...on to Vietnam

After 5 weeks on the road, we've arrived in our 5th country of the trip, Vietnam.  It's been 50 years since the US withdrew from South Vietnam after a decade + of what is locally called the "American War," and it is amazing how friendly and welcoming the people here are today.  We are now in our third day in Hanoi, and it is proving to be our favorite city so far on our travels this year.  Hanoi is large (pop. 8.4 million), busy, crowded, and chaotic like many places in southeast Asia, but it is also cleaner, more orderly, and far less focused on tourism than many of the places we've been.  And while it lacks the soaring highrises of Manhattan, its hustle and bustle is reminiscent of NYC.  Also, like other places here in Asia, the food is remarkable! The street food here in particular  is outstanding, and amazingly cheap too. Today we had crazy delicious Pho (spicy beef & veggie soup with noodles) for $3 each for lunch, and Bihn (baked dumplings) and Banh Mi (baguette sandwiches) for $1 each for dinner.  Everyone eats family style both inside and spilling out onto the sidewalks, and you can easily spot the really popular spots by the lines that stretch out the door! Yum!

So... Here in Hanoi, we've visited many of the typical tourist type draws, including Ho Chi Mihn's tomb and museum (among the best history museums we've ever visited!), the Temple of Literature (a 1000 year old garden and temple complex that was the school where Vietnamese Mandarins were trained), and the Imperial Citadel, home of Vietnamese emporers from 1000AD until 1804, and then home to French and later Viet military installations.  Each is pretty impressive, and now forms much of the green space in an otherwise densely developed urban core.  
The general fabric of the "old city" where we've spent most of our time is also undeniably influenced by the 100+ years of French colonial rule.  The architecture, street grid, and broad avenues often remind one of Paris... Particularly if you can imagine them without so many scooters everywhere!  
And they are... EVERYWHERE!  Rome, Bangkok, and Beijing each have a LOT of scooters, but nothing like the legions of them here... Because of this, being a pedestrian seems pretty daunting! But... Fortunately, traffic is unbelievably civilized in how it somehow moves fluidly along the crowded streets, and pedestrians can actually "wade" into the middle of the streams of scooters and cars and everyone seems to magically flow around them as they cross-- even 4-6 lane avenues!  

The other really amazing thing about Hanoi is the shopping, particularly for clothing.  If you check the labels in some of your clothes, particularly sport and athletic brands like Nike, Adidas, or North Face, you'll be likely to find much of it is made in Vietnam!  What that means here, is that Vietnam is home to a ton of "factory outlet" stores selling stuff at 60-80% off USA retail prices.  Some stuff is clearly knock-offs of lower quality, but a lot appears to be factory over-runs or stuff that "fell off a truck" after the main order was shipped off to the USA or Europe.  So we've spent a lot of time shopping and figuring out how to squeeze stuff into our luggage;-)

Tomorrow we head to Ha Long Bay for a couple days of site seeing via a small cruise boat (20 passengers) to take some of the natural wonders of Vietnam, so until then...
Cheers!

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