Vietnam

The organised tour is over. It dribbled to a halt, really, with Ed and Sam getting off at Vientiane, and Izzy and Marla heading off early yesterday morning and Voo later. Actually, the last few days were a bit strange, since we spent two whole days in a bus getting to Hanoi and only a day there.

Only Rae, Matt and I are still in Vietnam. Rae is staying in Hanoi to begin another tour, and Matt and I decided to head for the hills. We took the sleeper train last night to Lao Cai and then a minibus this morning to Sapa, which is not far from the Chinese border at about 1600 metres up. Formerly a French hill station, it was beaten up during the short war with China in 1979 (when VN invaded Cambodia and China invaded VN). Matt will be here for a few days and we hope to climb Fansipan, the region's highest mountain (however, it is currently pouring). I will be here for nearly as long as my visa allows. There are a lot of French people here.

I'm posting from KOTO, a not-for-profit cafe in Hanoi, while drinking a mango lassie. So life's OK.

This morning:

1. Uncle Ho's Mausoleum. A rip-off of Lenin's. No talking, smiling, hands in pockets. Due solemnity, as if approaching a god. Rather over the top in a secular state. Felt sorry for the guy, actually. He wanted to be cremated. Instead, he lies there looking unwell (not surprisingly) and thoroughly orange.

2. Museum of Ethnology. Great, but I'm peopled out; 54 or so ethnic groups in VN.

Tonight: water puppetry.

Got to Hanoi last night after a 13-hour bus journey from Lak Sao in Laos. Needless to say, I was not in a very good mood. The mountains near the border were lovely, but the run along the coast from Vinh was boring and ugly. VN is heavily industrialised in comparison to Laos, which is not surprising: VN is about 50% richer than Laos per capita (purchasing power parity) and growing at about 8% a year.

Lak Sao is a new town on the border, a seven-hour ride from Vientiane. Claimed population: 50,000. Visible population: 3. A hole, whose entertainments are solely ironic.