CHINGLISH IS QUICKLY DISAPPEARING! / SEARCHING FOR A HOSPITAL!

One of my favorite things in China was to find amusing signs!! I called this Chinglish but obviously I didn’t invent the word back in 2004! So many other people use it! I always pictures some Chinese man or woman sitting in an office with a translating dictionary. Then word by word they were translating into English signs for stores, restaurants, national sites in China. I took many photos back when I was teaching here and would use them in my English class - asking the students to read the Chinese and translate what was meant. Many times I literally had NO IDEA what was meant! I’ve only seen a couple of signs on this trip, so obviously someone in the government has taken to corrections!

I heard (since I was here when China was preparing for the Olympics in Beijing) that the Univ. of Maryland was hired to have their students roam around Beijing and locate these signs so they could be changed in time for the games!! But things have changed around the country as well!

As I was searching for something else here in Shanghai, at the end of our trip, I came across this great blog/website that Heather someone does! She had lived in Shanghai for two years and posted the best of her Chinglish photos! So I thought I would just refer you to hers as there are some great ones!!

http://www.ferretingoutthefun.com/2013/12/04/best-chinglish-signs/

Our day today, Sunday, didn’t go as planned!! Betty has been sick, probably from eating something, for 3 days now - not able to keep anything in her system. So we decided to find a doctor/hospital here that might help out! She needs to be strong enough to fly home on Tuesday! The desk girls do not speak much English. However, they gave it their best shot. I had texted Ding (my Chinese doctor/friend from Yangzhou) to see if he had any recommendations. One of the problems is that it’s Sunday!! He gave me one name and number, I found a couple of others on the internet. The girls downstairs called these and usually there was a recording saying it was closed!! Finally they found one, gave us a slip with the name in Chinese as well as PinYin (this is the anglicized version of Mandarin so you can pronounce it) for a taxi driver to get us there. We headed out!

It was only a few blocks away and the driver dropped us and pointed. One office referred us around the corner to another office. NO ONE there spoke any English! We tried to pantomime (vomiting, diarrhea - what fun!!) and got lots of Chinese spewed back at us! I looked up Ding’s number from WeChat (I thought that was his phone). They tried calling but got someone else! When I looked back on my texts and got his real phone, they seemed to balk at calling long distance, when we said Yangzhou! At least I think that’s what they were saying! I think I’m beginning to understand Mandarin through osmosis!! :)

They wrote down the name and address of ANOTHER hospital (after calling I think to check if they were open) and we grabbed another taxi!!This was called the People’s Hospital (the sign was in English so that was promising!) The sign said Outpatients Floor 2.  No one was there but a young woman sent us back downstairs. She told us to follow this guy to an area of the hospital (there were at least 6 building! each numbered) designated for Foreigners! Here we found some English, and after a wait, a doctor to speak to Betty. She examined her then took blood to rule out a bacterial infection (that would require admittance to the hospital). After 20 minutes the results came back; no bacterial, but the doctor recommended Betty stay overnight and get rehydrated and some nutrition through IV. Betty agreed so I left her to be admitted and headed back to the hostel to get a book, and some toiletries for her. This area I was unfamiliar with and it took me over an hour, and a couple of misdirections before I got to the metro and home! It was now 1:30 pm and I hadn’t eaten!!! So had to stop at KFC and relaxed in the room with breakfast/lunch before heading back to the hospital. 

She was comfortably ensconced on the 2nd floor hooked up to an IV. She’d had pills for the nausea, liquid for the diarrhea and was getting fluids and nutrition through an IV - said she’d been through 2 bags already! The dr. had said she could drink fluids but nurses told her no! She was thirsty but so far had nothing! Since she has no cell phone, we have no way to communicate. I said I’d check at our hostel around 2 tomorrow to see if she’d been released; if not I’d head to the hospital. She COULD stay another night if needed as our flight home isn’t until 5:10 pm on Tuesday. So hopefully she will be revived and ready to go home!! It’s a LOONG flight if you’re not feeling well! Long anyway!!

LEAVING YANGZHOU - TUESDAY

On our last day we had packed our suitcases up and Ding carried them down all those 5 flights to the bicycle storage area. Thank goodness!! We had bought some treats in a box to give to Lily (when she stopped by on her way to work at 8:30 a.m.) and for Qin Hong. Lily had had 6 classes on Monday so we hadn’t seen her the day before. She is planning to visit New York this summer when Cecily is working at an internship there and then next summer when she is finished at Harvard Law and studying for the New York bar! (I’m remembering it took John Kennedy, Jr., at least twice to pass it!). Lily’s husband will also come and she said they will travel maybe to Michigan and Texas to visit friends on that trip. Cecily will then work in NY for a year and hopes to stay if she can get a work visa. If not, this law firm has a branch in Hong Kong for her to work in. If it were my daughter, I would be hoping for that - as it’s much closer for visits!

Qin Hong arrived just as Betty and I brought the rest of our things downstairs, with the school driver and a very comfortable car to take us across the Yangtze River on that new bridge (it was new when I was last here in 2011) to Zhenziang to catch the fast train to Shanghai. Last time I think it took us about 4 hours; this time only 1 hr. Things have sure sped up in China since my last visit.

Qin Hong had ordered our tickets on-line and she waited in the line to pick them up. then she insisted on waiting to see us on the train; literally, the guard let her walk us onto the train to our seats, and we were off!! It was a beautiful train car, packed, and sped through the countryside with only one stop before Shanghai Railway Station on the north. It had completely changed since last time! I remember there was a North Square exit and I used to stay at this cheap hotel called North Square; pretty dingy, no one spoke English! But it was convenient when I was in Shanghai. There was the ubiquitous KFC so we had lunch there before figuring out the subway system and getting to People’s Square, transferring to Line 2 and E. Nanjing Rd. and our Mingtown Nanjing Rd. Hostel. At one point no escalator and no elevator going down a long flight. A young man grabbed Betty’s bag and then mine and without a word ran them down!! Thank goodness!! I’ve already checked out that from our metro stop there is one of the 6 exits with an elevator so, next Tuesday, when we take Line 2 here all the way to Pudong Airport, we can get in, I hope, without carrying my two backpacks and HEAVY suitcase up or down any flights! Once we’re on the metro, there is no change, just a lot of stops to the airport. I had wanted to take the Maglev bullet train (it was new here in 2011, going straight to the airport, the only one in China! Now they are all over! I used to take the 5 hour train from Shanghai to Yangzhou and then on the weekends, the overnight 12 hour lovely sleeper train to Beijing, when I would visit Virginia! Now it’s a 5 hour from Shanghai straight like a bullet to Beijing! Amazing!!

Our hostel gave us a twin private room ensuite!! Hot water, heat, clean, elevator to the 4th floor! All we need!  The downstairs eating area is usually freezing and everyone keeps to themselves! No one is particularly friendly (we really miss the great Pickled Tea Hostel in Yangon, myanmar, and the Hanoi Old Town Hotel in Hanoi!! I even got an email from Long in Hanoi saying how much they miss us!! What hotel ever does that?! But the price is right! We’ve decided since we have 7 nights/days here we will spend the last night in the Mingtown Hostel in Hangzhou, where Betty attended an art class for 6 weeks back in the 90s and I’ve been before. We can store our luggage here overnight and go early Monday, spend the night/day sight-seeing there (beautiful West Lake, maybe rent bikes), spend the night and then come back to pick up our bag on the way to the airport Tuesday afternoon. Our Air Canada flight isn’t until 7:40 in the evening.

Betty headed out for a walk (she visited an Urban Planning museum down by People’s Square she said had a lot of info and photos, videos of old Shanghai) while I check out the elevator situation in our station. On the different way home I stopped for a foot and body massage!! Lovely for 90 minutes!! Relaxed I met Betty back here!

DAY ONE IN SHANGHAI

I got up early and Betty joined me to walk down to People’s Square - maybe 1/2 hr walk. This is the area where Joyce, Marilyn, Pat and I stayed in a hostel in 2011 but I couldn’t find it. I know we used one of the big hotels - there was a Marriott there but it wasn’t behind that! - as our skyline marker! We walked all around the square (this used to be where the British/Americans, etc. had a racecourse!). We passed the Shanghai Arts center but the box office was closed. I’ll go there later to get a ticket for Jane Eyre, a ballet, for Friday night, mainly so I can go inside the theater where I’ve never been!

We also passed the Shanghai Museum and we’ll check in later (it’s free!) as I remember it as so interesting! Nanjing Road is a long pedestrian mall from People’s Square several blocks down to the Huangpu River and the Bund, right at the Peace Hotel (formerly Cathay hotel, built by the Sassoon family, Baghdadi Jews who migrated here in the 19th century. We are signed up for a tour Thursday of this area. I never knew anything about Jewish history here and it’s highly recommended in TripAdviser. 

After breakfast at the hostel, we walked the other way to the Peace Hotel and looked around inside. There is a very old (95+ year old guys) who play jazz there and we listened a bit, got a map from Harrison the night manager, who thought we were staying there!, and took pictures inside. This, of course, was taken over by the Communist Party in 1949 along with all other private property in China! We walked along the Promenade, a raised very side walkway crowded with people taking photos, along the Huangpu River, looking over at the Pudong side, with its Pearl Tower, Financial center and huge skyline of high-rises! And the Bund, full of very British/German looking concrete buildings was all lit up, with its “Big Ben” chiming every 15 minutes or so! Very colorful! Spotted a Subway shop so will check that out later! 

Back at the hostel, we booked tickets for the Shanghai Centre acrobatics show down by the Ritz Carlton (I remember Jack always staying here when he was in Shanghai). After relaxing and having some dinner, we headed on the subway line out for the show. We were in the balcony, great view and it was a wonderful 1.5 hr long show! One guy in front of us was making himself very comfortable taking off his shoes AND HIS SOCKS! and sticking his bare foot next to the head of the guy in front of him! When another tour group came in to sit down in front of him, they made him move back away from people. He seemed to think it was funny!!

These athletes are amazing! spinning plates, piling on top of each other, balancing huge trays of glasses on their heads, feet, hands! One woman was literally folding herself in half, twisting around on a platform  while balancing these glass trays on all 4 appendages AND her mouth!! Just amazing! They do this show EVERY evening all year!! I know i’ve seen it at least once before at this theater but it never tires!!

In for another night!

ARRIVING IN YANGZHOU

Betty and I checked out the metro stations from our Bestay hotel to the Nanjing Train station to be sure we could use either an elevator or escalator with all our luggage. I couldn’t face lugging up or down staircases with two backpacks and my heavy suitcase. Looked good!

So off we set and arrived (I think there was ONE place where I had to go down a staircase - certainly better than UP! ) We had already bought our tickets. We went up to McDonalds on the balcony overlooking the station gates to have breakfast and observe how the system worked. There was a woman working at the gates and she would call out on a microphone the trains to line up for and slap a number of the train on a board where people should line up. The lighted board turned green when passengers should head out to the track. So another number would go up by the gate. The station was PACKED! with people going everywhere. 

Things went smoothly and we went through the gate when called and boarded our train for Yangzhou. I didn’t recognize the station when we got there. It had been newly built when I was teaching (2004-2005) and I frequently used it to take the overnight sleeper train to Beijing! I remember it being $50 or so round trip and taking 12 hours. But this station was much larger and buildings all around! There was nothing but countryside around in 2005. 

Lily was right at the gate when we exited. She called a cab and we headed into town (I didn’t recognize anything!) passing her college where she teaches English on the way in. When we arrived at Ding’s apartment, Wei Yuan his wife was there waiting for us. She carried Betty’s suitcase up the 6 flights (9 x 9 steps plus the first 14 steps = 95 steps!!) up to their top floor apartment. I had packed what I needed into my backpack so left my suitcase in their bicycle storage area at the bottom. Ding carried it up later!! Strong guy!!

After Wei Yuan showed us around the apartment, we headed off with Lily on our bicycles to GeYuan - the Bamboo gardens nearby. I remember this from my visit in 2011 when she took us. This was the home of a wealthy merchant and had 4 gardens, one for each season. The winter one had stones/rocks with lots of white streaks, representing ice and snow, on them. There was a study building up high on the rocks with a steep stairway; she said that was to represent the hard road to knowledge. There were a lot of cats roaming around in and out of the rocks. 

Our exit out the back was onto Dongguan Street, a street with many shops for tourists. Saw an artist making/painting rectangular wall hangings with people’s name and other symbols (happiness, wealth, etc.) on them. I wanted to go back and get one but missed the opportunity. Maybe I can find a similar guy in Shanghai. We’ll have lots of days there at the end. 

We went back for our bicycles and headed through crazy traffic down towards HuaHai Lu (the road my former school is on; I recognized it when we got near) and turned right to a mall near the Metropole Hotel where I remember Jack hosting a banquet with Ding’s parents and others when he visited mid-year. I was so delighted to finally see Qin Hong - after 6 years. We had a lovely dinner and then biked back to our apartment (Ding’s - he doesn’t live there; it was bought for his son so he will be able to go to school in Yangzhou. It’s brand new! He just finished completely renovating it in the fall after he came home. But they all live in the other 4th floor apartment (where I stayed in 2011) with his parents, wife and son. We nestled in this great place for the night!!

MALAYSIA SO FAR!

This is what I’ve learned so far! Malaysia was a colony of the British and became independent in 1957. At that time Singapore was part (it’s on the tip of the peninsula) but Kim said the leader, Lee (someone) - he was Chinese - was VERY strong! The rest of Malaysia offered Singapore, a huge Asian port, to be a city/state and it did! and has stayed that way! 

In Malaysia, it seems much more modern and upscale than Indonesia/Bali. KL started with tin mining, in 1857,  which Kim said involves a lot of sand, excavating, and straining when the tin falls beneath the sand. There is a lot of MUD resulting from this mining,  Kuala Lumpur literally means, in Malay, “muddy confluence,” of Klang and Gombak rivers. Now not much tin mining is done. We noticed as we landed huge fields of what looked like palm trees. Turns out palm oil is one of this country’s main products. They also produce rubber and oil - like gasoline. 

Malacca on the coast was a major stop along the “Spice Route.” Magellan stopped here (we learned about this in the Asian Museum in Singapore) and he picked up a Malay slave Enrique Malacca, who ended up actually sailing completely around the world (Magellan was killed along the way and never completed the circumnavigation). So now it’s a UNESCO World Heritage site and supposed to be historically interesting. 

Kim took us downtown yesterday to see the sights of KL. Mainly we parked under the shopping mall at the base of the major tourist sight - the Petronas Twin Towers and Park. Built in 1998, they once were the tallest buildings in the world at 452 meters and 88 stories. There is a skybridge gaining them at the 41st and 42nd floors but we just took photos from outside in the lovely courtyard with a musical fountain (wasn’t running; being worked on). 

The other site we drove through was “Chinatown” but it wasn’t too impressive. We were looking for some “shophouses” that used to be wooden, but after a huge fire, I’m guessing there were shops on the ground floor and then the family house was on top. There are still some stone ones we saw. Kim pulled over and we got out for a few pictures. We also passed a few old looking temples. But really not too special.

Back at Kim’s house, we met Mabel, his 20-something daughter who was graduating the next day with a mechanical engineering. She had been doing an internship in Alaska when her class graduated so this was a make-up one for her. Mom and she were buying and arranging flowers for the ceremony. Picking up Jackson and Esther, we all went out to EAT MORE!!! Betty and I were still full from lunch. But we managed to eat some! I don’t think people in Malaysia cook! They have all these side of the road restaurants that are constantly filled. I think they cook so many dishes for each meal, it wouldn’t make sense to cook at home. You’d be preparing all day!! So they only cook special dishes for special occasions, is my impression. The kitchens we’ve seen aren’t very big. 

The next day, after a good night’s sleep at their lovely home, Kim took us to the bus station, where we were catching a bus for 2 hours down to Melaka on the coast - a UNESCO heritage site. This was a very important port on the spice route - along the Straits of Malacca. However, when we arrived and where Kim’s GPS said the bus station was, not too far from his home, it was under construction with no sign of where the current station had been temporarily moved! After many stops to ask people, and driving kind of in circles, we arrived at 9:15 - just when the bus was to leave!! He ran in to pick up our online ordered tickets; we stood by the bus so it wouldn’t leave without us; finally off we went!! Don’t like those last minute things when I travel! No one’s fault; I just get my adrenaline running! I knew the next bus didn’t leave until 1. Kim had to get home for the graduation. So we’d be sitting there for 4 hot, boring hours!! But all was well; we had a smooth ride there. Then found a taxi to our hotel - in a Buddhist and Taoist temple!!!

VIETNAM - 3/3 OUR ARRIVAL IN HANOI

We stayed overnight in kind of a dumpy hotel at the airport - Airport Inn as opposed to the first place we arrive by taxi - Airport Hotel.  They struggled to find our reservation on Agoda.  We all finally figured out there was an Airport Inn - another taxi ride back aways towards the airport. For the $20 price it was okay. And we were able to walk to the terminal the next morning after breakfast. UNFORTUNATELY it was the domestic terminal where we had arrived from Mandalay. And we were flying INTERNATIONAL to Vietnam!! There was a shuttle bus we took to the right terminal.

Emirates Airways was a great flight to Hanoi! They even gave us lunch!! And I had a row to myself so it was a very comfortable flight. I watched LaLaLand and saw most of it (it was only about an hour and a half flight over part of Thailand, Laos and then the hills of Vietnam. 

It’s about an hour taxi ride to our hotel in the old section of Hanoi (where Doug had recommended I stay). VERY nice hotel!! Long, a 20 something young man seemed to be the greeter and sat us down with tea/coffee and showed us things on a map - especially food places! Food is a big deal here - as it has been in ALL of Asia!! They eat constantly!! And the Vietnamese are no exception. 

After settling in our room, I was anxious to see if I had heard from Doug’s nun friend who was traveling the same day from Plum Village to Hanoi to visit family for a few days and then on to Bangkok. Thay is in Bangkok and the ordination ceremony was going to be there - maybe she’s going for that! Anyway, he had asked her to contact me and maybe put me in touch with some sangha members here! So for the first couple of days I kept pretty close to the hotel and checked email frequently. Finally heard from her on Sunday. We had already booked a two day/one night sail on HaLong Bay among the karsts. So we’ll catch up on Tuesday evening or Weds. 

Outside our hotel around the corner starting on Friday evening and through the weekend is the Night Market. We walked through that to look at the offerings. Maybe about 8 blocks from our hotel is Hoan Kiem Lake - Lake of the Restored Sword. It seems the center of activities in Old Town. The next morning we walked it around 6 a.m. and everywhere people were out exercising, just like they do in the early morning in China. Badminton, tai chi, all kinds of exercise groups and singles doing their own thing! Even a group doing the Macarena! On Sunday the roads are blocked off from traffic and people were out with their kids, riding bikes, hover boards, roller blades, groups playing hackensack with a feather object and weight, all kinds of fun things! 

It was our first meal in Hanoi so we went to a restaurant that Long recommended where you could get a variety of dishes rather than one specialty. We sat at a table with a Chinese couple from Malaysia and their tour guide. We soon were sharing food, grandchildren pictures and taking group pictures! It was Betty’s birthday so they helped celebrate with us. The next day Long showed up in our room midday with a small chocolate cake with a candle for her! We all shared it! It was a special treat!! What a host he is!! Very good at his job!!

Saturday Betty went off to the “Hanoi Hilton” - what’s left of a prison where John McCain was the most famous guest. I looked up later and there is a monument where he crash landed into a lake west of here, was dragged, with a broken leg and two broken arms out of the lake, when he almost drowned, and then beaten by angry N. Vietnamese who had been bombing targets. He then was held in the prison for 5+ years! I passed on this visit! Later we both went to the Vietnamese Women’s Museum - in an old French building. The French lost this colony in 1954 at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu - and France withdrew from Indo China. American advisers had gotten involved even back then trying to help the French. Americans were worried about the influence of Russia and China, both Communist, taking over here. So this must have been back in Truman’s time (during Korean War) and then on into Eisenhower years. This fiasco was passed on to Kennedy and then cost poor Johnson a second term. The whole thing seemed such a disaster. Having visited in 2005 in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) the Cu Chi tunnels, I came to the conclusion that we NEVER could have won this war!! What a waste of young men! And Vietnamese north and south! And so many civilians! and the country napalmed, bombed, strafed! By 1973 223,748 S. Vietnamese soldiers were killed in action, N. Vietnamese and VC fatalities are estimated at one million, about 4 million civilians (10% of the Vietnamese population were injured or killed and 58,183 American soldiers including two of my Ames classmates, Jamie Merrick and Larry Black!! Such a waste! And for what!!? Got a list of movies and books about all this to read when I get home! 

Now Hanoi is thriving! They are such a resilient people! Back many centuries their leaders defeated the Chinese many times! They pushed back the Khmer and Cham from Cambodia/Laos areas! They will resist!!

Now they are on an economic upturn. In 1994 US lifted its embargo and diplomatic relations resumed. Trade and tourism are booming! We haven’t met so many Americans here but many Germans and other Europeans traveling around! Lots of trekking opportunities. 

More later!

MARCH 17 TRANSPORTATION

We are on our first train trip - from Nanjing to Yangzhou - just about 50 minutes! Lily, parent of my “Chinese daughter” Cecily who was my student in 2004/2005 in 11th grade, and is now at Harvard Law School, is picking us up at the station. I tutored Cecily when I was here for an English Speaking Contest in Nanjing. That was the last time I remember staying here in Nanjing.  Cecily performed really well; gave a talk about wanting to become a journalist in her future. In 2011 when I saw her in Beijing, she was a broadcaster working for CCTV! Now who knows what she will do in the future!!

Qin Hong, who was my “handler” the year I taught in Yangzhou, has a class this afternoon so I will see her tonight. We will stay at Ding and Wei Yuan’s apartment (6 flights, no lift!!) I think I will leave my suitcase in the ground floor storage unit!!

Anyway, the train station here looks brand new, is huge!! We checked it out yesterday to be sure we could come by metro with our suitcases, with elevators and escalators! I still had to do ONE staircase, fortunately going down, carrying my bag! The trains have very comfortable seats, like airplane, 3 across on one side and two across on the other. It looks like we will be the first stop. It all was pretty clear how to line up, go through the gate and get to the train. 

I remember my first train trip to Shanghai in 2004, after I’d been here a month. I went to meet up with Aaron and Marlo. On my way back, I had to change trains in Nanjing. The station was very old, small, and I saw not a single foreigner (saw no foreigners in this HUGE station today either!) In 2004 I saw not a single sign in English in all the windows, didn’t know which window to line up behind and felt totally lost! All of a sudden this monk approached me and spoke in English, asking if I needed help! I was so relieved and grateful! He went up to the window with me and got me the right ticket and showed me the right gate/platform to go to. When I turned around to thank him and possibly buy him some fruit or SOMETHING, he had vanished! I looked all over the station to try and find him and he was just gone!! 

We rode the Metro in Nanjing yesterday and today to get around. We also rode not a subway but a train system, light rail I guess it’s called, around Singapore. We will probably take a train, maybe the fast “bullet” train from Yangzhou to Shanghai on Tuesday for our last leg of the trip.

We’ve had many taxi rides - in Qatar, Myanmar, and elsewhere. There have been several car rides with Kim Tan and Kai Li in Malaysia, friends of Doug’s. We even did an Uber ride out and back in Hanoi to visit one of the sisters from Plum Village who was from Hanoi and we had tea with her. 

Also in Hanoi we rode on the back of a motorbike, GRAB BIKE it’s called! Long called the cycles for us! We held on and drove about 7 km out to the Ethnology Museum there, just for the experience!! Lots of fun!

Then there was the boat on HaLong Bay that we were on for two days and one night! And a tour van for 4 hours to get from Hanoi to the Bay and back. That was lovely!

In Bagan in Myanmar, we hired MinMin and his horse Lucky and a cart to spend the day driving around the ruins of hundreds of temples and pagodas (think Angkor Wat) in the hot sun! We even had to buy Lucky some oats for lunch when we took our lunch break! It was shady in the cart and very relaxing! Other people rode bicycles or bikes, but they look very HOT!! Or the air conditioned tour buses. I liked our option! MinMin said, however, that the horse and carts are going by the wayside - not too many hires!!

In Qatar we went out to a camel track to watch them train the racing camels but we didn’t RIDE one! I really wanted to rent a bike and bike the Xi’an Wall but it was pouring rain both days we were there so that didn’t happen. But Ding has two bikes waiting for us in Yangzhou. I LOVED biking around Y. early in the morning before my classes when there was little traffic. And I biked a LOT in Beijing when I would go up and visit Virginia. I’d get there on Friday at 6 a.m. and she always had class during the day. So I would leave my bag at the bike rental and wander on my bike through the hutongs, windy streets around and near the Forbidden City. That was one of my favorite things to do!!

Oh, I forgot we’ve had 12 air flights of varying lengths so far on this trip; two more - from Pudong in Shanghai to Toronto and then Toronto to Boston on Air Canada on 3/28. Then HOME!!! Yea!!

That’s all for now!

VIETNAM - 3/3 OUR ARRIVAL IN HANOI

We stayed overnight in kind of a dumpy hotel at the airport - Airport Inn as opposed to the first place we arrive by taxi - Airport Hotel.  They struggled to find our reservation on Agoda.  We all finally figured out there was an Airport Inn - another taxi ride back aways towards the airport. For the $20 price it was okay. And we were able to walk to the terminal the next morning after breakfast. UNFORTUNATELY it was the domestic terminal where we had arrived from Mandalay. And we were flying INTERNATIONAL to Vietnam!! There was a shuttle bus we took to the right terminal.

Emirates Airways was a great flight to Hanoi! They even gave us lunch!! And I had a row to myself so it was a very comfortable flight. I watched LaLaLand and saw most of it (it was only about an hour and a half flight over part of Thailand, Laos and then the hills of Vietnam. 

It’s about an hour taxi ride to our hotel in the old section of Hanoi (where Doug had recommended I stay). VERY nice hotel!! Long, a 20 something young man seemed to be the greeter and sat us down with tea/coffee and showed us things on a map - especially food places! Food is a big deal here - as it has been in ALL of Asia!! They eat constantly!! And the Vietnamese are no exception. 

WATCHING our pizza get made at 4Ps Pizza - amazing!! and delicious!

Presentation of Betty's breakfast at Hanoi Old Town Hotel

Bonzai tree in temple

Another one

Was surprised at Catholic presence here.

Ethnic costumes in Vietnam Women's Museum

More costumes of ethnic groups

We need one of these Women's Museums in D.C.

Absolutely PACKED to the outside steps Sunday Mass at St. Joseph's Catholic cathedral

Dogs are all dressed in these cute little sweaters! It's NOT cold here!

After settling in our room, I was anxious to see if I had heard from Doug’s nun friend who was traveling the same day from Plum Village to Hanoi to visit family for a few days and then on to Bangkok. Thay is in Bangkok and the ordination ceremony was going to be there - maybe she’s going for that! Anyway, he had asked her to contact me and maybe put me in touch with some sangha members here! So for the first couple of days I kept pretty close to the hotel and checked email frequently. Finally heard from her on Sunday. We had already booked a two day/one night sail on HaLong Bay among the karsts. So we’ll catch up on Tuesday evening or Weds. 

Outside our hotel around the corner starting on Friday evening and through the weekend is the Night Market. We walked through that to look at the offerings. Maybe about 8 blocks from our hotel is Hoan Kiem Lake - Lake of the Restored Sword. It seems the center of activities in Old Town. The next morning we walked it around 6 a.m. and everywhere people were out exercising, just like they do in the early morning in China. Badminton, tai chi, all kinds of exercise groups and singles doing their own thing! Even a group doing the Macarena! On Sunday the roads are blocked off from traffic and people were out with their kids, riding bikes, hover boards, roller blades, groups playing hackensack with a feather object and weight, all kinds of fun things! 

It was our first meal in Hanoi so we went to a restaurant that Long recommended where you could get a variety of dishes rather than one specialty. We sat at a table with a Chinese couple from Malaysia and their tour guide. We soon were sharing food, grandchildren pictures and taking group pictures! It was Betty’s birthday so they helped celebrate with us. The next day Long showed up in our room midday with a small chocolate cake with a candle for her! We all shared it! It was a special treat!! What a host he is!! Very good at his job!!

Saturday Betty went off to the “Hanoi Hilton” - what’s left of a prison where John McCain was the most famous guest. I looked up later and there is a monument where he crash landed into a lake west of here, was dragged, with a broken leg and two broken arms out of the lake, when he almost drowned, and then beaten by angry N. Vietnamese who had been bombing targets. He then was held in the prison for 5+ years! I passed on this visit! Later we both went to the Vietnamese Women’s Museum - in an old French building. The French lost this colony in 1954 at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu - and France withdrew from Indo China. American advisers had gotten involved even back then trying to help the French. Americans were worried about the influence of Russia and China, both Communist, taking over here. So this must have been back in Truman’s time (during Korean War) and then on into Eisenhower years. This fiasco was passed on to Kennedy and then cost poor Johnson a second term. The whole thing seemed such a disaster. Having visited in 2005 in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) the Cu Chi tunnels, I came to the conclusion that we NEVER could have won this war!! What a waste of young men! And Vietnamese north and south! And so many civilians! and the country napalmed, bombed, strafed! By 1973 223,748 S. Vietnamese soldiers were killed in action, N. Vietnamese and VC fatalities are estimated at one million, about 4 million civilians (10% of the Vietnamese population were injured or killed and 58,183 American soldiers including two of my Ames classmates, Jamie Merrick and Larry Black!! Such a waste! And for what!!? Got a list of movies and books about all this to read when I get home! 

Now Hanoi is thriving! They are such a resilient people! Back many centuries their leaders defeated the Chinese many times! They pushed back the Khmer and Cham from Cambodia/Laos areas! They will resist!!

Now they are on an economic upturn. In 1994 US lifted its embargo and diplomatic relations resumed. Trade and tourism are booming! We haven’t met so many Americans here but many Germans and other Europeans traveling around! Lots of trekking opportunities. 

More later!