The End of Our Continental Swing

**More photos on the way...my camera battery died**


We heard horror stories going into Vietnam about the relentless touts, street salesmen and cyclo-drivers that never allowed a moments rest. It's true that there is usually someone on your heels trying to sell something, but we really decided that after India, everything is relative. In fact, we've really enjoyed Vietnam and its friendly people.

We seem to get stuck in capital cities wherever we go, and Hanoi has been no exception. Luckily, the chaotic streets in this very old city make for an interesting vantage point into the lives of so many urban Vietnamese. Days wandering the streets are hot and sticky, the cafes pricey and trendy, and the Old Quarter with it's narrow streets and alleys is a bombardment of sights, smells and (very loud) sounds.

With about a week left in Vietnam we decided to spend the money for a slightly expensive overnight train to the northern town of Sapa--famous in Vietnam for it's tribal minority villages, their colorful textiles and the sprawling rice terraces that climb the green mountain valleys. Aside from the temperate climate it really was a nice place to see, and it was interesting to see the locals mixing their own culture with the very new 21st century version that has been crammed down their throats. As a result, their persistence and agressive tactics are surprising given that fact that most of the sellers are either 50-70 year old women, or 8-12 year old girls. Regardless, they really are adorable and hard to resist--but when you do resist they can turn nasty on you. eally though, we just wanted something to compare our India train experiences to, and that's the real reason we went to Sapa.

After we returned to Hanoi we immediately braved a public bus a few hours south to a place we had missed on the way in called Ninh Binh. The decision to go there was not made lightly as the last thing either of us wanted to do was deal with the crook taxi drivers required to get us to the station, encounter the henchmen who hang around pulic transportation stops, or just get on a bus in general. Yet, we decided to go for it--and after yelling at the taxi driver for unnecessarily driving us all over the city to get more money, then beating off the reaching hands of the people trying to get us on their bus, we headed to Ninh Binh.

The city itself was nothing special, but we rented a motorbike and cruised the beautiful countryside through the karst landscape, visiting a small National Park and a primate rescue center along the way. It also seems that the mosnsoon season has begun, and everywhere we go is starting to get heavy rain. In this motorcycle culture everyone rides their with a massive poncho that covers themselves and the whole bike--and nobody slows down when the rain starts.

So that's that. Vietnam is through--the last country on our tour of South East Asia. Yesterday afternoon we flew back to Thailand where we will spend our final 10 days. Strange to think that it's been three months since we were first here...back then we were saying how weird it would be to back in Bangkok, because that would mean the end of the trip. We'll see if we can get another wrap up post between now and the time we come home though. But don't tune out yet, we really are going to Canada where I'm sure there will be plenty more adventures.