Viet Nam Part 1

The local mosquito population smiled upon us. With liberal application of repellant and very expensive pills, we seem to have avoided malaria. What we got instead was a really pesky head cold. Matt got it 7 days ago in Luang Prabang and is almost over it today, just as Penny is coming down sick. Having spent much of the last 4 days in a minibus, we are pleased to announce we have also infected half of the tour group who are now suffering from the contagion known as "Matt's cold".

Sympathy would be warmly received but is not expected in the circumstances.

Our reward for the first day's bus ride into the hills of Laos was a "homestay" with a local village. We got there by riding B52 external fuel pods (referred to by the locals as "gifts from the Americans") reworked as boats. They were rather quick.





The homestay village is a semi-professional operation. There are intrepid groups there three times a week and the chief has moved out to make way for tourists. "Lot's of chicken sex" was one group member's analysis of the place (poultry roams freely in Laos).



This is the house we stayed in. Note the satellite dish.



The village kids were looking to interact with the visitors, and we both did that in our own ways. Penny befriended little girls who had raided their mothers' makeup.



A group of young boys appeared under our balcony while the group was waiting for dinner and started trying to hit a can with their thongs. Matt, being unable to hit the can with his big sandal, decided to try to protect the can and for 20 minutes was assailed by thong-projectiles. The cloud of dust and shrieks of fear were massive.



A day and a half of driving later (and pretending at the Vietnam border to be healthy and not exhibiting any symptoms of SARS) we reached Ha Long Bay, which is peppered with limestone karsks. The main cave complex is a series of three successively larger caves, the last probably the size of a football field.





Everyone crowded around this one for some reason.



We then kayaked around some islands and swam around the boat against this backdrop.



It's times like this you wish you were sitting in a bus stop waiting to go home...

The roads in Vietnam are frightening. There is an "invisible middle lane" usually populated by large speeding busses and there are bikes everywhere - 5 million in Hanoi for a population of 6 million people. The view from the highway is rice paddies as far as the eye can see.





We went to the "Hanoi Hilton" today, the central prison where some American pilots were detained in the Vietnam war. It was formerly a prison used by the French to detain dissidents. Most of the museum is related to that struggle, and the French cop and absolute hiding while each local inmate is revered. The exhibit related to the Americans makes their stay look like a boy scout camp - chess club, Christmas decorations, banter. One of the most blatantly partisan museum exhibits we have ever seen. Interesting from that point of view, though.

So, the eating's been good, and apart from head colds were are happy and healthy. Big day of museums coming up.