Crazy Hanoi Traffic

December 31, 2010

Hanoi drivers are famous for being fast, crazy drivers, especially the motorbikes. We even got a missive beforehand from our travel agent, describing how to cross the cross light-free Hanoi streets without getting killed.

I'll sum it up as this: Close your eyes, walk very slowly, and let the motorbikers whiz by you at incredible speeds, without making eye contact with you, and just plain trust that they won't kill you as you walk like a turtle, imagining yourself splattered like a turtle at any moment.

You can see I was completely freaked taking my kids across these roads. But, once we did the slow turtle walk, facing 100 speeding oncoming motorbikers, I did, I trusted them not to splay my kids. Somehow, there seem to be no accidents.

We rode in a rickshaw, see photos in next post, and crossed roads that were a melee of cars, people, and mostly crazy motorbikes, all trying to cross without a cross light. You may ask why Hanoi doesn't have cross lights. Well, it's not what you might guess -- it's not because they don't have enough money to put in a cross light. The government actually tried cross lights before. They failed.

Hanoi-ers are just plain too impatient to wait for a light to turn green. The motorbikers just didn't wait for the light to turn green, they blew right through the light. The government gave up and removed most of the lights. For such a tightly controlling government, this was a shocker. The will of the people beat the will of one strong armed government, through their sheer force of entrepreneural impatience.

To see the crazy merging of traffic while my rickshaw is also trying to cross the street, click here.

Abraham: The New Dalai Lama

Korean in Kuala Lumpur

??? in Kuala Lumpur

Muslim Malaysians in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

Cambodian

Vietnamese in Hanoi, Vietnam

Vietnamese high school graduates celebrating in Hanoi

Pinching Boom's cheeks. Now, Boom pinches my cheeks.

Boom makes a break for it

December 31, 2010

Abraham is the next Dalai Lama. Or, so Ken has said ever since we arrived in Asia.

Asians LOVE cute. And, Boom fits the bill. Curly dirty blond hair. Big, soft cheeks. Short in stature. Cheeky smile. Big blue eyes with lashes that make women swoon.

They ALL want Boom's picture. But, not just a photo of him. They want to be in the picture with him. And, most don't seem to care if they take a picture with their camera. They're happy with just having us take a picture with our camera.

At first, we were puzzled by this. Boom was shy about it. After a few pictures, he started hamming it up, showing his most winning smile. Posing.

But, now we've hit Vietnam. And, let me tell you, the Vietnamese are aggressive about getting a pinch of those cute fat cheeks. They talk to him in Vietnamese, try to hold him, try to take pictures of their kids with him.

The truth is, the Vietnamese are soft and passive about it compared to the Koreans. Korean tourists are stalkers of the Boom. And, even of Alice. On our way hiking down a mountain, we were followed by a crowd of Korean girls yelling "Alixa! Alixa!" to Alice whose brother passive aggressively revealed her name to them. The entire way down the mountain, they followed her, she hid behind me, refusing to take a picture with them. Boom coached her along the way, how to refuse, ignore, and dodge the papparazzi. Then, the Koreans started talking to me: "She BEAUtiful! BEAUtiful!" touching her hair, all wanting a brush with gold.

In the end, we didn't discover this phenomenon. It was recently written in the New York Times, coining their baby "Rock Star Baby" and feeling able to relinquish their baby to a restaurant of families who passed their baby from one family to the next, allowing the parents to relax for their dinner (click here).

The climax of our Rock Star Boom experience was reached when we hit the Temple of Literature, where large crowds of High School and College graduates go for end-of-year pictures. First, a few graduate girls petted and held Boom, asking for a picture, then more and more of their graduate friends joined in the picture, until all the graduates piled into the picture.

Ken, who's recently offered to write a book titled "Dollar Parenting," offered to pay Boom Vietnamese dong if he'd take the picture with them. Boom refused unless Alice joined in the photo, intimidated by the huge crowds that were gathering for a picture with him. See video here.

In the end, the first three girl graduates, held on tight to Boom's cheeks, not wanting to let go. Wanting another lucky, intimate moment with him, giggling with joy as Boom pulled away.