in the same boat as us no doubt, as the Delhi to Toronto (via Milan) route is a popular one, given it's the cheapest option out there. We tried to contact Alitalia to figure out what to do (we wrongly assumed they'd have a plan, since probably at least 100 others were in the same situation).
Unfortunately Alitalia went out of their way to make themselves as inaccessible as they possibly could. In the end, we had a list of about 6 different contact numbers for them - none of which actually put us touch with a real human who could help us. Each person basically told us to call another number - which usually ended up either being busy, or we ended up on hold for 20 minutes while we footed the long-distance bill. When we did get a hold of a person we got offered "solutions" such as: 1) the next possible flight we can get you on is March 3rd (2 weeks later!), 2) go to the airport in Delhi at 11pm and wait there at the office all night in hopes of getting on a different flight sometime the next day, or 3) we'll sort it out and call you right back..."i promise" (needless to say our phone never rang!).
Finally, being frustrated with the Delhi office, and being unable to easily reach the New York or Milan offices from India, we called my mom to enlist her help. Like most moms, my mom is generally very sweet, unless someone is messing with her daughter...then...watch out! Not surprisingly, she managed to sort it all out, and got us switched over to Air France and we ended up coming home on time, in a MUCH more comfortable fashion than Alitalia could ever have offered!
Our suggestion: DON'T FLY ALITALIA. We now understand why there is a website called http://www.alitaliasucks.com/ - if you ever feel compelled to take this airline because of their cheap fares, I would suggest that you check out this and other similar websites first!
1 comment:
Glad you made it home safely. Way to go Mom - doing what it takes and probably saying some very unmom like things to Air Italia. I know your trip is over but we all expect the blog to continue. I look up a lot of nonsense on the internet and your blog is one of the few educational and insightful sites that I visit.
Ben & Casey
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