one of the many overloaded motorbikes in Vietnam

I arrived in Hanoi International Airport at 10:30 am October 2.  I have returned to beloved Southeast Asia for 3 months for the purpose of setting up photo tours for 2010, to finish some unfinished “business” from my last trip and, naturally, to explore and adventure!  The rough itinerary this time around is 1 month in Vietnam, 4 days in Cambodia, 5 days in Borneo and 6 weeks in Bali.

As the shuttle drove the 45 minutes from the airport into central Hanoi, I had the odd sensation of being surrounded by sights that were simultaneously strange, foreign and comical yet as familiar to me as my own hand.  Returning to Vietnam felt in part like coming home, yet also otherworldly.  Many sights that had once greeted my eyes daily had slipped from my memory in the mere 6 months I’d been away … overloaded motorbikes; cows wandering freely in the busy interstate type roads; tall, skinny pastel colored houses with terra cotta tile roofs nestled amidst lush green palm and banana trees; vendors selling their wares in the middle of the busy interstate roads and motorbikes, motorbikes, motorbikes.

this xe om (motorbike taxi driver) clearly has not had business for a while as he's taking the most serious nap I've seen yet!

This surreal feeling of foreign familiarity continued as I settled back in to Vietnam and roamed the streets of Hanoi while waiting for my Indonesian visa to be ready. (Vietnam is the only country, to my knowledge, in Southeast Asia which requires you to turn over your passport to your hotel for the duration of your stay there.  Accordingly, until the Indonesian embassy returned my passport to me, I was unable to leave Hanoi as I would not be able to check into any other hotel.)  Memories of my previous 2 month stay in Vietnam earlier in the year flooded back:  the tiny plastic stools that serve as chairs at sidewalk food stalls, the strong bitter taste of the tea in the North (versus the smooth sweet nutty flavor of teas further South), the way the women wear high heels while driving motorbikes and the way xe om (motorbike taxi drivers) use their motos as lazyboys on the sidewalk in the middle of the afternoon when business is slow … it was all coming back to me and welcoming me back to Vietnam, one of my new favorite homes in the world.

a little girl coloring in the park Vietnam style

As I spent the next few days in Hanoi, I discovered new things I hadn’t seen before.  I discovered children “coloring” in the park by sprinkling colored powders onto sticky papers.  It’s kind of like “color by number” … they have a small picture of what their big picture should look like.  If, for example, the girl they’re coloring has a blue hat, they pull the strip of paper away from her hat to reveal a white sticky paper underneath.  They sprinkle blue powder on the sticky part and Voila! a blue hat!  Peel away the paper from her lips and sprinkle red and you have red lips.  Of course the smallest kids (or some might say the more creative ones) ignore their “goal picture” pull all their sticky covers off at once and end up with a colored page that looks nothing like the small picture they’re given.

a beautiful Vietnamese bride with her groom posing in front of the Hanoi Opera House

Also new to me, I saw brides and grooms having their photos made in front of the Hanoi Opera House.  The girls were stunning and were happy to let me take their photo as well.  “Chuc may man! (good luck)!” I wished them as I left.

the new Honda SH I'm not embarrassed to admit I covet

Lastly, I saw the new Honda SH … a spiffy looking motorbike released in March 2009, the month after I left Vietnam earlier in the year.  It seemed to have both the power and the baggage storing area I sought for my upcoming motorbike trip to the north.  Immediately, I had motorbike fever and began noticing every Honda SH that drove by me.  I quickly let that pipe dream go when I discovered that they were retailing in Vietnam for $8,000 new!  And from what I was told (and what I witnessed on the streets), the Vietnamese were lining up to buy them!  The very few second hand SH’s that were on the market were selling for about $5,000.   Apparently business was good in Vietnam  for so many people to own them.  I definitely had motorbike envy.  With more realistic expectations I began my own search for a motorbike to purchase ….

If you’d like to see more photos in and around Hanoi, check out the “Photos of Her Adventure” page of my blog.