Hanoise

Weather in Hanoi is like the spring we missed by going straight from a New England winter to a Mekong Delta summer. It is damp here, and the raw garlic in vinegar found on street food tables serves to ward off sicknesses. I've had a cold myself for the past week, so here's hoping it works. I've stopped taking Malarone because there is no risk of malaria and I'm sick of feeling dizzy and dreaming about impossible surgeries - that stuff is not fun.

I'm sitting downstairs in my hotel with a finger of Laphroaig, having spent the day mainlining Northern Vietnamese culture. The internet is slow, enough for me to learn that Mr. Boner has finally let the President get back to making progress. It would have been interesting to have the government shutdown, but I think the satisfaction of having it be the 'Republican's fault' wouldn't really be worth the hit to the economy. I'm talking up my ass - I don't know enough about these things and I'm literally as far away from the US as I can geographically be, but it feels righteous to (attempt to) be a good global citizen.

I won't be able to write everything I should about our river excursion, but I'll get out the basics: His Excellency Tana is the head of the River Guard, an organization he modeled after teh US Coast Guard, and his mission is to protect the rare river dolphins while bringing rural villages out of poverty. He is incredibly charismatic, good-hearted and smart, and he has really changed the lives of many people living along the river. Our first evening was spent in the fledgling eco-tourism town that he is working with. I say fledgling because it isn't open to the public yet - we only get in because Andrew (our professor) and His Excellency are tight. So the village cooked us a calf.

The 'God-Made Waterfalls' are only accessible by boat, and as we were in with the River Guard, we got to go swim in them. Incredible, so beautiful and fun, deep pools and water massages - wow. Really, so much swimming in general. We are far enough up the river that the water is completely clean and pure, and downright beautiful. We've been jumping off rocks, pole-vaulting into pools, and swimming with river dolphins. A mother and her calf came within 15 meters of us - outrageous. I've used up all my superlatives.

Chillin at a guard station with the kids of subsistence farmers, a water buffalo and her calf. Meg is the giant.

Another ecotourism venture: they build these platforms over the river, which has a cobblestone bottom, and tourists come to get a water massage, float around against the strong current, and picnic on the platforms. Families operate the platforms, which are deconstructed before each wet season and rebuilt when the water lowers again. As a side note, the tourists were exclusively domestic.

His Excellency likes music. And since the Khmer New Year is next week, he threw a party for his staff. So we partied with 300 Khmer, eating fantastic food, watching traditional dances, getting floral necklaces, and performing some American songs in exchange for Khmer songs. I sang John Mayer tunes on this stage, and we even repped the Downlow. This is in Cambodia, yo...

The Jah Rastafari bus  -  7 hours of bliss. MUCH better than other buses we've had. No AC, but the windows open, and that's all we need.

Meg, His most excellent Excellency, me and 'The Fat One'.

More photos to come, sure, and there are videos of us singing.I will post a link once my friend puts them up. As a halfway point token, here's the Picasa link with all of these photos in one place:

https://picasaweb.google.com/102280088994956631325/GordonGoesEast?authkey=Gv1sRgCKOZ2ovhnP2xwAE#

Peace