Day 2-ish

Here!! The city is beautiful. It is as if they built Hanoi and the jungle grew through it anyway. As you walk down the sidewalk, vines hang above you, as well as store overhangs. Huge, overgrown trees shade the street, and electricity and telephone lines are strung busily just underneath the leaves. The overgrown, lush, lit-up outdoor atmosphere feels like I'm living in some distant picturesque land (i am!!), or perhaps I'm walking around a movie set.
Vendors are everywhere. Storefronts overflow with goodies, hand-made bags and clothes, and religious paraphrenelia, such as buddha statues. (In fact, the stores selling religious shrines are almost blinding to look at in their splendor. Everything shines a bright gold color.)

There are many districts to the city, although I wouldn't be able to tell you where they are or what they are. I just notice things changing as we walk further down different streets. I did notice the more western district -- tons of western clothes, and food menus with western currency prices attached to the meals.However, a number of western clothing shops sprinkle the city. It is hard not to buy a lot of stuff here!

The only thing I am uncomfortable with so far in the city are some of the smells, but I can bear it!

Everything is cheap here - last night at dinner, beer costed 50 cents and dinner costed $2! Earlier in the day I bought a mini pineapple for 50 cents, and I sense that even that was a high price compared to what locals pay! We bargained her down from $2, though, so I was happy. (A mini pineapple looks just like a pineapple, but about the size of a mango! It is like the baby sister of regular pineapples).

The heat here is nothing compared to New York City in the summertime. (At least as I remember it!) The others in my group disagree, but if every day is like yesterday then I will be walking on sunshine! In New York, I remember the sun roasting through my body, and never getting a break from the heat. I also remember the sun reflecting off walls onto my body, and heat coming up from the vents. Here, sun does not reflect off the walls, and there are no vents spewing heat relentlessly from under you. Trees, branches, and store overhangs provide shade. Yes, it is quite humid, but I would rather be a little moist and warm than a sweating, crackled peanut of a tourist (without humidity)! We'll see how the next couple of days go - It is quite possible that I have spoken too soon and will look back upon this and laugh.

Today we go to Ha Long Bay. It promises to be a beautiful sight, and I can't wait! I think we go out on the water in some type of cool boat. Two years ago an entire group of UW students impromtu went skinny dipping in the middle of the day, in the middle of the bay, and apparently the tour guides found it quite amusing...we'll see if that happens. I'll check back in later!