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Maybe not Gordon's last trip
On this morning into Hanoi. What an amazing contradiction of a city. Central lake with cool breezes, chilled coffee and jazz playing from speakers at the water\side.
And the music in the bars and cafes is Bread!!!!!! seems like the world here got caught up with the departing US when they left the country in the late sixties.
I can't be sure anymore if I am being robbed when I pay for something as I have come from rupees, through baht to dhong in just five days so when a smiling faced lady asks me for 150,000 (something or other) for something or other I kinda mumble Kamun (thank you in Vietnamese to those who doubt my considerable linguistic powers) and wander off until I can check my wallet and my grasp of the situation. Met a charming young American woman who is doing a thesis on the impact of Agent Orange on the Vietnamese people. Brought the whole question of "what was the was for" into sharp perspective. Irony again, she has been told that most of the team looking into the matter of dioxin poisoning at the Vietnamese end have now moved on to deal with Avian Flu!!
Haven't touched a live chicken myself but have been eating my way through the seafood of South East Asia - prawn, lobster, squid, crab, pomfret, kingfish........nothing is safe on a plate.
Off tomorrow to Sapa in the mountains north of Hanoi............where they say the weather is often wet and a little cold at night so just as well I packed the fleece and anorak. Looking forward to the local markets though, even if I don't have an inch of space to spare in my bulging rucksack. It is all those damned pairs of shoes and boots!
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