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23 March 2009

back from the mountains...

A little boy riding a buffalo in Son La province.

Our second-to-last night in Hanoi after three weeks on a motorbike trip in the Northern mountains; we drove back into Hanoi on Friday after a lazy day spent in Mai Chau (still one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen and possibly my favorite place in all of Vietnam) and have been immersed in packing and saying goodbye to Hanoi ever since. Photos may have to wait till after yet more traveling, but at any rate, the trip was amazing and the best way I can imagine to say goodbye to the country that's been my home for the last year. Will write more, if not particularly soon. For now, hen gap lai (see you again!). xxoo.

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25 February 2009

bay of the descending dragon

Tuesday marks a year since I landed in Vietnam; Iain, who has been here longer than me, had never been to Ha Long Bay, so we made a quick day trip out to the rainy, overcast bay last weekend . (PS, don't forget to cast your vote for Ha Long Bay as a natural wonder of the world).

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20 February 2009

Tet tree

Signs of life in the citadel (two weeks after Tet).

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19 February 2009

Up

In the citadel; Hanoi.

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18 February 2009

In the citadel

In honor of Tet, Hanoi's imperial citadel either opened it's doors (or possibly it keeps its doors open all year round and just didn't charge people to enter, or possibly changed absolutely none of its visitor policies and just put up a special Tet sign with Chuc Mung Nam Moi! written on it in big yellow letters; we couldn't tell and no one seemed to know for sure). At any rate, not being ones to miss an opportunity (of any kind, apparently), we investigated to find a clutter of abandonded buildings, some empty museum cases, an empty lot, and some scraggly trees. And lots of peeling yellow paint, which I had a nice time taking photos of, so not all was lost. Good to know.

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16 February 2009

Hoi An Bike

Two more weeks of work left!

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07 February 2009

Cai Be sunset

Tourist boats near the Cai Be floating market (which was closed for Tet, so, next time, hopefully).

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06 February 2009

Cai Be riverfront

My neurotic compulsion to turn everything into a narrative has been battling my even more neurotic aversion to posting haphazard photos that don't go together or that I don't think are particularly interesting, so I'm going to let the day-by-day retelling of the bike trip fall by the wayside and just post photos as I sort through them (in case you noticed, or care about that sort of thing. Hi, Maggie and Lenora and the other three people that read this!). At any rate, skipping ahead a few days, this is from the one town we visited that wasn't in any guidebook, and which was, by far, my favorite place in terms of scenery.

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05 February 2009

Mekong Delta Biketrip, Day Four: Tet Dragon!

Although we constantly heard drum music, we didn't see as many Tet festivities as we might have had we stayed put. Fortunatelly, we bumped into these guys after breakfast in Tra Vinh, and they followed me up the street dancing after they saw my camera. This may be one of the few photos where the little girl in the red isn't beating the living crap out of the taller boy with her fan.

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