Gaining weight....

We left Laos, the land of peace, tranquility, beautiful scenery and relaxed people only to find the exact opposite of that in Hanoi. It was a big shock to the system going from a one road town where all people do all day is float down rivers, to the big bustling capital city. Motos honking and running you over, people selling anything and everything, pollution, being harrased to stay here, go there or take this taxi. Not exactly a change for the better.

Our first night there we went to a water puppet show. We had a few beers before the show and I'm not sure if that made it better or worse. I don't know what I was expecting but that was not it. Basically the stage is a pool and there is a backdrop of a scenery. The puppeteers stand behind the scenery and move the puppets using long sticks under the water. There is a band and singers on one side of the stage. It was pretty neat, but very random. And since we don't speak Vietnamese, there were definitely a few things lost in translation. But it's an ancient artform practised here so I'm glad we went.

The next day we woke up too late to go see the body of Ho Chi Minh, which has been embalmed and is on display in a glass case for viewers to visit. I must say I was fairly dissapointed. Next time. The funniest part of this is that he is sent back to Russia for 2 months every year for "repairs".

We did go the the MASSIVE museum that is dedicated to his life's work though. Pretty interesting. We went to a few other sites around the city after that. Although it is a big city, some areas are really pretty. Lots of colourful buildings and nice architecture. All of the buildings are really tall and skinny because after the war they imposed a tax on street front property, so many places were cut in half but elongated out the back. Some are so skinny that you wonder how anything even fits in them.

We had a great lunch at a cafe started by an Australian organization. They hire street kids and set them up with food, housing and school. They have to complete a minimum of 18 months there while going to school. But then they are hired by high end restaurants and hotels around the city. A really cool initiative and the service was great.

Meag and I have been a little self concience that we have gained some weight in the past month and a half. We started off by losing it but we went on an eating and drinking binge recently and have just been packing on the pounds. After eating this delicious, and huge, meal at the cafe we hoped on a moto to go back to our hostel. We drove a few blocks but couldn't figure out why our driver was slowing down and stopping in a random alley. But once we got off the bike we realized that the back tire had popped...... He pointed at us and laughed and then tried to get us to pay extra for getting the tire changed. I really, really hope we ran over something on the road and it had nothing to do with our own spare tires.

From Hanoi we went to the major tourist destination of Halong Bay. We spent 2 days on a boat there floating around these huge rock projections that stick out of the water. We did some swimming, kayaking, caving and generally just relaxing. It was really beautiful but I cannot beleive how many tourists were there. Our boat had about 25 people on it, and we must have seen at least 100 other boats during the two days. No word of a lie. It's no wonder that some of these natural sights are just getting destroyed by tourism. The best part was these women who have basically opened up floating convenience stores. They have rafts full of fruit and western snacks. SO they paddle up to all of the boats and try to sell this stuff to the foreigners. "Lady, you buy from me, ok? You want beer? Cigarettes? Vodka? How about pringles, I have many kinds of pringles!" etc, etc. All in one breath.

After this we took a horrible night bus down to Hoi An. My feet were so swollen by then end of it that i had cankles for the first time in my life (calf+ankles- no seperation). We slept for a few hours, interrupted, at most. But we weren't as bad as our friends from Argentina. They got stuck at the back of the bus in the middle of 5 seats. They had nowhere to put their heads, coulnd't recline their seats, and their Vietnamese seat neighbour started showing them porn on his cellphone while rubbing their arms, and patting their bums. They ended up sleeping in the middle of the aisle of the bus the whole way.

We had a stopover in Hue for a few hours, so we spent some time wandering around the Imperial Palace. It was nice, but not nice enough to pay the 5$ entry fee that they wanted to enter the place. So we stood outside, at what we called the budget entrance, and just took pictures from there.

We arrived in Hoi An around dinner time. This is a city I have already been to, with CP, and have been waiting my entire trip to come back to. Tailor central. There are over 200 tailors in the city that will make anything your little heart desires. Meag and I went a little nuts, but how can you not when winter jackets are 45$????? Everything is so cheap and so nice.

But this leads to a couple other stories....

I was trying on some clothes that I got made and the sassy woman who had been serving us said to me "Yes! They look very good, but would look better without the belly"

And then later we asked how much a pair of pants were. The woman told us 10$ but when we went to pay they said 12. Meag asked why and she said for the extra material they would need for around the waist.

Sigh.

We are down to less than a week before Meag flies out and I go back to Korea for a week. From there I fly to Toronto on the 22nd and do a whirlwind tour of Christmas, visiting friends and family and PHE reunions. And the new news is that Allan and I will be going to Guatemala, we think, for 3 weeks in January.