Our Excursion in Vietnam

It's been way too long since I blogged and, well, for good reason. I was on vacation!

For 12 days, my parents, Scott and I toured Vietnam. We started in Hanoi, where we stayed at a quaint hotel in the old Quarter on a small street near Hanoi's Hoan Kiem lake. The streets of Hanoi are always buzzing and somehow it all works. The old ladies balancing baskets full of fresh fruit on their shoulders don't get run over by the thousands of mopeds, which artfully dodge pedestrians crossing the street. Everyone likes to pop a squat on the sidewalk, sitting in little pre-school chairs to enjoy a fresh bowl of Pho or play cards.

The bustling streets of Hanoi.

The people are warm and relaxing and the vibe makes you feel alive. In walking 100 feet, you'd see old men doing tai chi, a young man lifting weights by the lake, gaggles of children begging their parents for ice cream, bored shopkeepers who keep refolding their "silk" robes for sale and the persistent book seller, who really wants you to buy the Lonely Planet guide to Cambodia.

Ana Mandara, heaven on a stick. 

From Hanoi, we went to Hue, a small fishing village in the center of Vietnam for some R&R on the beach. We stayed at this amazing five-star resort called the Ana Mandara, which only cost about $100 a night. Our biggest decisions, some days, were whether to lounge by the pool or on the beach. We explored the Imperial City of Hue, which was the former capital of Vietnam, and made friends with a local restaurant owner who served up grilled clams and fresh fish. My mom and I took a Pho cooking class and received relaxing facials at the resort's gorgeous spa.

Stunning Halong Bay.

We then traveled to Ho Chi Minh City, which is a modernized and larger version of Hanoi. And it was swelteringly hot. The second you stepped outside you started to sweat and each day we'd return to the hotel with salt stains on our shirts. Here we visited a lot of war attractions, crawling through the tunnels made by the Viet Cong (I adored this) and getting to shoot a M-16 gun (which, by the way, has major kickback). It felt a little strange to see how much damage we inflicted in Vietnam. There are still very present effects of Agent Orange, with many people suffering from birth defects.

I enjoyed crawling through the Viet Cong tunnels a bit too much. 

I found myself most intrigued by how the war story was told; we grow up, learning history through textbooks that only tell one narrative -- in this case that Communism was a real threat and if Vietnam fell to such a horrible way of ruling that we'd all be doomed. The Vietnamese narrative of the Vietnam War -- which, by the way, they call the American War -- is very different. It shows us as boastful foreigners destroying a country we had no right to be in. The only conclusion I could come to is that the real truth is probably somewhere in the middle. The fascinating part of it all was to see first-hand how different countries perceive their own history.

Scott trying his hand at shooting a M-16. 

We also took a number of day trips, to Halong Bay from Hanoi and to the Mekong Delta from Ho Chi Minh City. We rode bikes through local villages, tasted freshly-made coconut candy and haggled for everything from artwork to t-shirts.

Paddling down the Mekong Delta.

The best part of the trip was getting to spend so much quality time with my parents and my husband. I was a bit worried before we left that a 12-day excursion for Scott with his in-laws would be too much and that I would constantly have to play moderator or mediator. What I realized after a few days, though, is that when you have so little time with each other, you shouldn't spend it arguing or worrying or trying to orchestrate conversations. We had great talks, ribbing each other about everything from NHL playoffs to whose skin was stickiest at the end of the day. And we made some great memories -- my mom and I spilling fresh coconut juice all over the table, Scott and my dad going toe-to-toe in games of pool and the four of us having a good laugh over the crazy Australian who disrupted the water puppet show in Hanoi.

Snake, anyone? 

I hope we can travel with my parents again. The four of us were a great group and we did a good job of doing things together and also spending time apart. It's difficult not to automatically revert back to the role of being a child again when you're with your parents. What was so great, though, was that I realized the relationship just evolves and it seems to just get better with time.

After a lovely dinner in Hanoi.