So many things

I just finished a marathon week of travel from one end of Vietnam to the other with Nathalie, and I am getting ready for another mad rush with my dad. I am not even sure where to begin with last week, it was all so incredible. Nathalie and I met in Saigon. We were there for slightly less than 24 hours, so we didn't see a whole lot. I did like Saigon a lot better this time than I did before, but it's still a little too glitzy and crowded for my taste. While it is definitely a Vietnamese city, it seems westernized and modernized to the point of basically achieving generic city status.

The highlight our time there was probably the little street girl who came up to us in a restaurant trying to sell books. She asked if I wanted to play a game: first person to win ten rounds of rock-paper-scissors wins. If I won, I got a free book; if she won, I bought a book. I agreed, and then won a narrow, 10-9 victory. Of course, she was none-too-anxious to give me a free book, and she knew that I wasn't going to press the issue. I tried to compromise, asking her how much she had to pay for them and that I would buy one for that, but she refused ("No way, Jose!"), so we called it a draw, and there was no exchange.

From Saigon, we took the overnight train to Da Nang, and then a car to Hoi An. The train was fun. We arrived to find that our four-person sleeper cabin already contained five people--two women and two small children--but everyone was quite friendly and the kids were quiet and cute as hell, so the ride went well. We spent a night in Hoi An, a beautiful little river town, before flying up to Hanoi.

It is interesting to see someone see Vietnam for the first time. Arriving at night, Nathalie thought Hanoi looked like Paris. The city is full of tree-lined boulevards and lakes, and summer heat means that the streets blow up at night with walkers, bikers, loungers, and performers. Under the light of day, the city is distinctly more third-world, but it still maintains a sense of culture and character Nathalie seemed to find missing in the number of other Asian cities she has visited in the last month. There is almost a sense of validation in having other people find appealing and exciting that which is special to you, so it was great to see her find something special in Hanoi. I felt the same way when my dad arrived yesterday. He jumped out of the cab totally enthused, talking about how much the traffic, and general sense of the city, he saw as he drove in reminded him of Sicily when his family moved there in the 60s.

The geographic highlight of my trip with Nathalie has to be Ha Long Bay. No matter how many times I see it (this was trip 3), riding a boat through the green bay, surrounded by weathered limestone peaks that spring abruptly from the water, never fails to fill me with a sense of complete awe. We slept on the roof of the boat, under a nearly full moon that was bright enough to cast the islands into stark black relief against a navy sky, but not so bright that it obscured the three shooting stars I saw before drifting off--the first ones I've seen in my life. I woke up already sweating from the sun that was just peaking over a mountain, but was able jump immediately into the bay.

My dad and I leave for Sa Pa tonight on the overnight train. We are going to do four days of trekking through the mountains and valleys (hopefully more valleys than mountains), staying in the homes of various ethnic minority (VN government's term, not mine) villages, before heading back to Hanoi for a couple days. More to follow.