Hello? Motorbike?

We had a very loooong, tortorous trip from Dali to Kunming to Hanoi. First we took an overnight bus from Dali back to Kunming and had to sleep the next day because we didn't sleep a wink on the crazy bus. Then we took a 10 hour insane "Express" day bus ride to Hekou, which is on the Chinese side of the border. Then we had to cross the border and take another 10 hour hard seat train ride from Lao Cai to Hanoi.

This is a small glimpse of the overnight bus. It doesn't appear too bad, but the smell was horrible. B.O. combined with cigarette smoke.

This is some scenery from the bus ride between Kunming and Hekou. It was amazing. It was terrifying. Imagine riding in a huge tourist bus over Monte Cristo at 50 mph and then remove the guard rails, add tons of other buses, trucks and also farmers walking on the road, donkeys, horses and motorcycles all on the road too. You don't slow down around corners, you just honk. Occansionally you have to slam on the brakes or pull to the side of the road if there is one. We dropped about 6500 ft and with a sinus infection it was super fun! One guy on the bus got sick and puked. We stopped long enough to throw the puke out the door and moved on.
This was my absolute favorite bathroom stop on the bus ride. It was so clean and sanitary. Click and enlarge if you can, its worth a close look. I had to pee really bad, walked in here and walked straight back out. I knew I had to pee before getting back on the bus but I literally had to work up some courage. There was just no easy way to go about it. I had to hold my breath. I was afraid if i had breathed the amonia filled air I would have passed out and landed face first in a pile of pooh or a bloody maxi pad. For those of you who are squatter virgins this is a trough style squatter. The center trough runs through all the stalls, there are no doors. So you just straddle the center hole and do your business. If someone uphill is peeing also, you have to watch it run beneath you. Every 15 min. or so water will flush down and sometimes if you are at the end of the run (you should never choose the end stall) you will get splashed with not so mysterious stuff. You only WISH it was a mystery.
This is the border crossing. First we had to depart from China, then cross a river and go through the Vietnamese border. We exchanged our RMB for Vietnamese Dong......and now we are millionaires. One USD is 17,000 Dong. Sweet huh?

We got on the train from Lao Cai (Vietnamese border) to Hanoi. Immediately little ladies were selling us strange food. This is a little sandwich. The buns are made of sticky rice and the center is some sort of spam or something. The whole thing was wrapped in banana leaves. Little did we know it was another 12 hour ride. We thought 5 hours max, but we were very wrong.

I still don't know what this was. It was also wrapped in banana leaves and was a black sticky rice paste with some banana stuff in the middle. Not bad, but not good.
These are some pictures from the Hanoi Revolution Museum. We tried and tried to figure out why there even was a vietnam war, but came up empty. Any old timers care to comment on why we helped the french try to colonize Vietnam and then all of a sudden we are helping the southern vietnamese torture the north vietnamese? Please enlighten the younger generation.

This guy actually burned himself alive to protest the war in Vietnam. Probably not the most productive thing he could have done.

This is just an interesting picture of how the vietnamese viewed themselves.The following are pictures of Hoa Lo Prison in Vietnam. Or as you american may know it, The Hanoi Hilton. Originally it was built by the french to hold vietnamese prisoners and they were pretty cruel and aweful. When the vietnamese started holding american prisoners here the standards seems much higher. There were pictures of the shot down pilots playing basketball, eating and laughing and getting medical examinations. This picture is an actual piece of the sewer that some prisoners escaped through. It was very small and you don't have to use to much imagination because it still smells VERY strongly of sewage!!! It was nauseating just to stand next to it.

This is the next almost president visitng the prison. I think he may have been held here because there was another picture of some people in the water and it said it was pilot John Mccain being captured by the vietnamese, so if anyone cares to do a little research that would be cool.

This is how the vietnamese prisoners were held by the french pigs. hehe.

This is one of the hallways full of prison cells. I didn't really feel strange in the prison until I walked down this hallway. It was so quiet and creepy and you could almost imagine how it was only 50 years ago.

These ladies let us carry their burden for a photo. They are all over here walking around with their baskets full of fruit, fried bread, post cards, or anything else you could ever want.

This is how you cross the street in vietnam. It is much crazier than any street I have ever crossed in China. The traffic here is mostly motorcycles and scooters, then taxi's, then buses and even fewer cars, but the cars you DO see are mercedes, BMW, porsche, etc. Very big gap between rich and poor. Basically, you just close your eyes, say a little prayer and go for it. So far we are still alive and unhurt.

Our hostel is just down this street and around the corner. Its been great. There are more foreigners here than I have EVER seen in Asia.

Last but not least. If you are a foreigner and walking down the street in Hanoi, you will hear over and over "Hello, Madame, Motorbike?" Everyone knows a little english, more than they do in China, and everyone wants to give you a ride on their motorcycle.