Hanoi is a bit cooler than the other places I’ve been to in Vietnam. By “cooler” I mean under 80F, maybe as low as 75F. But under 80F is not considered “cool” by the Vietnamese; they consider it freezing. As soon as the temperature drops below 80F, they don thick sweaters and snow jackets.
They actually have a Hilton hotel in Hanoi, and I stayed there one night just for fun so that I could say “I stayed at the Hanoi Hilton (and escaped!)”.
All SE Asians are small but the tiniest of all are the Vietnamese, and you really notice it here. Probably because everything here is downsized for the Vietnamese body size (much more so than the other SE Asian countries): houses, doors, furniture, vehicles, utensils, everything. Shower heads are often at chest height. See the table and chairs in the photo on the left? The table is at knee height and the plastic chairs are the type we buy for small children. But it’s not a children’s playset. It’s found in every restaurant and is perfectly sized for the Vietnamese adult. There are no decent bicycles anywhere in Vietnam. In fact there is only one type of bicycle here — a girl’s frame single-speed cruiser with a basket in front, like the old Schwinn bikes from the 1950s. Even with the seat raised to maximum height, my knees were hitting my chest. Even so, I must have been pedalling unbelievably fast by vietnamese standards, because I always drew amazed looks, and motorbike riders would turn around and marvel that I was going nearly as fast as them.
In general the whole country is appears to be constructed for an eight-year-old American child, which is the same size as a Vietnamese adult. I am not tall by any means — just average height — but I positively *tower* over everyone here. I now know what Gulliver must have felt like during part of his travels.
Maria turned 23 today (though here they call that 24), so Stefan and I took her out for her birthday. 
Stefan is a nice fellow from Sweden whom I befriended here in Mui Ne. Maria is a girl who works at Gecko, out favorite bar/restaurant in Mui Ne, owned by a Frenchman. Her real Vietnamese name is Thanh, but like a lot of young Vietnamese girls these days, she’s adopted an English nickname. She mentioned yesterday that her birthday is today and that she really, really wanted a birthday cake. Stefan and I discussed it and we decided it would be fun for the three of us to go out and celebrate Maria’s birthday.
There’s not much in Mui Ne, so we hopped in a taxi to the next bigger town. First stop was the bakery, and Maria picked out the biggest cake they had. We had them write her name and age on the cake. By then it was lunch time. I love goat meat, so I picked the restaurant — a place called Lao De (Goat Soup), and we ordered the Lao De and also BBQ goat. 
We went to an outdoor fair and took some birthday photos. Then we went to the mall to buy some small gifts for Maria. Stefan bought her a pair of earrings, and I bought her a book and a balloon and a photo frame. Finally we went to the Karaoke place. They give you a private room and your own karaoke machine. We alternated between singing Vietnamese and English songs, and ate some of the cake. All in all it was a fun day, and Maria was thrilled and very, very happy. Of course Stefan and I paid for everything. Maria makes about $68/month in her job. We probably spent about that much in total today, so she’d never be able to afford something like this on her own.
I arrived yesterday in Mui Ne, a nice beach town about 4 hours from Saigon. Today I hiked to the “Fairy Stream”. 
The stream is only a few inches deep, so you can walk in the stream itself. The water is a deep red-brown, from the color of the soil, and intricately carved limestone structures. I didn’t see any actual Fairies, but I felt sure they must live in these structures. There did seem to be something magical about the place.
Like many other places, there are kids nearby who run up to you and try to be your “guide” where no guide is necessary. They will walk with you for a while, and then expect to get paid for their “services”. I usually dismiss them but this time I allowed a couple of kids (brother and sister) to “guide” me because they were cute and funny, and I played with them along the way.
As we were walking I heard a loud “THUD”! A coconut had just fallen a few feet to my right. I looked up — there were coconut trees all around me, and there was a strong wind. If that coconut had fallen on my head it would surely be fatal. I recalled Newton’s Laws and started to mentally calculate the speed of a falling coconut when I heard another “THUD” — a coconut had just fallen a few feet to my left. I screamed and ran. My kid guides giggled and ran after me. We ran like that all the way to the “waterfall”. I put that it quotes because it’s really an abuse of the term to call it a “waterfall”. It actually should be called “a little stream of water pouring over a few rocks”.
When I returned back I paid my kid guides for their “services”. I found they weren’t that concerned with the amount, but the sister was adamant that she should not get less than her brother.
While the stream may have been fancifully named, I felt it was an enchanting experience nevertheless.
Just arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon, and most people still call it that). My first experience was a cheap immigration scam. I already took care of getting a Vietnam visa beforehand, so I thought I was all set, but the Immigration Officer asked me for an additional form. Usually, if there are any forms to fill out the airline will give them to you in advance, but they gave none. He looked shocked that I didn’t have the form as if this was something very unusual. So I said “No problem, where are the blank forms so I can fill it out now?”. He said there are no blank forms anywhere(!). I just stared at him blankly for several seconds. Finally he pulls out a form and offers to fill it in for me, for a $5 bribe. A few minutes later I got into a taxi, for which I prepaid. As soon as got in the driver says, “Ok sir, you give me tip ok?”. With these and many more incidents, I quickly realized that this town is full super-greedy money-grubbers, far more than any other Asian city I’ve been to (with the possible exception of some Indian cities). Everything is negotiable here just like every other Asian city, but you have to bargain much harder to get to a decent price. This becomes annoying after a while.
I just got a Vietnam SIM card (my 3rd SIM card) so that my phone works here. I noticed some special “Tourist Police” around town. This is only the second city I have seen to have that (the other is Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).
Traffic here is insane. There is basically no traffic control (there are a few stop lights, but they are mostly ignored). Instead there is an organically developed system where everyone is playing a video game like Asteroids, where you simultaneously track multiple moving obstacles and try to steer a course which narrowly avoids them. As a pedestrian, if you want to cross the street you can’t just wait for for a gap in the traffic (because there is no such thing as a “gap in traffic” here). Instead, you simply wait until you can move 2 ft into the street without being immediately run over. Then you establish a constant speed, and walk in a straight line. Then based on your speed and direction, the approaching scooters and cars will make a decision to zip by just behind, or just ahead of you. It all works out fine if you understand the system. If you stop or change direction suddenly, then you could be in real danger.
There are lots of “hug taxis” (motorbike taxis where you sit on the back of a scooter) around town. Most of these guys are complete idiots.
Most of the ex-pats here are Australian.
Everywhere in Thailand, Cambodia, and Lao, people build “spirit houses” in front of their houses or place of business. The people in this region believe that normally, evil spirits will haunt your house and bring you bad luck. So the idea is that if you build a spirit house, then they will live there instead and leave your house alone. Spirit houses range from about the size of a mailbox, to about a Barbie Dream house. Some are quite elaborate. But it’s not enough just to build a spirit house; you also have to feed the greedy spirits. So people will put out some rice and flowers in the spirit house every day. The spirits are happy, you’re happy. Everybody wins.
Ventiane (actually it’s pronounced “Vieng Jen”, but the French messed up everything as usual). I was very surprised by the size and development of Ventiane. Granted, it’s the capital city of Lao but I was expecting something similar to the other two cities I visited in Lao — Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng. 
I could not have been farther from the mark. Ventiane has several high-rise condos and several five-star hotels. Just for fun, I walked into a luxury apartment building and inquired about the price — and was totally shocked. The rent was almost comparable to rents in SF!!
The French influence is quite apparent here, in the architecture of many buildings, and there are several French bistros and restaurants. The bowling alley here is better than the one in Luang Prabang. There is a Chinese-Indian fusion restaurant here that is pretty good.
I spent about 4 days here.
The terrain around Vang Vieng is really beautiful — when you can see it. Unfortunately the air quality in Lao is so poor because of the slash-and-burn farming that is done all over the country. It fills the entire sky with smoke and ash, and blocks out the Sun for months. It only clears up after a heavy rain. when it is clear, you can see that the area is surrounded by sheer limestone karsts that suddenly rise up vertically from the ground. Most of these limestone structures are riddled with caves. Today I went with Roland to the Water Cave, about 20km outside of town. We rented bikes again and rode there. Once along the way I received a nice ego boost when I stopped to ask a woman for directions (in Lao of course). She asked me how long I had been in Lao and was very surprised when I told her it was only about a week. She thought I must have been there about one year to learn that much Lao!
The Water Cave itself is pretty cool. It’s filled with water rushing out from a large underground spring deep within the cave. 
They give you an inner tube to float on the water and there are ropes to pull youself along to explore the cave. The cave went a lot deeper than I expected, and we never did really reach the end. Again, we were a bit late in returning the bikes but didn’t get charged any late fee!
BTW, the best mojitos (main drink of Cuba) in Vang Vieng are found at Bamboo Bar (they also have a great vegetarian buffet). Everything at the bar is made from bamboo: the tables, benches, the bar itself, and it’s surrounded by bamboo trees. The mojito is served in a bamboo mug with bamboo straws!
Today I went on another bike ride with Roland, Steffi, and Dan. We visited the Leopard Cave. There are tons of caves around here, and typically each one will have a handwritten sign with a paragraph of text hyping it. Not all the caves live up to their hype The Leopard cave did though. The caves are pitch dark once you get inside, and you need too bring your own lighting, or sometimes you can rent a flashlight. The cave was quite deep, with multiple narrow passageways. We were not even able to explore all of them, or be sure that we had reached an end. 
Along the way we saw a huge cave spider about the size of your hand, with reddish legs and a stark white body, and glowing white eyes! 
Following what seemed to be the main passageway, we eventually came to a massive rock formation descending from the ceiling of the cave. After staring at it in awe for a few moments, we all agreed that it resembled a leopard, running in full charge. 
This cave earned its name! Just outside the cave was a spring-fed pool with cool clear water that we all swam in — so refreshing!
After that, I took them on another book distribution mission to a small remote village. We went to the school but the students had already left. So we left lessons for them on the blackboard 🙂
We then raced back to get to the bike rental place in time (we arrived about 20 minutes late but didn’t get charged extra!).
Vang Vieng has become a huge party town. This in itself strange, because you don’t expect to find an almost Ibiza-style or Cabo-style party hot spot in the middle of otherwise very rural Lao. There are several makeshift outdoor bars/dance clubs on the river island, which no doubt have to be rebuilt every year since the island gets submerged during high water season.
The key to the party culture in Vang Vieng though, is tubing. Tubing nominally refers to renting an inner tube and floating down the river on it. But you only float a few feet before coming to the first riverside bar. They toss you a line and pull you in. You hang out there and drink and dance for a while. Before you know it, an hour has already passed. Most of the riverside bars also have huge rope swings or ziplines, where you jump off platforms from dizzying heights (30-40 ft or so), swing high up in the air, and then let go and jump into the water. The more acrobatically inclined will try double backflips or elegant swan dives. I have to admit it is scary at first, but once you do it successfully, it is so thrilling and you get such rush of adrenaline that you get practically giddy, and you keep doing it over and over again. So, basically “tubing” here means floating a few feet to the next bar, drinking, dancing, swinging, jumping, and then floating a few more feet to the next bar. Many people get stuck and never get past the first few bars. Actually a tube is not even necessary at all. In fact only the first timers rent tubes. The party veterans know it’s a waste of time and expense to rent a tube, because you can just as well swim from bar to bar. In many places the water is so shallow you can even walk. After “tubing” all day, you then return to town and prepare to go party at the island bars all night. All the bars are supposed to close as midnight, but one or two will always pay off the police to be allowed to stay open later, til 2 or 3 am. So, partying all day and partying all night — this is the essence of the Vang Vieng party culture. The typical story is that people plan on spending maybe 2 days here, and end up staying about 10 days instead. This is what happened to me.
In town, there is only ONE ATM machine, and almost nothing but: restaurants/bars, guesthouses, travel agencies, and internet cafes. Most bars/restaurants have the pillow bench tables, where you can lounge around on pillows, even take a nap. The thing I found the strangest is that many restaurants have nothing but reruns of “Friends” playing nonstop on the TV (there is also one restaurant playing “Family Guy”, and one playing “The Simpsons” nonstop). I avoided all these restaurants on principle.
Compared to Luang Prabang, prices in Vang Vieng are as follows:
-lodging and laundry are 1/2 X
-internet is 3X (but the speed is much better)
-other things are about the same or a little cheaper
Also, for some strange reason there is no ice cream anywhere in town although there was in Luang Prabang.