Day 12 – 14 GAP: I had a nice morning walking around Vientiane followed by a flight to Hanoi. After checking into our hotel and walking around a bit, several in the group went to a restaurant that is run by former street children. It’s a charity outfit that is helping them turn their lives around by learning a trade. It was one of the best meals of the trip.
Kitchen inside the restaurant run by former street kids
The dining room
We are waiting around now for the 3pm bus to the airport then the two hour flight to Hanoi. The temp. is 90+ so I am at the Internet cafe enjoying the air conditioning. Hanoi Hanoi is CRAZY! The traffic is as bad as I have ever seen. It seems that EVERYONE is on a motor bike and no one is looking where they are going or what side of the road they are on. We had a wonderful lunch today at another restaurant that is run by former street children. The restaurants are very clean, great menu and service and the food was wonderful.
I then went to see the primary temple complex - interesting but I think I am getting "temple-d" out.
We made the obligatory visit to Ho Chi Minh's tomb. We had to stand in line for about an hour before we got in but it was quite impressive. Apparently the Russians do their thing with the body every year to preserve it - seems to be working.
Inside the Ho Chi Minh memorial
Now, at last, we have some free time to just walk around and see what Hanoi has to offer.
Following our "walking around free time" we all went to the Hanoi Water Puppet Theater. It was a 45 minute performance done on a large water tank in front of the audience. A ONCE in a lifetime experience - certainly would not want to go again. The seats were made for small Vietnamese people and fat Americans are wedged into a pretty small space.
The water puppet theater
We had a farewell dinner tonight - I and three other people are leaving the group - the other 9 have been joined by 4 others who will continue the trip to Cambodia and Angkor Wat. So the dinner was a goodbye dinner for us all to meet again and say goodbye. The group was a wonderful mix of people of all ages. Some of the people in our group have been "touring for 13 months"! They have been hooking up with different tour groups and extending their trip. Most of them are Canadian - I and one other guy from Denver were the two Americans on the trip.
The GAP tour group
Day 14 GAP:Hanoiand the end of GAP tour – Meet Jud Davis Breakfast this morning and our goodbye to all the other members of the tour group. GAP really was a great tour group - they have a few things to learn - one hotel was terrible but other than that, it was a good tour.
Four members of the group left today, me and three others - the couple from South Africa joined yet another tour group - this time touring China. One of the younger women went on another trip to southern Vietnam. Four other people joined the group for the Angkor Wat portion of the tour.
After changing hotels and a tour of the main market to look for cinnamon; Pat's one “gift” request from Vietnam. Most of the cinnamon was in the stick form but I did find one shop that had it ground so I got a couple of packages.
Hanoi spice market
I met up with Jud Davis who flew in from Bangkok this morning. We had one of many wonderful meals for lunch.
to continue, go to Asia 2008 and click on Vietnam 2
