Vietnam 2007(Feb 21 - Mar 22)

In the end it is best to use the internet to buy tickets. You click a button and you are done. Travel agencies will promise you one thing and put you on a waiting list and tell to call back next week. UNLESS of course you are willing to pay full fare.

So we have our visas... went to Rome last Tuesday to get them.. the man at the Vietnam Embassy pointed to the calender at Feb 9... Helen said "No, we leave on the 21st". I quickly point out that he was not mistakenly identifying our departure date, but was indicating that we drag ourselves all the way back down to Rome to pick up the passports and visas on the 9th and informed him that we live up near Perugia and, if at all possible, we would wait for them to process them now. So we were in and out in 1 hour.

So off we go with Pippo and Francesca. Our flight from Rome leaves at two inthe afternoon so we leave Assisi around 9 and take the train. No Problem. The flight is direct to Bangkok's new international airport open only 6 months ago for the celebration of Thailand's Kingìs birthday (the new airport runways have so many cracks now that many flights are diverted back to the old airport) and then a quick two hour connector to Hanoi.

Ahhh... Hanoi. Grandpa George's flight is scheduled for arrival only 15 minutes behid ours. As we stood in line at passport control, I look back and see Grandpa at the back of another line. I bring over Subasio to meet Grandpa for the first time.

Ahhh... Hanoi... Vietnamese Coffee... Pho... Ahh lets get real. Communism just does not work. Neither does 90 percent of Vietnam's population. I'm no expert on foreign policy like Richard Gere or Sean Penn, but I have lived in communist countries before and have experienced others over the last three decades.

Vietnam is at a crossroad. It has just been admitted to the WTO. It's per capita income is about a buck. It's average age is about 25. 25 ahhh.. such a tender age, not weighed down by such things as knowledge, experience, wisdom, hygiene....

As a tourist destination in Southeast Asia, it must compete with Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. I have not yet been to Laos although I hear it is a favorite, but dollar for dollar, Vietnam has some travel issues that it must resolve if it expects return business. That being said, Vietnam offerings are comprised of a few under developed man made historical sites, a few mildly interesting natural sites and several sites whose existence stems from a much maligned US foreign policy.