Old Quarter

Wow. That was an adventure. I took a cab from the hotel over to the Old Quarter. I started at the Ngoc Son Temple on Hoan Kiem Lake. There were many tourists taking incredibly staged photos, but the temple was pretty, but I think not much compared to what I will see as I leave the city. Walking through the Old Quarter in the rain was a real treat. The weather added an intimacy to the scene that was not there before the rain began. I walked through a street market with many food stalls, all of which turned my stomach. Too many pieces of meat. I do think I am going to have to just get over it and start eating like the locals. I found a nice little cafe and had some sauteed bok choy and mushrooms. It was pretty damn good. The coffee is the strongest that I have ever had, and maybe that's what makes the drivers so crazy. The traffic is a giant lesson in the forces of nature. One stream of energy flows until an incoming/opposing stream becomes stronger, at which point the energy shifts. People just keep inching out into a non-stop stream of traffic until they have managed to get out far enough that no one can squeeze by and then they go, along with about 50 mopeds, starting the new dominant flow until someone else squeezes them off. I just can't believe they don't all die in the traffic. No one wears a helmet. Maybe one of those little VC pth helmet things, but no real helmets at all. This is a city of juxtopositions. A man cooks meat in a homebuilt fire in front of a brightly lit store selling cell phones and PDA's. I have not begun to get a grip on it yet. My Vietnamese is so bad, the pronunciation is so difficult, that they just stare at me as I try to speak the language. Take care. Geoff