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!