Watch out for crocodiles

I've been trying to get more reliable information about the flooding down in Hue and Hoi An, and it sounds pretty bad. At least 80 people have died so far and more typhoons on the way. I was even more cheered by this news bulletin that details how rising flood waters have given the freedom stream to about 5000 crocodiles on a breeding farm. Now I will be not only freaking out about weird parasites in the flood water, but also about crocodiles drifting my way. I think we're being stubborn about pushing south - hopefully the loss of a limb won't drive that point home...

Ho Chi Minh Museum

Although I was sick on the third or fourth day we were here, Auds was able to get me out of bed to go see the Ho Chi Minh Museum. We walked by the Mausoleum which is closed "briefly" for the month of November every year. There were very large groups of very disappointed looking European tourists milling around the square in front of it. We overheard that Uncle Ho was off in Moscow, but couldn't confirm it.

The Ho Chi Minh Museum has two floors. The first has pictures of Vietnamese leaders meeting with every world leader. Some were as recent as September 29th 2007! Other than that the downstairs housed every scrap of paper that Ho ever wrote on. There were no translations so we mostly skipped the whole floor. The upstairs was a weird mix of post modern art and social realism. My head almost exploded and Audrey had to constantly calm me down. This picture is of a big sculptural piece is the struggle between the French and Vietnamese as represented by the human brain.















I have no idea why this was in there.



There was a big sculptural piece of Picaso's Guernica, and a big Volcano with african symbols all around it. There was also a huge pyramid with a big chain link on top of it and religious symbols on all sides wherein all of the women were busty and scantily clad. I have no idea why. I really just can't express how weird and random and cool this place was. Cort, if you are reading this, you should go here right now. Candice will never see you again because you will be hiding out every night and living there so that you'd never have to leave.

We've bought an open bus ticket heading South and are stopping in Ninh Binh this afternoon. After almost a week in Hanoi we're on the move again and it feels great.

My love affair with the Custard Apple...

Things have been a little insane over the last few days with me getting sick (finally better!), me getting Audrey sick, and going to Ha Long Bay for a slightly maddening tour with what felt like half the tourists in all of Viet Nam.

We'd heard that it was quite a bit cheaper to go to the coast via tour than to go it alone so we booked a two day, one night tour that was supposed to include sleeping on a boat for a night, kayaking, BBQ on the beach, etc. What we ended up getting was a night in a hotel, being herded around like cattle with hundreds of other westen tourists, and generally having no idea what we were doing. The highlights were the boat trip across the bay. The limestone jutting straight out of the water was gorgeous and it was one of the few times that our guides just left us alone.




We also toured a natural cave that was discovered in 1993, but that the Vietnamese government quickly turned into a disneyland like tourist trap. The walls were lit in "It's a Small World"-like blues, greens, pinks, and oranges but the natural beauty was allowed to show through a little.

Now we are back in Ha Noi and trying to plan our next move. There is extensive rain and flooding down south, so we aren't quite sure where to head. One of the main goals of this trip was to spend some time on the beach, but all of the beaches look to be rained upon for the month of November. We'll keep you all posted. Talk to you soon.

PS. Oh, the custard apple! It looks kind of like a green pine cone, but the insides are really squishy and filled with black seeds. Eating one is sort of like trying to sift sunflower seds through really thick pudding mixed with a little bit of heaven.

Ryan loves his pho

Ryan's always a traditionalist when he's sick. He eats soup, abstains from alcohol!!, drinks lots of oj, and watches the simpsons (don't know if that falls under the traditionalist label). But this picture is the most I've seem him smile while he's been ill, and maybe it's because pho is omnipresent. Aforementioned degenerate English teacher we met over bia hoi explained how soup first thing in the morning made his stomach churn; he wanted good ol' bangers and mash. At first I scoffed thinking how unadaptable this made ol' Foley (his first name which he explained as, "you know, like Beverly Hills Cop?"). But I do understand now after 4 days of pho.


The gastronomical nerd inside of me is still so excited to be here. At the enormous market this morning I recognized enormous sticks of fresh turmeric, sugarcane, quail's eggs, really nasty looking centipedes in some kind of slime (are these eventually cooked? I hope so), lots of fresh pig feet, betel nut and more. I feel like I'm trying to take mental notes that might make logical sense for the farmer's markets back home, but I don't think folks here play the same game. Besides, it seems like these markets are borderline illegal. This morning a big police truck drove around and ran vendors forcefully off the street. I waited around to see them pretend to pack their bags, and move 10 feet down the street to spread out again. All to the tune of Chariots of Fire which for some reason was playing at extreme decibel level over the government loudspeakers at every street corner. What a way to start your day.

Ha Noi, with wide eyes

A few days into our Vietnam trip we've adjusted to jetlag and have gotten into a bit of a rhythm. Ryan's fallen sick with a cold, which is lucky, considering that it isn't a crazy gastrointestinal ailment. He's done a better job than me of slurping up pho first thing in the morning. (Up here it sounds to my ear like "fur"). I can eat some meat, but something about huge chunks of fatty beef or pork within an hour after I wake up just doesn't work for me. Luckily, there are sticky rice vendors everywhere. Glutinous white or purple rice plopped into a banana leaf with either boiled peanuts or egg, seasoned with fish flakes and salty ground peanuts really hits the morning spot. That and the uber strong coffee with condensed milk. It ain't a vivace latte (gotta love ya for that Seattle), but is some surprisingly potent and good brew.

We woke up this morning to walk around Hoan Kiem lake in the center of Hanoi and came across the entire elderly population working out. There were energetic aerobics moves, old guys splayed across benches doing bizarre leg lifts, 80s looking joggers, badminton players everywhere (including a net set up in the median of a very busy street). The coolest was this pair of dudes that were playing badminton with their bodies and a different birdie. They were incredibly flexible! Crazy roundhouse kicks, complex hopping moves and a couple times they kicked it over the net with the sole of their shoe. Just watching them made me feel extremely uncoordinated.

The hardest thing to get used to in my opinion is bargaining for EVERYthing. We've gotten ripped off a few times (ahem, Ryan's flip-flops that cost more than a night in our hotel), but most of the time it is subtle like paying a couple 1000 dong more than folks for our morning ca phe, or double for our bia hoi (cheap cheap beer that tastes like 1/2 strength pabst). But then again, this represents about 20-50 cents, which makes you feel like you can't get too miffed. You just gotta be on your toes. And, it is hard to complain about cheap beer. Our 2nd afternoon was spent hanging out at the nearest bia hoi outlet with some degenerate English teachers where we each put away 4 bia hois in an hour and a half for about $1 total. It has taken us about an hour to upload our first set of photos and now the website is down, so we will post photos soon. Thinking about poor Seattle in the depths of winter as we hang out in a sweet 80 degrees...

Packed!

With t-minus 12 hours to go until our plane leaves, I'm finally packed! This photo represents everything that I'll have with me for the next two months.

I'll try and get Auds to post a photo of her stuff a little later. Now we've got to start cleaning up Audrey's parents house before they return this afternoon. It has been a bit of an ordeal moving everything that I own into their house, living here for a week, and then having to pack everything away into a crawlspace for the next couple of months. Back to work...

Still packing...

I'm dealing with the stress of packing and leaving in less than 8 hours by taking pictures of Ryan and drinking a barely-afternoon beer. It would be an afternoon beer except that ol' G. Bush made daylight savings time a week later. So, along with drinking an illegitimate 'morning' beer I also have this voice in the back of my head that is saying 'ooh, time change! you might miss your flight!"

We had a moment of excitement yesterday when Ryan lost my plane ticket behind a photocopy machine in a Safeway. After 15 minutes of frantic searching, pulling store clerks into the hunt and getting ready to check their security cameras, we did eventually find it, myself almost in tears. Usually hyper organized Ryan has done a few things like this lately, which freaks me out because he is supposed to be my rock and holder of important documents! Once we got over accusatory statements and had the plane ticket back in our hands, we realized we had overcome one of the first truly stressful moments of our trip. Woohoo! Here is a picture of Ryan at the Lawrence abode using the dining room table as a staging area.