White House tour, part 2

The highlight of the day was when First Dog Bo Obama dropped by Ellie's office to say hi. Isabel -- and the rest of us -- were thrilled! Bo is just as cute in person as he is in his photos (or in the holiday decorations throughout the White House). He's incredibly well behanved and a little shy, but who wouldn't be with all those cameras clicking every time he goes by! As you can tell by these photos, Isabel fell madly in love -- I just hope her own dog doesn't find out! (And just to prove I was there, I've included one photo of me.)

White House tour, Part 1

We had a great tour of the White House Saturday. The decorations and trees are absolutely beautiful! Most of the them are very elegant, but there's one -- decorated in bright colors with felt ornaments and gardland -- that is the happiest tree I've ever seen (if a tree can be called happy :). There are also lots of little, and not so little, Bo O'Bamas -- the First Dog -- made out of licorice and marshmellows, buttons, and white and black garbage bags.

2011 Christmas tree lighting

Here's the 1st group of photos from tonight's Christmas tree lighting. Thanks to Ellie for getting us such great seats! Other than the Obamas and Santa, Kermit was the only celebrity I recognized. He and Michele did a great job reading to the kids. In the family photo, Michele's mom is on the left. I'm not sure where the President disappeared to in this photo.

What you do if you don't have trucks

When there aren't a lot of trucks, people can get very creative with their bicycles and scooters.

Here are some more photos from our stay in Hanoi.

This is the Hanoi Opera House, as seen from my hotel.

Unfortunately, we couldn't make it to any performances.

This is a commom way to carry things in Hanoi.

We haven't seen this in Ho Chi Minh City, though.

We went over these railroad

tracks on our way to and from

work every day. 

I only saw one train during the entire time we were

in Hanoi, and that was just by luck, when I was

walking around town. Here are the scooters waiting

for the train (below) to go by.



 

Hanoi brides

This must be the wedding season in Hanoi! Every weekend there were brides at the lake or in front of some of the older, and often French Colonial, buildings, having their photos taken. The brides weren't always with their soon-to-be (or already) husbands, nor were there many family members around. We also saw a number of places that appeared to be renting wedding dresses. We concluded -- although it's just a guess -- that the photos are a more modern tradition, and in reality have little to do with the actual ceremony. But they all seemed to be enjoying having their photos taken!

 

Fascinating Hanoi

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) Wednesday morning, but I wanted to post some more of my photos from Hanoi. We haven't had time to explore HCMC yet, but we will starting Saturday. For some reason, I've had problems connecting to my website, but it seems to be working now, so I want to take advantage of it.

There are lots of artists in Hanoi, who will

be glad to paint your portrait, or that of

anyone else.

The streets really come alive at night. Here, people

have dinner in a sidewalk cafe. Unlike those in other

cities, these cafes take up the entire sidewalk, so

pedestrians end up walking in the street.

This group, including a photographer, was waiting

to cross the street. The women are dressed in the

traditional Vietnamese outfit, which is still relatively

common here.

The changing of the guard at

Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum.

I love the yellow dress the little

girl is wearing.

Another view of the mausoleum and the guards.

The mausoleum was closed, allegedly because

Ho Chi Minh's body -- which is on display, a la

Lenin -- was being "freshened up".

These little girls were playing in the lobby of the

hotel, while waiting for a party to start.



A night view of the pagoda in the

lake near our hotel. The area around

the lake is busy every day, but it

really comes alive at night, when what

seem to be thousands of teenagers and

young adults come out to meet friends

and enjoy the view.

Hanoi traffic

Hanoi is completely different from Taipei. They both have lots of traffic, including tons of scooters and motorcycles, but while Tawan drivers follow most of the rules of the road, the rule in Hanoi is: There are no rules. Hanoi roads don't have lanes, there are very few stoplights, and it's perfectly normal to make a right turn from the left lane or to go the wrong way down a one-way street. When crossing the street, scooters will generally weave around you, cars will flash their lights at you and probably slow down, but buses just keep right on going. Before we got here, people told us that the traffic never stops. I wondered how vehicles made it through the intersection. Well, they just sort of muscle their way through. The saving grace is that they rarely get above 15-20 mph. From a distance, it really does look like a swarm of insects moving in all directions!

Here are two shots of the traffic in the old section of

Hanoi. Our biggest accomplishment so far has been

crossing the street!!

 

Scooters carry everything from flowers to small refrigerators

to crates of eggs. In this case, the bottle didn't survive

a crash. Amazingly enough, we've seen very few accidents.

Women and men both use this traditional

way of carrying vegetables, etc. These

hats are also very common, but are only

worn by women.