▲ Flashing Like a Tubelight ▲: Việt Nam ✈ Hanoi & Ha Long Bay

First impressions on Vietnamese ground will certainly be remembered...

The passport control at the airport was everything but the severe communist treatment I had expected to get. A tiny Vietnamese officer in olive green uniform was napping in his chair when we approached customs and when he finally woke up from his beauty sleep he had the hardest time ever to peek over the window of his control point post as I handed over my visum. So far the funny officers, later that day I experienced how angry these tiny green men can get when a group of innocent old tourists are taking pictures inside Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. As the poor oldies probably didn't hear his order to stop photographing he started bawling so loud they must have thought the Vietnam war started all over again...

Besides this small demonstration of Vietnamese anger management (yes he finally could control his temper) I truly am amazed by the friendly Vietnamese people. I have no clue what it is they are telling me in an attempt of conversation but their expressions and gestures overrule by far every cliché of Asian kindness. We've been here for six days now but it feels like ages because we're hopping from one place to another heading south to Ho Chi Minh city (former Saigon). Here's an overview of our first days in this stupefying land of the dragon.

Hanoi

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Presidential Palace, One Pillar Pagoda

Temple Of Literature: ancient school of confucianism

The second day we left crazy Hanoi before all traffic hell broke lose direction "bay of the descending dragon." We took a two day boat trip and slept aboard between the misty scenery of Ha Long Bay and it's thousands of mini islands. Cliché, oh cliché but this was beyond doubt one of the most marvelous nature-created phenomena I've ever seen.