Hanoi

i must first thank teddy and lisa for being fantastic hosts and tour guides in hanoi since if it were not for them, i would still be waiting to figure out how to cross the street!!!!  it is really difficult to explain the trauma of crossing the street in a major vietnamese city.  there are buses, cabs, cars and a zillion motorbikes teeming down the street.  and i think i saw 2 stoplights total.  in the whole country.  i am not kidding.  and one of those stoplights had a law enforcement officer next to it on a giant ladder, because apparently no one stops even at a light if they don't see a police officer!!!  so, you have to just pick a time to start across when there isn't a bus or car about to hit you.  but you almost always have to go when there is a motorbike about to hit you.  and they swerve around you, and you just keep walking across at a steady pace looking ahead so you don't see what is coming toward you.  you should never run.  it is only because you are walking steadily that everyone anticipates what you are doing and goes around you.  oh, and there are no lanes.  you just kind of drive where there is space.

as scary as it is to be a pedestrian, this works surprisingly well.  (although ian is the one who can dispute this.  he stayed longer than the rest of us in laos, and while back in hanoi before flying out he was in a cab that got its mirrors bashed by an angry motorbiker after an accident!)  there is a LOT of horn blowing.  constantly.  and there are different sorts of horns - a lot of them are "hey, i am right here" toots,  some of them seem to be "hey, hurry it up" toots and some seem to be "don't even think about pulling out into traffic" toots.  that is the other thing - there is really no such thing as looking before you pull out into traffic.

ok, i guess that is enough about the traffic.  honestly, i could do 3 whole entries about the traffic and overpopulation in vietnam.  but i won't.  just one more thing - and hopefully teddy and lisa will correct me if i am wrong - vietnam is about the size of germany and has a population of between 86 and 87 million people.  this information was from one of our halong bay guides.  here is an example of what the street looks like (and this was in a less busy section) -

we ate our first vietnamese meal across the street from teddy and lisa's apartment.  delicious traditional breakfast of chicken pho which we ate outside on teeny plastic stools at teeny tiny tables.  which was funny since teddy, lisa and ian are super tall.

we took a cab to teddy and lisa's school.

it was neat.  called student year abroad.  very small - all american kids spending the year in hanoi and doing a lot of travelling.  the teachers were all from the US also.
we ate lunch in a really interesting alley.  on the little stools again, of course.  i am so glad teddy and lisa took us to a street food place because i would have been afraid to get it without their recommendation.  there was a woman on the street cooking some kind of delicious rice patty or cake things in a wok.

we walked around a bit and saw some interesting sights.

 birds for sale!

it is amazing what people fit on bikes and motorbikes.  and it is also amazing how much food is sold on the street.  it is funny to see the english phrases on some of the t-shirts for sale.  we were in an alley w/a lot of clothes for sale and one t-shirt said "what happened to you?" and another "stop loving you".  i didn't buy either one.

next time:  rest of hanoi day 1 - temple of literature

VIETNAM CAMBODIA LAOS - it only took me 6 months....

i know i have been promising to write about this trip for 6 months now, and most of you have not seen any of my photos, so here goes.  i went with my cousin, ian, and we went to visit our other cousin teddy and his wife lisa who were teaching for the school year in hanoi, vietnam.  we then travelled around through vietnam and cambodia and met back up w/teddy and lisa in laos.  it was a FANTASTIC trip.

and here is everything i carried.  i am pretty proud of that since i have packed much more than that for a single weekend.

we were on a giant plane that even had an upstairs!  but no matter how big a plane is, 13 hours is way way way too long to be on it.  we did watch two movies - the tourist and true grit.  true grit was great and the tourist not so much.

the tokyo airport seemed very empty.  which i am sure is not normal but we were there a couple weeks after the earthquake.  it is so huge that we had to take a shuttle and a train between gates.  we actually had an escort to get our boarding passes.  wondering if that is normal japanese service or if they were bored because no one was there!

they have wasabi kit kats in japan!  ian bought one.  on the japan air flight to hanoi i swear there was one flight attendant per passenger.  that plane had a camera showing what the pilot was seeing.  not sure i like that.  but the anime on the safety video made me laugh.  could have also been because i was punchy after no sleep for a day and a half or so...

as tired as we were, it was not hard to find teddy and lisa at the hanoi airport - not any other super tall white people waiting in the crowd!   here is their really cute apartment -

 i was super impressed they had a washer in the apt.!

 
tomorrow (day 1):  chicken pho for breakfast, CRAZY traffic, barber on the street...

johnny weir!

i am trying to post the channel 4 video of johnny weir signing his book at talking leaves on sunday!  because i am in it for a quick flash.  we chatted for a moment.  i have a big puffy brown down coat on.  if you keep watching the video, you can see that they show him signing MY book!  and he writes karla very large.  : )   he started w/a c but when i said k, he changed it.

i told him the season has been boring without him.  he said "i agree."  what a great response!  and i asked him if he is going to still skate in shows and he said "yes, there is one on today on nbc."  and then he said he is planning on a comeback!!!

i trust noone is asking "WHO?"  but JUST in case, 3 time national figure skating champion, world bronze medalist, olympic competitor....a very individual skater who ruffled some skating establishment feathers, had his own show on sundance channel, was a judge on skating with the stars, is very into fashion, and speaks russian.  (he has a russian coach now.)    ok, now here goes trying to get the video in here...

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" id="video" width="320" height="280" data="http://www.wivb.com/video/videoplayer.swf?dppversion=7158"><param

shoot i have a feeling that did NOT work.

i am guessing you can find it on google by typing in johnny weir buffalo channel 4.  or somethin' like that.

smoky mountains continued

here are some more pictures of the inn where i stayed on the north carolina side of the park.  (bryson city.)  there will not be any photos of my last night's stay - pigeon forge, tennessee - b/c it was a crazy miles and miles of neon and stores and hotels and chain restaurants and country music pavilions and magic palaces and laser tag and bounce houses...guess you should look at something other than a map when figuring out where to stay!  i wanted to spend as much time in the park as possible and pigeon forge is just outside of the park on the tennessee side.  i still had perfect weather right up until about 5:30 of my last day when i was on my way out of the park anyway and it started to rain!!!!!  i do love fall, but the summer weather i got for the entire trip up until the smoky mts. was fabulous.

bryson city was a cute little town

in the park i hiked on some intersecting trails and passed three waterfalls!

 and a fly fisherman

 had a picnic at this table.  well, until the bugs started landing on my crackers.

i went on a fantastic horse ride through the woods.  we even crossed a stream!  which was a little scary b/c my horse, cocoa, tripped on the rocks a few times.  

the appalachian trail goes through the park.  i didn't hike it.

but stepped on it!

and that is it!!!!!!!!!!  my technical last day of the trip was driving from pigeon forge, tennessee home.  it took 11 hours and 15 minutes.  even w/4 stops.  the colors were really nice along the way.
now back to reality.  and work on monday.

and i might do a few more entries - one i have in mind is dos and don'ts of road trips.  and maybe i will even keep it up after i am done talking about my trip.