Our short visit to Vietnam couldn't have gone better. We saw a little of the whirlwind of Ho Chi Minh City. Experienced the typical touristy jaunt to the Mekong Delta. Cruised around Ha Long Bay for a few days. Felt the chilly, dreary weather of Hanoi. Then made our way back to the south and back over to Cambodia. It's was neat to see the similarities and differences (mostly the latter) between the two countries, but we'll save that for another time...just to say that our initial feelings of infatuation with the country were outweighed by the end of the visit with hankerings for home (Cambodia). But it was good.
For now, here's a couple photos of the sights we saw:
(Below: Proof that they truely did run the Saigon Marathon in bare feet;
really, there's no need for that.)
(Below: The zoo. If you're an animal lover, it's a great place to avoid;
if you're an animal, be thankful...we've seen worse.)
The Mekong Delta. Despite the kitsch, it's a must-see for any visitor to the area. For $9, you get a day-long tour including transportation in a bus, a motor boat, a paddle boat, and a donkey-drawn wagon. You get to try seafood (at your own risk), noodle plates, and fresh fruit. You walk among banana and palm trees to see the process at a local cavity-causing coconut candy outfit. And you get to rock with a few locals as they perform their traditional music (I'd say they have Cambodia beat on this one). To top it all off, you have a chance to wrap a ridiculously large python around your neck. Any takers? 
(Note: The order that these two shots appear is true to the sequence of events as they occured in real time...just for the record)
In HCMC we found a cheap flight and caught a plane up to Hanoi, where we spent a damp, disoriented evening finding a place to hang our hat for the night. The next day, bright and early, we began a three-day tour around Ha Long Bay. There's reason why it's a World Heritage Site, though it could do without the hundreds of tour boats; ah well, it's hard to find one without the other, I suppose. Bottom line: it's beautiful! Our tour included sleeping aboard a Chinese junk boat (it took me the longest time to realize people weren't just being boorish when referring to them), trekking through massive caves, doing a short trek up a mountain, and kayaking about lagoons.
(Above: Vendors would paddle up to our boat offering us fruits, cookies, cigarettes, etc.)
(Below: To our dads: you would have hated this part. Atop the mountain we climbed there was a huge rust-ridden metal look-out tower. The sign at the bottom of the tower, "Maximum 5 people" didn't give much reassurance, but if you made it to the top, it held a fabulous view)
From there it was back to HCMC for another few days, and then a 6-hour bus ride home. Again, if you get a chance, go.
To Minnesota: we missed you, Charlie!
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