Tight Like Skin

Ho Chi Minh

Vietnam

Hanoi, a northern city near the China border has cold winters while Ho Chi Minh in the south has tropical weather, hot and humid. As I stepped out of the tarmac at Tan Son Nhat International Airport, the air hugged me tightly like skin; it kept me in like clothing, warm and comforting. I scanned the waiting area looking for a dignified diplomat in coat and tie. Being the Philippines’ Honorary Consul-General in Ho Chi Minh, Gerry was surprisingly dressed casually in white shirt and blue jeans. We shook hands as I started removing my winter coat. . “Welcome to Vietnam!”

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As Tall As A Totem Pole

Hanoi
Vietnam

Since it’s the New Year, let’s go back to where I started writing about - Travel Stories. Now, one of the more interesting aspects of travel is local houses’ architecture. Hanoi for example has houses like Totem Poles, long and slender that can go up to 8^th floor! That is, one room for each floor placed on top of the other! Kitchen and living rooms usually occupy lower floors, toilet the middle, while bedrooms the top. And when you reach the topmost floor, you will feel like planting a flag, a white cloth or something that flutters in the wind….

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Football

Red River

Hanoi, Vietnam

We hopped on the island going towards a football field facing another arm of the Red River. In cold Hanoi, local footballers play here in the afternoons unmindful of the dark history surrounding the area. On the right side of the fisher village were concrete columns rising thirty feet in the air lining the riverbank all the way to Long Bien Bridge. These sturdy pillars are mute witnesses to the atrocities of the past during the French colonization of the country where hundreds of Vietnamese POWs were tied to these posts, and shot.

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