3 weeks later...

Hello all,
We have spent the past 3 weeks enjoying Vietnam. We have had a wonderful time here. Tonight we are hopping on a bus with a plan to ride for 24 hours to reach the capital city of Laos.

We started our Vietnam experience in Ho Chi Minh city. With 8 million inhabitants owning 3.5 million motor bikes, rush hour is totally crazy. It is a good thing we had 5+ months experience stepping off the curb into chaos before we reached this city or else we probably would have spent the whole of our trip on one side of the street. I had to cringe and grab Carmen's arm every time he said "ok, come", leading us into a sea of havoc, with more motor bikes than I could ever count whizzing all around us. Carmen got a postcard depicting the madness, an aerial shot showing a street in rush hour traffic with hundreds of motorbikes in rows of 15-20 bikes across. Add people and rickshaws and a few other vehicles, and you get a lot of honking, a lot of craziness! There are a few traffic fatalities everyday in the city and it is no wonder why. It is the law to wear helmets, but for some (very odd) reason, children are exempt. They ride helmetless on the bikes with their parents.

The way people live is so interesting in this city. We stayed in a "neighborhood" with "streets" that were so close together a motorbike driving through would take up all the room avaiable. We were always having to push ourselves up against the walls of buildings to let others get by (for anyone who has been to the Starlite room in Edmonton, remember the alley to get to the door? yeah, the streets are about that wide.) That said, it is extremely clean, there are very few bad smells, and these close quarters give an amazing glimpse into daily life for these people. The houses do not have conventional doors just wide open fronts where you can see everything inside. When we walk through these streets, it is as though we are walking through rows and rows of over sized doll houses that people live in; we can see people cooking, napping, fixing shoes, watching TV, or whatever else... and anyone you make eye contact with greets you with a big smile.

In Vietnam eating is a public ordeal for almost everyone. You walk onto the main streets to find the "stalls" which look like they are set up for a kindergarden class, with rows of tiny little plastic tables and chairs. There you can eat very cheap, delicious, healthy food - mostly noodle soup with greens, baguettes, and THE MOST delicious coffee ever to grace the planet. But these people have got it straight. You don't have to decide between good coffee and good tea, because they always serve you both, whether you ask for it or not.

Carmen and I travelled north up the coast, eventually reaching Hanoi after about 2.5 weeks. All throughout the country we stayed at lovely cheap hotels, meeting very hospitable people. We saw many sights related to the Vietnamese war (here called the American War, due to the fact that the communist northerners actually "won"). We even crawled through tunnels that were dug out by the Viet Cong (VC) army in order to hide from the Americans. We were once again reminded of the horrors of war and were greatful to have the opportunity to see first hand how it changes the world for everyone. We took in sights of the Demilitarized zone (DMZ) and visited a site where the VC took out an American airfield, causing so much devastation for the soldiers situated there. We saw pictures of civilians that were injured or killed by the Americans. It was heartwrenching.

Driving through the countryside of Vietnam is a treat for the eyes. The lush green landscapes with floating ducks and rolling hills will stay in our minds forever. The deep blue ocean was gorgeous. There are no designated plots for graves and we saw thousands of grave sites scattered throughout the landscape - seemingly haphazardly placed since they were not aligned in rows; a mix of life and death everywhere.

Hanoi was a drab and dreary place (partly due to the changing weather - we hadn't seen clouds for the past six months), but I decided to make a great attempt to boost the economy by doing some serious shopping! Needless to say, my bags are only a LITTLE heavier now :). They have a beautiful lake in the middle of the city and delicious fruit cup stands, but that's about all we found that we liked here!

We took three days to cruise on the waters through Ha Long Bay- a definate highlight of the whole trip so far! Of all the beauty we've seen in Viet Nam, THIS takes the cake. Rolling through the glassy waters with thousands of mini islands scattered all around; fishermen's villages floating on the waters... it was very nice. Carmen and I got a chance to kayak through some of these waters, which was awesome. We both thought we would tip the boat but actually we did all right; we can't wait till we get another chance to kayak sometime. We met a LOT of tourists here, and people were surprised to find we've been travelling for over 6 months now. Actually we're pretty surprised too. We were able to give some reflections about the other countries we've visited and that felt good too.

Speaking of the other countries, we are very excited about a little dream that looks to be turning into a reality; we have been corresponding with a Christian NGO from Edmonton who has agreed to partner with us to lay the groundwork for an orphanage in Nepal... we are so happy something is coming of our encounter there. We are praying as they are working on a way to transfer the funding to Nepal, and then we will begin to work on some concrete plans to build there. Everyone involved is so happy with this! Who would have known this was going to happen? We certanly didn't!

Anyways, for the moment we are gearing up to travel into Laos. We are going to enjoy a few more hours of happy Vietnam before we hop on the 24 hour bus ride into the unknown (why exactly the journey will take 24 hrs. is part of that unknown - bumpy roads?!).

Thanks everyone who keeps in contact, it means more to us every day that we are away from you.

Love Marcie and Carmen.