If the people in Saigon felt they lost the war, the folks in North Vietnam got what they asked for. They have a stable and oddly enough hard working culture that evolved since they rebuilt the major port city of Vietnam after the war. With the new moon tomorrow, today is New Year's Eve in the lunar schedule. Tomorrow is Tet (yes, that one). So all of Haiphong was enjoying the beginning of a two week vacation. The gray weather (dimly) illuminated the gray city while everyone enjoyed a quiet holiday drive on their motorbikes, carrying the traditional kumquat and peach trees, a couple of their friends, and even a refrigerator for the celebrations. (No kidding).
The tour was guided by a lovely young lady who spoke little English but fortunately understood less. The ship's escort, Isabella, the supervisor of the on-board store on Whisper gave her helpful advise and asked probing questions (such as, "What do you mean when you say that the 'bus will be taken away at 40 minutes to 12 am?'"). We actually did have a nifty tour of the highlights of this town, visiting the quite lovely French colonial linear park, took pictures of very cute kids and ad hoc street chicken butchers and visited a 17th Century Buddhist temple and Chinese communal house dating to "long ago" according to our guide.
We may take the ship's shuttle bus later this evening to see the new years festivities in all its Maoist splendor as the ship sails for Hong Kong at midnight tonight. We arrive the day after tomorrow for the long ride home.
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