Last of Hanoi

I forgot to write about the legend surrounding Halong Bay. Apparently, as the mighty dragon descended from the mountains it gorged out valleys and caves and left Halong Bay in its path. I like legends that involve dragons.

Oh, Vietnam (which is actually Viet Nam if you want to be correct with your translation because Thais and Vietnamese have one syllable languages so all words are one syllable) means "the people who came down from southern China". Similarly, Hanoi means "the people who live south of the Red River".

All the houses in Hanoi, and some in Saigon, are very tall and very thin. This apparently goes back to the days of the French when people were taxed by how much of the street their property took up - same as New Orleans! It is very trippy to see all these super thin, super tall houses and everything here involves TONS of stairs.

All the traffic lights in Hanoi, and some in Saigon, count down how long til the green light becomes red and then again til the red becomes green. You would think this would help make traffic orderly, but it does not.

Oh, all the bus trips in Asia involve special bathroom/shipping stops at factories and stores (most of which involve hand made crafts by handicap people that are exploited for tourist money and the goods overpriced). I haven't seen that since Egypt and it gets rather old but I suppose the bathroom breaks are nice. Silly Asia.

So far, my favorite foods/drinks are: Bun Cha (pork and noodles- odd since I don't really eat pork), Pho (spicy noodle soup), squid, tofu, morning glory/pumpkin greens - we would call morning glory water spinach, and passion fruit everything (including rice wine), oh, and of course the great goat cheese apple salad I have had twice now.

So this morning we took a taxi to the Hanoi airport and our driver pulled over to let us out and apparently pulled over to the wrong side so as we were paying him a police man came and hit him with a stick on the back. We could tell we just needed to leave so we tipped him and paid and left. Poor guy.

Now, time for Saigon/HCMC....