Tourists

We decided this trip to do a "photo essay" on tourists! Here are some of my favorite shots. (Note one of the photos is how tourists should look!) Whether they are posing for group photos, wearing his and hers matching outfits, wearing bathing suits which provide way too much information, taking photos on a cyclo ride , or wearing an entire hat collection on the airplane home, it's fascinating to watch people.

More on Viet Nam

Shaun and I traveled to Ho Chi Minh City in 2000. We fell in love with it. We loved the charm of the city and the people and loved seeing the local school children and women in their beautiful ao dai dresses. We have wanted to go back to see more of Viet Nam which we finally did in November 2008. We spent time in Hanoi and Halong Bay. If you travel to Hanoi, be sure to use either CP Taxi or Hanoi Taxi, because many of the taxi companies attach their horns to the meters. Needless to say, there is lots of honking going on!!! The houses are very tall, deep and narrow, because taxes are assessed on the width of the home only. Houses are painted only on the facade (the expensive part) . The local paints wash off in the rain, so the people who can afford it buy "paint in cans". We saw several young couples taking wedding pictures since it was an "auspicious week" in their lunar calendar (which also meant that twice in that part of the lunar calendar month, the locals would be eating dog). Zoe Marie just doesn't know how lucky she is to have been born and raised in the Pacific NW, USA. She could have been somebody's dinner in Viet Nam, or an untended street dog with mange in Bali!

Viet Nam and Maslow's Hierarchy

In November we traveled to Hanoi and Halong Bay, Viet Nam. We were greeted at the Hanoi airport by Hnuang, a charming young woman who would be our guide for the entire week. She took us to points of interest and helped us understand the culture and daily life in Hanoi. Removed from our daily pursuit of self actualization, we were reminded of how much we take for granted in regards to our physical safety, a very basic human need.

• A recent helmut law was implemented because more there are more than 1000 deaths a month on scooters. To enforce the new helmut law, the police were shooting offenders with rubber bullets while they were riding!
  
• There are hundreds of overhead electrical wires. They are heavy and frequently fall on passerbys during high winds and rain.
  
• Pedestrians, motorbikes, bicycles and cars coexist on the same roads. We just closed our eyes and walked when we needed to cross the street. The traffic moves slowly and everybody (well, obviously not everybody or there wouldn't be so many deaths!) weaves around slower moving objects! Our guide hit a pedestrian on her way to get us one morning while on her motorbike. She said that the woman was "walking too fast". So apparently, there is a speed limit for pedestrians too, though it's not posted.
  
• Clearly we don't need to buy gas guzzling pickups. Motorbikes carry families of 4 or 5 at a time and also big loads of cargo.
  
• The air quality is awful. Most motorbikers were face masks.
  
• Returning from Halong Bay to Hanoi, there was a torrential rain, one of the worst in 25 years. The bridge into Hanoi was under water, so after observing others and ensuring they made it across a flooded area, our driver took us through 18" of water to get to a new bridge that hadn't yet opened. We drove across that bridge, and at the other side, there was an accident blocking the exit ramp. No problem, we crossed over traffic and exited from the on ramp where other cars were also beginning to cross the closed bridge! We made it back to the hotel and safely back to the Hanoi airport the next morning because we had a very resourceful driver who knew the higher roads.