Vietnam
========

The sky looked like a fresh Windows XP install when we landed in
Hanoi. We arrived after having flown from Frankfurt via Lufthansa
to Shanghai and boarded there a Plane of Vietnam Airlines.

It is interesting to observe the differences in flying style of
those two airlines that came only to my notice after flying back
to back with both: Where Lufthansa is trying to minimize the
discomfort passengers may get during maneuvers, Vietnam Airlines
Pilot are seemingly forgetting that they are piloting an airliner
and not a fighter jet: They like steep climbs, high banking turns
and rapid acceleration. Well, i like those things too, junior also
and my wife is... my wife and therefore rather stoic regarding such
things.

It was hot the day we arrived with an unbelievable humidity. Lets
just say: Not something you like after spending nearly two days in
Airports and planes.

Luckily, shortly after we got our luggage my wife parents arrived
with a cab and took us in. The fresh, air conditioned interior of
the car felt like a godsend. After greeting each other and hauling
in our luggage we only ate a quick supper and shortly after collapsed
into our beds.

The next few days were spend by visiting relatives of my wife,
giving the presents we brought with us (as it is custom) and getting
used to the hot and humid climate. This time i visited not as the
stranger i was back two years ago, but as a now recognized part of
the rather large family. The change was notable, and pleasant on
my side: Less formalities, less artificial nicety and more honest
interaction. Sadly, even after two years additional practice, my
language skills in Vietnamese are still somewhat rudimentary, so
i was more often than not dependent on the translator skills of my
wife, but nonetheless i get slowly more "connections" to the family.

Speaking of the family: There are some active computer freaks and
"hackers" there, i had the opportunity to get one of them to know
better and got this way an interesting inside in the local hacker
culture.

Here, the smartphone is king. Yeah, there are traditional computers
also, but those are seen as somewhat boring and for old people.
Those young local hackers code on their smartphones, build 3d models
and control 3 printers from them. There is no nostalgia for an
golden age like we in the west may have of the Home Commuter era,
those golden age for those Vietnamese hackers is now.

The constant visiting of relatives, friends and so on took on for
about a week, intermitted by short local trips. A tip if you may
find yourself in Vietnam and in search for a really good meal: Look
where the cab drivers eat. Yeah, the food stalls on the roadside
may not look good or healthy, but trust me: You will be surprised
by the quality of the food.

Vietnam has an enormous economy boom right now, wherever you are,
the next construction site is not far away. The local megacorp
VinGroup is currently stamping out European style settlements all
over the country, following mostly the 15 minute ideal: You will
have a walkable neighborhood with a Kindergarten (owned by VinGroup),
a School (owned by VinGroup) a Hospital (owned by VinGroup) and
stores (sanctioned by VinGroup) all near you. They are also currently
constructing a high speed rail network and are massively pushing
for electric mobility: VinFast (VinGroups car subsidiary) is
aggressively expanding their charger network and - perhaps just a
coincidence - you will not be allowed to enter Hanoi with an internal
combustion powered vehicle after 2030.

Most people i spoke to doesn't see any problem in a growth powered
by this corporation, quiet the contrary, there is an open pride
about the rapid changes and developments. And to be honest: All
people in the circles of my wife are today better of than two years
ago. There is more private car ownership, more infrastructure and
even enough wealth to go on holidays. For my wife parents who were
still poor farmers in the early 90s and are now well in the
slightly-upper-middle-class this progress was unbelievable. And if
you think about it, it is: Until her early teens my wife had only
two sets of clothing (one for daily use, one for occasions where
better garments were expected) and lived without electricity or
plumbing... and her parents are now living in a modern, western
style house with air conditioning... its fascinating.

This time we had the chance to do more touristy stuff, taking walks
through the old parts of Hanoi, visiting multiple museums and doing
general sightseeing. On the museum side of things i can absolutely
recommend the military museum in Hanoi - its architecture alone
is... fascinating... like a combination of Stalinist and modern
architecture. It gives also a new perspective of the broader struggle
for independence the Vietnamese fought, like the much, much longer
conflict with China. Overall, very interesting and worth a visit.

After spending some time in Hanoi we decided to take a three day
trip to the Ha Long beach and moved to a very nice hotel there.
The room was very nice, 12th floor, big panoramic window and balcony
where you could look over the a big part of the city - spectacular!
After the first day in town (or rather on the beach, it was nearly
impossible to get Junior out of the water) and a meal at various
street food shops we went to bed where i had an... interesting?
fucking scary?... i don't know... experience: I awoke about a hour
after falling asleep, wife and kid still slumbering, where i suddenly
was absolutely - and i mean as much as i was sure the sun will rise
- convinced that i would sleepwalk out on the balcony and jump over
the fence if i fall asleep again. Let's just say... i didn't fall
asleep for some hours that night and it was an occurrence i could
have lived without... What was it? Am i going nuts? I never
experienced something like that before or since.

After telling it my wife i promptly got the Vietnamese explanation:
Probably a ghost tried to posses me. I mean, i cannot rule it out...
but a more scientific explanation would be nice.

Whatever, the following night was uneventful, i slept well and
obviously didn't try to base jump out of the 12th floor without
parachute.

On our last day in Ha Long we decided to take a day trip along the
coast on a boat - a quiet day just gazing at the amazing nature
there and trying to stay vigil enough to prevent Junior to jump
into the water if he saw something interesting.

Back in Hanoi our routine of the first week continued: Meeting
relatives, eating, more eating and even more eating... the thing
is: The Vietnamese are simply obsessed with cooking and eating. I
never - in Germany, Vietnam or elsewhere - encountered a person of
Vietnamese descent who is not a great cook. If you, dear reader,
find yourself at one point as guest of a Vietnamese family and
someone asks you something along the line of "Are you hungry?"
chose your answer wisely... it may lead to more than you can stomach.
My personal survival strategy evolved to eating slow, sticking
mostly to vegetables and only if you already begin to feel a bit
full and you have the feeling most of the other persons at the meal
feel somewhat the same, only then get one or two bowls of rice.
But keep in mind: There WILL be fruit afterwards.

The days went by and as the end of our visit approached my wife
wanted to visit the local temple to make some donations. We walked
there, entered end my wife asked around where the various shrines
are.  As always when my wife made offerings or did prayers on some
of the ancestor shrines in the homes of her relatives i try not to
stand in the way and not look like some damn tourist... usually
that means i step a bit back and default to something that may look
like a sloppy parade rest, sometimes i get shoved some incense
sticks into the hands by relatives and am urged to mimic what my
wife / relatives do ("Is this ok? I am not of this faith..." -
"Everything fine! Just do what your wife does").

In the temple i stood outside of one of the buildings where my wife
did her prayers as a big man, about my age, shaved skull, black
robes and - as i saw as he spoke to me - black teeth approached
me. At first he seemed to think i am a somewhat lost tourist and
tried to hush me away in Vietnamese until i could tell him that i
am staying outside and waiting for my wife to finish - he immediately
changed to a friendly tone and invited me in. It was an interesting
experience - the temple is a new construction, finished last year,
but the shrines therein were ancient. We talked a bit and parted
soon as my wife was finished. As we left the temple my wife thought
she might have forgotten some shrine in a little building to the
side that was decorated as all the other buildings, did a quick
bow with folded hands... just to realize that this building was,
indeed, the toilet which led to a good laugh.

On our last day we tried to do the online check-in thing on the
homepage of the airline but only got error messages that the check
in was not possible - which led to a bit of nevousity on our part.
After having not much luck at the service hotline we send an email
to Vietnam Airlines and promptly received an answer (we send the
mail at about 21:00 and got the answer just a couple minutes later).
The airline had a software problem, but everything would be ok,
just be early on the check-in counter they said. Which was true as
the next day revealed.

Well, about 19 hours and a rather chaotic stop in Delhi later we
were back home in Germany.