Paul's Oriental Travelogue

An update

I did go to Ha Nam and I'll post a long tale of it as soon as it's ready. But I was confused by the ending. Also I'm very busy, going to Halong Bay today and Laos tomorrow. And not...
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Be Shown Things

It's time for some Hanoi pictures. But no more identical vistas of mountain villages. In this group they're all winners -- views and curiosities culled from a city bursting full of them. I can't begin to list them all and...
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It's so hard to find good help

Well that didn't work. An never showed up and I lost the card with his phone number. Someone else will receive his fifty trillion dong tomorrow. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you gotta read the previous...
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"Please drive me to a grassy field two hours away"

I forgot all about the equinox. It seems like early spring here too but the odd thing is I came into it from summer. Even (or especially?) in the London-ish weather, Hanoi is a grand and attractive city. This is...
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Kneecapped Recap

Ben Franklin supposedly said New Jersey is "like a beer barrel, tapped at both ends, with all the live beer running into Philadelphia and New York". Vietnam is like that with the internet. Now at the top, in Hanoi, the...
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Hà Nôi

The fourteen hour overnight bus from Hué I wouldn't do again in a hurry. (overall avg speed: 28mph including two long stops) But it wasn't so bad, on balance. I decided to skip the train because hiking or driving miles...
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