Photo: My first rain storm in Hanoi, I actually think it might have been the tailend of a typhoon. Alex and Sarah are wading through the water - this is the end of my alley and let's just say I am applying what I learned at SURP, Hanoi has awful stormwater managment, there is pavement everywhere even where there are trees there is pavement right upto the trunk! It flooded within minutes and the hail was hail I never seen before. It was litterally the size of golfballs and I first thought who the heck is throwing rocks at us. I don't even want to get into what might have been floating in the water since garbage is regularly thrown onto the street. But I will say I took a very hot shower and used disinfectant when I got home ... I went to Lang Son City yesterday for the day, it's about a 3.5 hour drive one way (even though it is only 162km from Hanoi - I will never complain about traffic or highways in Canada again ... it takes about an hour by car just to travel about 50km). I really got a good feel for the town which is in a northern province that borders China. I will be there next week for a week where I will be working with the City of Fredericton and Lang Son City on a Tourism Development project that has been underway for the last year. They went over their workplan with me and it looks like I'll get to do some neat activites and visit some cool places when we arrive.
I am heading to Sapa tomorrow night to hike the tallest mountain in Vietnam, Mount Fansipan. Melissa just did the hike and described it as wild, hard, and at times scary. Her group did it in 4 days (though they were doing research along the way), we are going to do it in 2 days. I am not in very good physical shape and I have been breathing in smog for the last 2 months, so this will be interesting ... I will likely complain (a lot), but I am sure we will feel very rewarded after we get to the top.
The autumn weather is setting in, people are in pants, jackets, and turtlenecks. I, however, am still wearing my short sleeved shirts and capris and everyone thinks I am crazy for sporting such light clothing for this time of year. Winter is suppose to be very cold here, not cold like Canada, but cold because it is damp and there is no indoor heating. Many people wear their outside clothes inside. I remember Lily telling me the top thing people generally talk about is the weather and I completely agree. I keep bringing it up in this blog ... but another thing I wanted to add is that I miss seeing blue skies! I always think it is going to rain because it looks cloudy but really it is a thick cloud of haze and pollution.
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