We recently went on a citytrip to Hanoi, capital of Vietnam. It was around the time of the Lunar New Year, also known as the Chinese New Year (Tết in Vietnamese). Hanoi is a charming city with some French influence left to this day. The Opera house comes straight out of France and has a pleasant terrace next to it. The weather was surprisingly cool and we were a bit unprepared for grey skies and temperatures below 20 degrees! Maybe a few words on certain traditions inspired by Chinese culture which has been quite influential in Vietnam: people will go to the temples in Vietnam around New Year and buy calligraphic posters with Chinese words on them which refer to prosperity, health, etc. There is also the tradition of burning all kinds of paper items destined for the deceased: paper money, gold bars, even mobile phones and other items for daily use. All temples were filled with smoke from these burning items, as well as the usual incense sticks. Hanoi also has a lot of communist decorations around town, as the party still rules the place. Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum occupies a big square in the city, even though he himself had preferred to be cremated. We did unfortunately not have the time to go Ha Long bay (famous for its rock formations in the sea), that is for another occasion...
Already two visits this year! After Patricia in January, we were honored by Rolf & Burgi's visit in February. During the weekend of 8 February, we went together to Khao Yai Natural Reserve north of Bangkok. Khao Yai is famous for its scenic beauty, wildlife, impressive bat caves and local wineries. The picture above with the black "cloud" depicts in fact a swarm of millions of bats coming out of a cave to go hunt for food at dusk. A very impressive sight. During the day, the local guide had showed us some of the fascinating wildlife in and around the park, including snakes, huge spiders and also gecko's... We also managed to have a lunch at the PB Winery, founded by a Thai businessman who wanted to create a winery in exotic Thailand. The wines exist in a number of varieties and are generally more than decent but difficult to find outside of Thailand. Rolf & Burgi had an intense week of sightseeing but still managed to take in a lot of sights and even buy some home decoration materials! The weather in Bangkok has been heating up steadily and at the time of writing (1 March), the humidity levels have gone up already a lot since a few weeks back.
