Huffman Coding

It has been more than a week since I last blogged and since I didn’t have a chance to blog our long, final day in Vietnam, wanna pretend I made this entry last week?

With a red-eye flight leaving the country, it probably wasn’t the greatest idea for us to wake up before dawn Wednesday and drive four hours to Halong Bay.  It is a beautiful tourist destination, but it is a bumpy 4-hour drive from Hanoi.  To stretch our legs, we stopped at a ceramics factory halfway there.  They were opening the place just as we were getting there and there were a handful of workers hand painting bowls.

Hand painting bowls at the ceramics factory

Even though they usually break when on the trip home, Chris brought a couple of items.  A decorative plate and a whistle that, when filled with water, warbles like a bird.  It is bound for Claire’s show-and-tell when we get back home.

Halong bay is famous for hundreds of large limestone rocks (karsts) that rise steeply out of the water.  Its name, translated, is Descending Dragon because the rocks supposedly look like a legendary dragon that protected ancient Vietnam from the Chinese.  We took a boat tour around the rocks, unfortunately it was a very overcast day.  We had to get out Marissa’s broken school umbrella that we brought from home.  We were the only passengers on the boat, probably because it was such a dreary day.

Boat ride on Halong Bay

One of the most famous formations is called the Kissing Rocks. It is also called the Ho Ga Troi (Fighting Cocks) by those not in a romantic mood. A picture of it is on the 200,000 Dong note.

Kissing Rocks (or Fighting Cocks)

These rock formations were formed by the erosion of the limestone and some of that erosion also caused large caves within a few of the rocks.  Our boat stopped at the Dong Thien Cung (Heaven Palace Grotto).  The cave is lit up by multi-colored lights, which I thought was pretty, and fake fountains, which I found tacky.

Dong Thien Cung

The boat also stopped by a floating fish hatchery that had Cuttlefish, Prawn, Eel, and Crab.  After the stop we had lunch on the boat and all that fresh seafood was prepared for us.  When it was obvious to the waitress that Marissa was not interested in any of it, they kindly made her a batch of fries.  Thank goodness Marissa likes rice or she would have starved on this trip.

Vietnam does not do daylight savings time so the midnight flight was moved earlier during the change so it continues to arrive in Seoul at the same time each morning.  That extra hour makes this layover in Seoul before the flight to Chicago seven hours.  With the benefit of free WiFi, I get to blog some more.  The sole AC outlet at the gate is two feet from a children’s playground, so I am sitting on bright yellow cushion 10 inches off a padded floor, a few yards from three plastic fuchsia slides.

Playground at Gate 9

Tuesday in Hanoi we made what I would assume to be the customary stops for the city.  Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, his museum, and the presidential palace.  It seems almost every important government building in Hanoi is peach colored and was built by the French 100 years ago.  We saw a 1000-year-old Confucian university and another shrine to ancient soldier and his turtle.  We brought Flat Stanley from Claire’s first grade class along with us for the tour of the city by cyclo (bicycle rickshaw).

Marissa and Flat Stanley go on cyclo ride

I wanted so badly to swap positions with the driver so I could experience cycling in the city, but I restrained myself.

Traffic in the major cities is crazy with vans, cars, scooters, bicycles and pedestrians all sharing the same, very busy roads and all going different speeds.  Horns are used constantly in lieu of sufficient intersection control via traffic lights.

Hanoi Traffic

We had a very nice lunch at the restaurant where Bill and Hilliary ate when they were visiting as president and first lady.  A large picture hung in the front dining area.

With another city came more shopping by foot to various markets.  The streets are named after the wares that are sold on them.  There is Cotton St, Shoe St, and Really-Tacky-Wooden-Knick-Knacks Rd.  (I’m guessing on that last one.)

The highlight of the day was the water puppet theater. Wooden puppets about a foot tall sit balanced on long dowels that stretch just under the water’s surface.  By the manipulating the dowels underneath, the puppets appear to be dancing on their watery stage to synchronized music.  Very cute.

Vietnamese water puppets

We had dinner at the hotel and, like lunch, the choice of courses was chosen for us by the restaurant.  In fact the meals were very similar.  Marissa, thank goodness, likes steamed rice, because she liked nothing else.  I was more adventuresome and ate a little bit of everything at dinner.  In hindsight, I have empirical evidence that something I ate did not agree with me, but I don’t think I will elaborate.