'Da Burgh 'N 'At!

Thanks to a glass of wine and some Tylenol PM, the flight home passed fairly unremarkably. Twenty four hours after leaving the muggy Bangkok airport, I stepped out of the Pittsburgh Airport and was relieved to feel.... cool air and the unmistakably sweet, fresh, smell of Spring. The sky was blushing with the setting sun, and after my four month absence, I knew I was home. I spent the next four days catching up with family, recovering from reverse culture shock, and relishing my homecoming.

A warm welcome!

I'm not sure who was more excited, my dog Mokie, or me!

My mom's beautiful spring garden

The pond

Back to Bangkok

Following a short flight and a long taxi ride, I found myself back on the AIT campus. By this point the place was starting to feel like a second home. I had one day to debrief Amrit (the project director), return library books, close out bank accounts, and finalize other administrative details before heading back to the States.

We did have a chance to do a few non-work related things. I was pleasantly surprised by the Jim Thompson House, the residence of an American ex-pat who revived the Thai silk trade and estalished an impressive collection of Southeast Asian art before mysteriously disappearing in the jungles of Malaysia. Speculations range from the theory that he was attacked by Malaysian tribesmen to a tiger attack, to conspiracy theories regarding his links to the U.S. State Department.

In any event, his home -- actually 6 traditional Thai homes linked togeter -- has been transformed into an impressive museum housing his collections. I would definitely recommend a visit to anyone planning a trip to Bangkok.

Waterlillies

Thompson's impressive tropical garden

One of the main houses

Artwork from the Thompson collection

On the way back to AIT we stopped off to see the latest Spiderman movie at Futurepark Mall. Once again, I was reminded of my Thai whereabouts by the inspirational King movie following the previews. After that it was an early night -- I had to catch a 4am cab to make it in time for an early flight back to the U.S.

Hanoi

Hanoi is a wonderful town! We had three full days to explore the sights, and as it turned out that was barely enough time! Luckily our second guest house in Hanoi was much nicer than the first (no poo smell covered with "FLOoW" deoderant), and located right in the Old Quarter. This was by far my favorite part of the city. The circuitous narrow streets seem to fold in on themselves, and the noisy chaos of motorbikes is somehow muted by beautiful ancient trees embracing overhead to create green tunnels. The shops are owned by families who have kept the same buisness -- often for many hundreds of years. These shops are long and narrow -- often only 2m wide, with the family owners living at the far back. This construction had lent these units the title "tube houses."

The activity within the shops in the Old Quarter spills out over the sidewalk, which apparently is not public property as it is in the U.S. Walking through the Old Quarter, a pedestrian is often faced with the choice of stepping into the street with it's dangerous wall of screaming motorbikes, or gingerly stepping over a family slurping noodles on tiny plastic stools. We saw a woman lifting up her infant daughter to pee on the sidewalk as we maneuvered our way around them. Unlike the tense, almost dangerous streets in Saigon however, I found that the old world charm of Hanoi overshadowed the negative effects of all the edgy street activity. Throughout our stay we explored the many cosmopolitan restaurants (including one where the waiter dropped a heavy fan on my head), shops, bakeries, and bars. We even found a bar with live jazz music and another quirky place amusingly called "Half Man Half Noodle." The latter had a ceramic dalmation outside along with a sign that read "Drink here or we shoot the puppy." Wierd.

We did manage to venture outside of the Old Quarter to explore other parts of the city. We of course had to pay a visit to "Uncle Ho" and the mausoleum where Ho Chi Minh's pickled body rests in a glass case for public viewing. I of course have no pictures to document this as all of our personal belongings were confiscated at the entrance. It took us forever just to get to the entrance because despite the fact that it perpetually loomed ahead, we always seemed to approach it from the wrong direction. Inevitably whistle-blowing, rifle-waving guards would yell at us. After nearly 20 minutes of this nonsense (with no signs to tell us where we were actually supposed to go) we decided that we aren't huge fans of communism.

When we finally got inside, a search of my bag revealed that I had neglected to remove the broken cell phone I had forgotten at the bottom. Two stern guards escorted me to an office with blinding phosphorescent lights and forced me to sign my name on a form admitting to having "broken the rule." It was kind of scary, but soon enough I was released to enter the mausoleum. Inside it was very dark, silent, and a little creepy. Eight guards stood around the preserved body of their deceased ruler, frozen like soldiers in a wax museum. We shuffled through, and toured the colonial grounds where Ho Chi Minh's house stands as a museum.

Matt trying to look tough in hisVietnamese battle helmet (nevermind that flower)

One pillar pagoda - on the grounds of the Ho Chi Minh Mausaleum

Later, we visited the Temple of Literature, an ancient school where scholars have learned Buddhist teachings for thousands of years. The grounds of the temple were beautifully landscaped, provding a welcome respite from the surrounding city.

The Temple of Literature

Ancient turtle tablets engraved with the names of past scholars

Traditional Vietnamese water puppets

Grounds of the Temple of Literature

We spent a lot of time exploring the city and connecting the sites according to my Rough Guide book. This is my favorite way to see a new city -- breaking up the sites with frequent stops to try local cuisine, drinks, or ice cream. Hanoi has a number of lakes, most having walkways and parks around them with places to stop off for a cappuccino or a drink. Many of these lakes have interesting islands with ancient temples. You can usually take a quaint pedestrian bridge over to explore.

Swan boats on one of Hanoi's many lakes

Hanoi's oldest temple

Look out for the androgenous moustached lady tiger!

Don't get in an accident with this bicycle! (Those are all glass vases!)

All in all, I really enjoyed Hanoi. I got a great knock off North Face backpack for $20, ate some delicious food, was chased by scary armed communist guards, and got a taste of the ancient Vietnamese culture.

Happy in a Hanoi coffee shop -- literally a hole in the wall

The best cup of coffee I've ever had. It's a cappuccino style drink made with whipped egg and very sweet. Tasty (and boy was I wired after this)!

Ha Long Bay

Junk boat on Halong Bay

Matt and I passed the last few hours of the train ride listening to standup comedy on his ipod. By the time the train pulled into the Hanoi station I was so antsy I could barely sit still. I was so anxious to get out of that cramped, filthy car with it's humid stifling air (recycled flatulence and second hand smoke...). Feeling exhausted, hot, hungry, and more than a little grimy, we met the driver from our guest house who had agreed to meet us. Strangely enough he tried to convince us to stick around and recruit others from the train to stay at the guest house as well. Too tired to even be annoyed, we explained that we hadn't met anybody else on the train (How could we knowing absolutely no Vietnamese?).

Despite the guest house web page, which had promised sleek, luxurious rooms (for $3 a night -- who were we kidding?), we found instead a 7 flight climb to a humble room that had the unmistakable and overwhelming scent of.... pOOP. We tried to ignore it, but it was just too overwhelming and in light of the previous night's discomforts on the train, I asked if there was anything we could do about the smell. The attendant returned with a can of deoderizer, and pointing emphatically at the rose pictured on the front, smiled and said "You see?.... FLOoW!" and proceeded to spray the entire room. By the time he left it smelled like a turd covered in burnt hair and moldy rose petals. This if course prompted us to think of dinner.

Fortunately we found a fantastic little restaurant in the Old Quarter and enjoyed our first hot meal in two days. First thing in the morning we met a van out front to take us to Halong Bay. We had decided to stick to a slim budget for most of the trip with the understanding that this would be our one big splurge. In my opinion we couldn't have made a better decision!

Halong Bay is a beautiful system of limestone islands, caves, and outcroppings in northeastern Vietnam. The place is truly deserving of it's World Heritage Site designation. When we saw our junk ship waiting at the dock, we were immediately relieved to have spent our money in the right place. After the uncomfortable train ride, this seemed like royal luxury.

We were greeted with a champaigne cocktail (high class I tell you) and immediately given free reign to explore the ship. Adorned with beautiful hardwood wainscoting, plush lounge chairs topside, and a gorgeous cherrywood dining room, this was one of the most decadent boats I had ever seen. Our cabin had it's own bathroom and a picture window looking out on the stunning scenery beyond.

Matt gratefully testing out the bed

View from the quarter deck

The splendid dining room

Phew! Unlike the previous bathroom, this one was ''Desiphected!"

View from the sundeck -- wow!

We had some time to relax on the sundeck and enjoy the spectacular scenery around us. We sailed past a fascinating floating village, where the subsistence fishing-based way of life has remained unchanged for thousands of years. Finally as the sun began to set, we were called to dinner -- an extravagent 10 course meal. We joined the company of several other couples from New Caldonia and Australia. They were significantly older than we, but our mealtime conversations over the next two days certainly didn't suffer because of it!

Interesting rock outcrop

Women from the floating village selling produce and snacks

In the morning we enjoyed a delicious breakfast and set out for a day of trekking on Cat Ba Island. We had a wonderful guide named Hi (I found this funny because the other guide was named 'By') who explained quite a bit about local species of animals and plants as well as legends from the local island culture. We wound along a simple road through a small village and scrambled up to the tippy top of one of the jungle-covered peaks overlooking the interior village on one side and the Bay on the other.

Rice paddies and water buffalo...

At the top -- Woo hoo!

The weather was misty and actually a little cool -- such a welcome change from the scorching heat of previous days. After stumbling our way back down, we found ourselves at a home in the village, enjoying a home cooked lunch. When we returned to the boat, Hi took us on a kayak tour around the Bay. This was one of the highlights of the trip, as we paddled through a tiny one-way opening into a secret cove -- the perfect location for Dr. Evil's future lair. These little coves are all over Ha Long Bay, and you can only access them at certain times, when the tides are low enough to permit passage.

The secret cove lies through this passage!

That night we enjoyed another amazing multi-course dinner and split a well-deserved bottle of prosecchio under the stars on the topdeck. What a wonderful day!

When we awoke the last morning we dreaded the moment the cruise would end. At least we had breakfast, complete with mimosas, and a cave tour to distract us. The cave tour was interesting, though a little hokey (...and if you squint one eye and turn sideways, the shadow of that stalagtite kind of looks like a giraffe wearing a derby hat... What?!). We had to hike up a bit to get to the cave, which provided a splendid view of junk ships on the Bay.

View of the Bay from one of the caves (Notice the very large Pelican Cave in the background)

The ride back to Hanoi was uneventful aside from a disturbing mandatory pit stop at a tourist trap where disabled people work at sewing machines to create hideous (Sorry, but a 'painting' of a kitten made entirely from embroidery is just not my thing) works of art.