59. HANOI & SAPA.

link: post 37 - Gooood Mooornniing Vietnam!
























A short walk from Sapa takes the Vietnamese across this bridge into Yunnan, China. Foreigners aren't allowed to cross over.

 






Trudging 'thru a Hmong village, 'thru mud and dung - the Simple Life is not for me, no siree!

 

 Black Hmong and Flower Hmong - indigenous to Sapa

Ethnic goods look good


















Ethnic good looks

 

Halong Bay, on a chilly wintry morning is ethereal

 









 

Love the colonial French architecture. Like other colonialists, they escaped the heat by living it up in the hills

 







Our guide, who regaled us with stories about his Viet Cong relatives when they fought their colonialists....the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum in the background...

'tis the season to get sloshed - with a good Vietnamese Dalat red



The water puppet show is unique to Hanoi. These puppeteers control their puppets from behind a curtain, standing waist-deep in water, and in winter too. It was beautifully executed.

58. SHIFT HAPPENS

I embrace 2008 with great expectations and anticipation. 2007 was an eventful year and if my numerologist is correct, it's the close of a cycle for me with 2008 the start of a new one.

Recent events confirm for me that the Laws of the Universe on Destruction and Creation apply to the created humans, as with everything else in the manifested world. Change is the only constant.

I have a new job, new friends to travel with, eat and drink with, talk nonsense with and simply be crazy with and have a few laughs together. A 'love' interest (?) (more like affection) is putting in place plans to work together on a project of 'giving back.' I do believe to be good companions, 2 people have to be firm friends first.

A windfall allows me more travel opportunities with Hanoi and Sapa as my last stop in year 2007 with my first trip in 2008 coming up during my Spring break.