Vietnam and Cambodia Adventure

My appreciation of the lovely people of Vietnam and Cambodia began on the first day of our tour. I observed the delightful children and particularly their hard-working mothers. As we cycled by, we could expect their kids to run the side of the road greeting us excitedly with waving hands and calls of “hello, hello.” We happily called “xin chao” in response.

On the narrow-paved country road where we started our bike tour, we stopped for a moment to mingle with children exiting the gates of a school yard. A dear boy of maybe ten years of age greeted me with “Hello,” and asked my name. Smiling sweetly, he said, “Welcome to Vietnam.” His words gave me immense joy. Celebratory graduates in Hanoi were gorgeous in their gowns and red and blue robes.

More than half of the graduates will not find work in their field of study. Will many of them resort to selling merchandize in Old Town Hanoi?

Perhaps one of the college graduates could offer tours of Ba Dinh Square, a wide open green space in the middle of densely packed Hanoi? It’s home to the mausoleum where Ho Chi Minh’s body is usually on display. When we visited his embalmed body was in Moscow receiving annual attention by the Russian team responsible for preserving Vladimir Lenin’s youthful glow.