Sweating -- it's what we do

Vietnam -- if you are researching the best time to go to Vietnam, you will most likely be told that April is the ideal month, lucky for us, right? It's true, the rainy season is not yet in full swing, but that doesn't mean we are dry. It is so hot here. So hot and humid that while Jessica "sweating makes me feel healthy" Caimi sits under a fan, indoors, after a downpour, in the late afternoon, her brow is still covered in pellets of sweat. It also happens that viruses thrive in weather like this so I was nice enough to pass on a little staff infection to both Jessica and my father (who sweats so much that his clothing is stained with white rings as the salt from his sweat deposits on his Tommy Bahama button-down). Now that you can imagine our oily faces and smelly clothing, I can stop complaining and describe how incredible Vietnam is. It has been a whirlwind -- just over a week ago, we flew into Hanoi, the capital city, met my father, have made our way to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City/HCMC and already said goodbye to old Bob Fox. I freely admit that I cannot do justice to the traffic here -- it's insane. There are literally millions of motorbikes driving on both sides of the street, cutting through busy intersections, and almost taking our lives on the daily. Remember what I said about the motorbike being a family car in Malaysia? The Vietnamese take it to another level and do it ingeniously at that -- we have seen motorbikes double as restaurants, florists, and beer distributors. Due to all of the motorbikes, pollution and exhaust are in your face constantly so a lot of people where face masks. Jess astutely remarked that Michael Jackson should clearly move to Vietnam to live a life void of ridicule as he could wear his face mask, gloves, umbrella etc just as the locals do, granted it is not because they are crazy, just avoiding the sun and dust.

While in the north, we took the requsite trip to Halong Bay -- yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site to check off the list (if anyone cares to research what this actually signifies and how many sites there are, let us know) -- and spent a night sleeping on a beautiful old junk and sailing around to see the various limestone karsts (stone that juts out of the south china sea due to tectonic plate movement). After a brief interlude in Hanoi, we flew to Hoi An -- a really beautiful old mercantile town that miraculously remained untouched during all of the 20th century conflicts in the region (Hoi An is within a few miles of Danang, the military base in which US troops were first deployed here in 1965, and the Demilitarized Zone which separated the Communist North from the South). Along with the Chinese and Japanese influenced architecture, beautiful beaches, and great food, Hoi An is known for its silk and general made to order clothing racket. My father had some shirts made for him which provided us with some entertainment as groups of women measured his wing span and giggled about his Buddha belly (a compliment!). Getting a pair of knock off shoes also comes highly recommended -- I now have a pair of sea foam nike high tops waiting for me at home.

As my father fancies himself a culinary world connoisseur a la Anthony Bourdain, we spent extra time in the markets where women would be selling the seafood that they just caught on their boats tied up on the nearby riverbank -- fish heads and squid galore! We also saw sea cucumber (fresh and dried), shark fins (bad,bad!) and birds nests for the soup of the same namesake (almost as bad -- some special type of bird makes its nest from its saliva and is snatched up supposedly for its medicinal benefits). Speaking of medicinal remedies...seahorses along with deer penis AND testicles are a natural substitute for viagra. After a few days of longingly looking at the food stalls at said markets, my father joined the ranks of us "adventure travelers" who eat as the locals do while disregarding the less egregious food-sanitation issues. He ate more than Jess and I dared to -- spicy dried squid, nameless meat on a stick, and shredded pig skin to name a few.

From Saigon we took a day trip to the Mekong Delta -- we chugged along on a long boat and observed the pace of life on the river which is based around fishing and the ever-present rice paddies. Just for clarification, people really do wear the conical straw hats here, or Non La as I just learned its called, including us (on occasion). They really are perfect for keeping the sun out of your face and are lightweight and roomy enough for the hatphobic amongst us.

Before coming to Vietnam, we were a little wary of the reception of US citizens here and frankly our own reactions to being in a country with whom the US has such a notorious history. Relations between the two nations were "normalized" only 10 years ago and we, like many others, conjured up images of Apocalypse Now, war protests, and napalm-ed straw huts when we thought of Vietnam. Just like in the States, there are a myriad of opinions on the purpose, outcome, and execution of the war (here, however, there is just the added aspect of the whole Communism thing that makes the retelling of events a bit "unique/unbalanced/Big Brother-ish", but overall we have been treated so kindly and have found the Vietnamese to be lovely people). Speaking of Communism -- it just doesn't work. Ideally, isn't the major benefit to be able to lift the poorest people up to a decent level of opportunity and quality of life? Little kids are putting the English they learn in school to use by selling packs of gum and cigarettes on the street at night when they should be doing schoolwork, thus receiving sub-standard marks which will not put them in contention to attend a decent school after the elementary level, finally putting them in a position to achieve very little in the professional world unless they have a lot of extra cash which is available only due to capitalist ventures. Are you seeing the cracks? I am. In large part thanks to my father the capitalist being here to influence our opinions, but it IS quite clear that the huge and rapid success that Vietnam has experienced in the last 10 years is thanks to capitalist investment. In other words, get yourself over to this incredible country and help ignite the revolution!