Tee in Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia: I Meet the Rest of the Clan

I get up at 5:30am to catch the city while it’s still sleepy. I hope I don’t wake anyone up. I take my Hanoi map and decide to stroll. Sights.

Lots of people just walking the streets.

An electrician's nightmare.

A weird fruit or vegetable I've never seen before. Turns out it's not for eating, it's for its fragrance.

I head towards the beautifuly tree lined Hoan Kiem Lake.

It turns out I’m the one still sleepy. It's 6am, and anyone in Hanoi over 40 years of age is up and about and doing vigorous exercises along the streets. They are jogging, walking, doing tai chi, playing badminton, and doing pelvic twists as the sun rises. As I near Hoan Kiem Lake, I see large clusters of these exercisers. I walk around the entire perimeter of the lake and every part is occupied.

There are loud speakers in trees that provide a soundtrack for the various groups of Tai Chi practitioners around the lake.

Even the gym equipment has been brought out for the sunrise. Imagine pumping iron on a warm Hanoi dawn with a lakeside view. It’s pretty sweet.

On a little square across from the lake there is a public aerobics workout going on.

There is this charming red bridge at one part of the lake.

On my way back to Minh’s house I decide to buy some stuff since she won’t let me pay for anything in her presence; I have to find surreptitious ways of showing my appreciation. I end up buying these fresh jumbo shrimp (I don’t know of any Asians who don’t like shrimp) that are still weakly kicking about. I also buy a papaya, fresh soy milk and some pretty long stemmed peach coloured roses cause Minh has some silk floral arrangements in her home.

I get back at 7:30am in time for some sticky rice breakfast. As I eat Minh asks me what I did this morning and I told her. She laughs and says that she was probably one of the people doing the exercises. It turns out that she got up at 4:30am and was already working out at the lake while I was sleeping. This lady sleeps at 11pm every night, and wakes at 4:30am every morning, with a siesta between 12pm and 1pm in the afternoon. Sounds pretty sweet to me.

Cuong picks me up at 10am and shows up with his cousin…my cousin! His name is Minh (Minh can be used for boy or girl). We will spend the day together.

We go by moto. It's actually thrilling being in such crazy traffic but trusting your driver.

Here's Minh driving alongside us.

We go to the pagoda, the market, and for some food

and icecream,

and finally to half a dozen art shops so that I can buy a couple of paintings to take home to Canada. I decide on this large portrait of two people from an ethnic hillside tribe in Sapa which is north of Hanoi.

I will be lugging home way too much.

I even thought that buying a moto helmet Hanoi style as a fun souvenir for Bryanna would be a good idea.

Yeah...I haven't thought out my baggage allowance too well yet...

They also take me to a couple of tour operators so that I can book a three day/two night trip to Halong Bay. I decide on an adventure package of kayaking, trekking and biking with a company called Ocean Tours which came highly recommended in the Lonely Planet Guide.

We then go to Cuong’s place and I meet his mom (where he gets his light skin from),

Cuong’s wife, and his one month old daughter who greets me with a gaping screaming red toothless mouth.

She looks like a squirming larva having a fit until she’s placed in her warm bath where she immediately calms down and looks actually cute.

I ask why the water is so dark. Cuong says you wash a baby in warm green tea for the first three months of its life because soaps are too harsh for their skin, and green tea is nourishing. I’ve never heard of this before. She's not so bad.