Also, here is a video of what it's like to walk around Vietnam.
Location:Yên Thái,Hanoi,Vietnam
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Independence Day
Did you know vietnam's Independence Day is September 2? It's. True! We just celebrated it's 65th anniversary and there were fireworks.
Also, here is a video of what it's like to walk around Vietnam.
Also, here is a video of what it's like to walk around Vietnam.
Perfume Pagoda
Yeah I finally got some appropriate headgear.
Today was perfume pagoda day.* Cyrus recommended it at our fortuitous meeting in the Ho Chi Minh/Saigon airport (I embarrassingly forgot they were one and the same city and said something stupid about it, but no one picked up on my error).
Anyway.
Perfume pagoda is a trek away from Hanoi. To get there, one takes a two hour bus. Our bus was special in that there was a woman sitting in front of us who vomitted every five minutes. Then then an hour canoe ride through what I called the Mekong Delta but which was actually some other river. They were rowed by very strong women, who take people back and forth all day for a pitiful wage.
We were so fat that we almost sank the ship. Our guide says the boats fit six Vietnamese or four Americans. This one barely fit three!
Still, as you can see, we enjoyed being there. Lots of great scenery along the river that I used my other camera to capture. There were even river people who spend their whole lives along the banks of the river!
Once we arrived at our destination, we came to what was essentially a strip mall of bedraggled locals who subsist of of selling tourists useless trinkets. I say strip malls metaphorically - these were shanties or even just sheets covering up a small enclosure. There were plucked chickens running everywhere, and emaciated dogs.
Fortunately, we got to eat some fairly gross local food instead of roasting our own chicken.
Then we took a cable car through the rain forest!
However, then I started using my real camera for a while so there's no real documentation of the actual pagoda. It was in a cave and smelled of perfume. Pretty cool.
Lastly, we saw a caged monkey which was pretty sad. Here's a video.
When we got home, danielle's friend Valerie will be joining us. We know very little about her but have decided that she is a lesbian bc she went bryn mawr.
*note: this actually took place last Thursday but I'm blogging about it today.
Today was perfume pagoda day.* Cyrus recommended it at our fortuitous meeting in the Ho Chi Minh/Saigon airport (I embarrassingly forgot they were one and the same city and said something stupid about it, but no one picked up on my error).
Anyway.
Perfume pagoda is a trek away from Hanoi. To get there, one takes a two hour bus. Our bus was special in that there was a woman sitting in front of us who vomitted every five minutes. Then then an hour canoe ride through what I called the Mekong Delta but which was actually some other river. They were rowed by very strong women, who take people back and forth all day for a pitiful wage.
We were so fat that we almost sank the ship. Our guide says the boats fit six Vietnamese or four Americans. This one barely fit three!
Still, as you can see, we enjoyed being there. Lots of great scenery along the river that I used my other camera to capture. There were even river people who spend their whole lives along the banks of the river!
Once we arrived at our destination, we came to what was essentially a strip mall of bedraggled locals who subsist of of selling tourists useless trinkets. I say strip malls metaphorically - these were shanties or even just sheets covering up a small enclosure. There were plucked chickens running everywhere, and emaciated dogs.
Fortunately, we got to eat some fairly gross local food instead of roasting our own chicken.
Then we took a cable car through the rain forest!
However, then I started using my real camera for a while so there's no real documentation of the actual pagoda. It was in a cave and smelled of perfume. Pretty cool.
Lastly, we saw a caged monkey which was pretty sad. Here's a video.
When we got home, danielle's friend Valerie will be joining us. We know very little about her but have decided that she is a lesbian bc she went bryn mawr.
*note: this actually took place last Thursday but I'm blogging about it today.
Location:4D,,Vietnam
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)