Good Bye Vietnam

Well, I don't think that I'll necessarily updating my blog so often during this trip, but I thought that since I still have free highspeed internet access for one more day that I'd take advantage.

First, let me direct your attention to my friend Chesa's blog (also listed under the links to your right as this_wayfarer). She has been posting about our trip together in even more detail than I if you are actually that fascinated by our journey that much.

The last couple of days have been an experience. On Thursday we wandered around Hanoi exploring on our own. I also had to swing by the American Embassy for I had managed to run out of visa pages in my passport, and needed to add some more. Nothing special to report here except that it was surprisingly quick and that the hand sanatizer that they had at each counter struck me as particularly American and made me smile. In addition to the Embassy, we also went to the Vietnamese Museum of Ethnology, saw the Temple of Literature (an amazing temple/university in downtown Hanoi), the outside of Ho Chi Mihn's Mausoleum, and the One Pillar Pagoda. We dined on wonderfully fresh seafood in the evening in a little hole in the wall we found on the walk home.

Of course the reason that we had decided to walk home is that we had had a couple of bad taxi experiences earlier that day. The major one consisted of a taxi driver who started the meter too high, drove us around, went the the wrong American Embassy (even though we had specifically showed him the address, and not like there are two I would imagine, so it must be have been an extra consulate or something), drove us around some more until finally dropping us at the right place. Needless to say, we refused to pay him what the meter said, and got in a rather large argument with him about it until one of the security guards came to help us out. I think we might be a bad trio together, as we don't like getting scammed, something which seems to happen to us quite a lot neverthess, unfortunately. It means that we've created at least three and a half scenes already... Chesa pointed out that we don't seem to be making friends well here in Vietnam, and I think I'd have to agree.

As for today, we took an excursion down to the Perfume Pagoda. The pagoda itself wasn't all that extraordinary, for it was more like a little shrine tucked away at the back of a cave, but I enjoyed myself thoroughly. We got there by a small shallow boat that was rowed by a Vietnamese, then hiked through the forested mountains to get to the actual pagoda. It felt like a real adventure, and it was nice to get away from all the crazy tourists with which we had been surrounded here in Hanoi and at Halong Bay.

Overall I have much enjoyed myself here in Vietnam. When the people aren't scamming us they are very friendly. I also think that their artwork here is simply spectacular. If I had the room and the money I would buy a whole kitchen's full of bamboo lacquerware! But now it's off for adventures in Laos! It's been so cold here, so I'm looking forward to the warmer weather that is expected there!