We were in our first morning in Vietnam and we were all ready to explore this magnificent land. After a quick and early breakfast, we set out for Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage site. It will be a distance of 180+ kilometers from Hanoi, which is expected to take nearly 3.5 hours.
As our bus rolled out of the Old Quarter of Hanoi, we got a good glimpse into how life is, in Hanoi. There are far too many motorcycles, they outnumber cars by a significant multiple...
And there is life every where, I mean "life", there is an inexplicable liveliness on the streets, a big positive energy, smiles on people's faces as they move around on their bikes, or stop by for a streetside snack. That is the quintessential Hanoi we had come here to see...
And these bikes seem to come out of nowhere, like bees out of a hive...
As we move out of the Old Quarter, we observe modern developments, which really lack character, but I suppose, they would be extremely functional...
A cyclo or a rickshaw stand...
Today is Sunday, which why I suppose the roads do not have that kind of traffic Hanoi has a reputation for...
Finally, we are on the outskirts and we see some old buildings...
As we proceeded on a smooth expressway, we were given an interesting discourse about Hanoi and the country by our guide.
And what he told us made me exclaim "Man, I love this country!"
As we approached a pitstop on our journey to Ha Long Bay, he told us we could visit a "happy room", have a tea or coffee and buy some souvenirs. What the hell is a "happy room"?
And then what he let us in on his secret. They call toilets as happy rooms because you'd feel happy after visiting the loo...
I am sure a lot of us would agree with that, won't we after a long drive out of Hanoi?
The pitstop had a workshop where victims of Agent Orange made handicrafts. During the Vietnam War, the United States used chemical weapons here, one of which was Agent Orange, that as some estimates suggest, affected over 3 million people. And people were scarred for life, their kids had birth defects.
This workshop serves to rehabilitate them. And despite their special conditions, they all seemed happy, they all seemed positive.
And that made me wonder, the country had been scarred for generations in the aftermath of their war with the United States. Why don't the Vietnamese harbour a sense of anger and angst for the Yankees? Why don't they have terror camps, and go about blowing themselves up? What made them move from a state of abject despair to one of the most dynamic countries in the region in just about 40 years?
Is it all about the spirit of the people here?
Perhaps, we need to think about that, think about that real hard...
Some of the souvenirs made by the people here, and these were incredible!
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