It’s early Sunday morning, November 5th, in Luang Prabang. Once during every extended journey I must get sick. I’m sure there’s a moral here—shorter trips or building a healthier me. This cold/flu thing started yesterday morning in Hanoi and is clinging to me as I move on to Laos. Go away, I say. But all the penicillin and zinc and Emergen-C I can hold aren’t quite doing the trick. And I have little mountains to climb and big elephants to ride—be gone with you tormenting bug.
Long story short—I do not have the energy to say any of the profound things there are to be said about Vietnam, traveling with Teresa, traveling while old, the city (Hanoi) versus the village (Luang Prabang), or the lonely sense of accomplishment of being a solo traveler. Coughing is making my brain tired.
Some mostly wordless picture albums to follow.
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How about around Hanoi-town to begin. Love this city…a place chock-full of fascinating buildings—from the traditionally elaborate of French days to the imaginative juxtapositions of practical and frivolous that contemporary life in an urban Asian environment puts before us. Hanoi has that grandest and most necessary of city features—a big park…with a lake…and walking walking walking space…and people doing the talking/exercising/dancing/chasing dogs and kids/napping/reading that great parks inspire, and some structures even light up at night for that fairyland moment we all need at the end of our day.
There’s also the fact the Hanoi is full of seriously good tasting food and good-looking people AND it is safe. Hear me! Safe. And don’t think for a minute people around the world are not taking note of the US problem with guns—they are.
Here are random photos from around a city you should absolutely visit. Enjoy. Hang out in. A mostly gun-free violence-free city. An extra-special place on my best-cities list.
Be back shortly with a park album.
