14 days without news!

Der Himmel ueber Hanoi!We are back home in Hong Kong. In fact we have been here since the 4th of January, but after the exiting experience in Hanoi and Vietnam, coming home to Hong Kong was a little too normal, so maybe thats why I've had nothing to write about. But maybe thats something to write about; I mean feeling coming home when you land at the Hong Kong "Chek Lap Kok" International Airport. Last time I've had that feeling was always when I returned back to Dresden from somewhere, even when I came back from a visit to Denmark. Now both of us had this feeling returning back here.The weather was amazing, everything seemed familiar, the traffic civilized and our little village was quiet like always, there was only one change and that was the house next door which have been under renovation for some time and covered by a huge shell of bamboo scaffolding. This shell was now gone and the house got quite a face lift -which the new tenants will feel on the rent they have to pay living there- but thats is all another story for another day, today it is about coming home. The weather had been beautifull the last days in Hanoi too, but here in our little bay it was just stunning, like summer and that in January. We also were exited to meet up with Bob and Yvonne again, they had been back home in Canada and had seen snow as well as they had overflown the north pole getting from here to Canada.We just wanted to see the Harbor in Sai Kung again and catch up with with our friends over a nice dinner.
Chinese new year:
Is coming up at the end of January and nobody of us know what to expect; except a lot of noise. We have been advised not to go to china during this holiday, because everything closes down and there will be nothing to do, so we will stay and take trips around here.
Todays Traktoor
I found it at the toilet at "The Duke", an Irish pub in Sai Kung, so now I have to visit this pub each month to see if they have other traktoors the rest of the year.The thing on the left is a Hong Kong plug -"steck dose"- a dirty one.

Hanoi dairy; bye - bye Hanoi.

Everything has an end, even some of the best things and for us is it now to go home to Hong Kong. We wil sure miss Vietnam, but it is only 2 hours away from home, and we know somebody living there. Sure this trip to Hanoi and Vietnam will occupie this blog for a while because it is now the reflections to what we have seen will start.

Todays Traktoor:

Can only be the republic of Vietnam and it's about 80 million inhabitants, bueatiful landscape and its culture.

the Hanoi dairy -last day in Vietnam

Dear dairy and dear Vietnam; we will come back.

Well, according to Patricia Schultz's bestseller: "1000 places to see before you die" we can now tick another 3. Ha Long Bay, The french quater and the old quater of Hanoi. Yet will there be a lot of other places worth seeing in Vietnam and not only to tick them off a list.

No Vietnam is not only worth visiting for some places on a bestsellers list, it is also worth visiting because of it's people, it's culture and because it still is something different to anything else seen in a world being more and more alike. I mean; how often will you be in the town center of any Capitol without seeing the names of all the world's big famours brands bend in neon above your head alighten your way, or when have you ever thought that the traffic in central London, Berlin or Paris is a boring piece of cake to deal with.

So, What are we going to do on this our last day in Hanoi? Well I think we will do all the things we didn't do until now or the things we sort of posponed because something else came up, like going to the Art Museum, the War Museum or stuff like that, but I guess we will never really know because you always find something unexpected on your way through Hanoi, like the other day at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, where we were offered a ride on a bike by a guy, who then as we resisted, asked Julia if he could be her husband.Today's TrakToor:

At the beginning I felt a bit homesick when i saw them again; the good old east german W50 and L60 trucks which run on the streeets here in huge numbers. Infact German is a widespraed foreign language spoken here, and it has out numbered the french speaking part of the Vietnamese, and has to do with the relations betwenn the former DDR and Vietnam.

Hanoi dairy -1st January 2008

HAPPY NEW YEAR and let 2008 be GREAT!!!We went out on the streets of Hanoi to celebrate the last evening in 2007 with one of Julias colleagues and her husband; Liz and Kenny. The streets were full and busy like allways and everybody seemed to stand in line to have their photo taken under this poster, so getting a photographer wasn't difficult at all. We had our photo taken just minutes before midnight here, so it must have been at the time where the danish Queen made her traditional new years speech to the people. Surprizingly they didn't have many firework at all, so all the noise and the lights came from the 3 million mopeds, circling around the Hoan Kiem Lake in the center of the the old town, what again wasn't so unusually, because it is like everyday infact, only all the ballons are something special. So how was the first day in 2008 then?

Well - we got up a little late like allways on the first of January. The weather was just so nice. The sun came through and we had a wonderfull blue sky and maybe 20 degrees. From the roof of Julias house we could enjoy the warm sun beams and the view of Westlake neighborhood.Liz and Kenny came to visit to show photos and tell about travelling in China. Kenny brought his new (old) Russian Minsk moped so we could have our first driving lesson in Hanoi. Hazel and Bryan; Catrionas sister and brother-in-law in Aberdeen, Scotland- strictly told her off doing that on the phone last night, but since neither Julia nor I had spoken to somebody in our family, we agreed to give it a try.

Todays TrakToor:Is of course Kenny's good old Minsk moped. A very fine running piece of russian mechanic. No fancy pancy foss here, just a machine used for transportationKenny gives Julia the last instructions before take off.10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, zero...

and off she went into the afternoon sun with an awsome noise of a Russian 2 stroke engine.

And then I was on the line. I desperately tried to remember the wild and silly times , about 30 years ago when me and my pal's drove from hamlet to hamlet on our mopeds in Denmark, trying to look like Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in "Easy Rider".And I must admit. I really enjoyed the feeling riding a bike again , so I was `a little sad that it only could be a short one.So maybe I should get me one back home in Tai Wan Village, Hong Kong. The last days we have been thinking a lot about Bob and Yvonne in Ottawa, Canada. Happy New Year to you too, and we are looking forward to see you again, and I would like to know how you are doing with your sketch book, Yvonne? Because we have been doing one sketch a day, or at least I have, even onboard the boat in Ha Long and Catriona have nearly done one a day.