Hanoi, Vietnam

Since January when we returned from Christmas vacation we have been in Dalian. Spring break was a week we were looking forward to for a long time. We decided to fly to the northern area of Vietnam. China boarders Vietnam and so it is a convenient travel destination for us. I was especially looking forward to seeing the beautiful area of Halong Bay. From Hanoi (the capitol of Vietnam) it is about three or four hours drive. Along the road we gazed upon farmers using buckets, hoes and shovels. Traveling around Asia has opened my eyes to how many people in the world are still doing a lot of the manual work that we have replaced with tractors and water sprinklers.

We spend three nights on Huan Chaun Island with a beautiful view of Halong Bay. Hours were spent in lounge chairs reading by the pool with the warm sun thawing us out from the past four freezing months in Dalian.

The peaceful area of Halong Bay is a huge contrast to the busy city of Hanoi. Continuous honking assaulted us as we tried to avoid being run over by crazy scooter drivers. In 20 seconds we saw hundreds of scooters pass us. There were often four, even five people on one scooter, none wearing helmets. I think Vietnamese kids must be comfortable riding on the back of a scooter by age two. Scooters are also the way to transport things such as doors, huge boxes of toilet paper, live chickens and just about anything you can think of.

It would have been safer to join the masses and ride on scooters, but we opted to just walk. In the French Quarter the sidewalks are filled with parked scooters and people selling fruits and vegetables. Weaving our way down the road and trying to protect the kids was not an easy task. A friend of mine was walking in Hanoi and burnt her leg walking down the street on a hot tail pipe of a scooter. That is how close you walk to scooters in Hanoi.

One of my favorite memories was an hour ride in a Tuk Tuk pushed by a man with incredibly strong biking legs. The Tuk Tuk was a much more relaxing way to see the city, and we felt safe from the scooters.

We signed up for a cooking class which took us on a tour of a famous local market. While walking through the isles of the market we almost got ran over by a scooter while looking at tomatoes! We learned a lot about Vietnamese food and saw some parts of animals I can't imagine eating. They knew most forgeiners wouldn't be too excited about learning to cook pig snout or frog legs.

We prepared and ate: NEM TÔM KIỂU HUẾ, fresh spring rolls, BÒ TIÊU ĐEN , beef sauteed in a black pepper sauce, and TÔM SÚ TẨM DỪA NẠO Pan fried Prawns wrapped in Shredded Coconut. The menu we ate was delicious and the kids loved the cooking too.

This year Easter morning was spent visiting an ex-pat church. In the afternoon we played at the Ho Tay Lake Water Park.