Vietnam - Part I (Guest Writer VICKY RATEAU)

Dear friends,

I've had severe writers' block for the past few weeks. Since I started my much needed vacation, I've written 1 journal entry, 5 or so relatively short emails, and 4 laundry lists. Just one week left in this glorious holiday and I'm beginning to come back to earth. I feel bad for not having finished a blog entry for my traveling partner Julio's blog before we left Vietnam but it wasn't for lack of trying. I kept getting diverted by french pastries, Vietnamese ca phe (coffee), and the yummy food. But here I go... blog entry for the unitiated. (Note, I'm doing double duty since I've been silent for so long. I'm sending this email to friends and family, too, to reassure them I'm still alive and having a blast.)

First to reassure all of Julio's loved ones with what is probably first on their mind -- Julio is doing alright. I would have been really worried having gotten his "Hitting a wall" email after four months of travel, as you probably were, but I got to witness and take part in his/our processing and working through emotions, needs, and thoughts so I can reassure all who share the love for Jules that he's okay. I have to say I totally admire him for traveling for four months before hitting a wall. Getting up and starting something new in a new location every day is tiring. I hit a wall after three weeks of traveling and barely wanted to leave our air conditioned hotel room bed in Ho Chi Minh City. Seriously, for three nights and two days, I happily buried in our sheets -- with Julio for most of the time -- and watched sappy movies and the Golden Globes while the city and its inhabitents bustled outside and 5 million monuments and places awaited us. (We did emerge for coffee, french baguettes, pho, and meals at the same Kim's Cafe -- a hole in the wall that served delicious food one block away from our hotel.)

Ho Chi Minh City also marked the first time Julio and I were actually separated for more than a bathroom or shower break (Julio chose to walk home from a coffee shop across town while I hopped on a moto.) I think this is testimony to how much I've enjoyed every minute with him discovering Vietnam and experiencing my family and Cambodia in a new frame. For three weeks of new experiences, it's been really reassuring and fun to have Julio along for the ride. Each day involves new information, traveling to a new location using an unfamiliar medium or route, settling in a new "home", finding a new place to eat that is good, and in Cambodia, processing some new piece of information about my family. And, of course, this kind of travel involves processing "new" information about one's self.

I'm writing this email for both Julio's blog and for my own friends and family so, in this email, I also wanted give you my impressions, particularly of our adventures and travel through Vietnam, especially since we haven't written much about it. It was the first time I've been to this country and it's the first place I've gone where I don't speak the language. Julio and I met Hanoi -- a city I've fallen in love with. It's a totally magical city where old men continue the glamour of wearing 1930's hats and three piece suits, where the smell of coffee, freshly baked french breads, and hosed down streets fill the morning air, beautiful pagodas and temples greet you at every turn, delicious eats can be found every 100 feet, literally, and French, Chinese and regional architecture blend together even seeming beautiful when decaying. Cambodia for the first week (before Julio arrived) then Hanoi the second were a total trea t for all the senses. I admit that you have to work your way through the noise of millions of motos flying through the streets but once you do, this is a gorgeous and charming city. We did a lot of sight seeing in Hanoi, mostly to old communist haunts or commemorations of Ho Chi Minh or the "liberation" of Vietnam, ate green tangerine sorbet, spare ribs where the meat was so tender as to fall of the bone, the regional specialty cha ca, initiated Julio to his first bowl of morning pho (Vietnamese noodle soup), ate lots of Vietnamese subs, french baguettes, and tried one of each locally brewed bia (beer).

Did I mention this was as much a culinary tour as it was to learn about the politics and people of this communist country?

From Hanoi we traveled north to the Vietnam-China border and boarded a rebuilt fisherman's 'junk' boat for a three day cruise amidst misty, limestone islands. It was totally breathtaking and would have fulfilled my dream of visiting this area completely -- a dream I've had since watching Indochine in 1993 -- were it not for the cold that made Julio lovingly name this the "Artic cruise and both of us wear every layer of clothing we had. (But that didn't stop him from jumping into the salty water for a swim one day.)

Er, I'm going to have to continue the stories of us traveling south, then to Cambodia, at a later time. Dinner calls.

Vicky

"Into the Woods to Find the Giant..."
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