I'm Back (again)

Back in Beijing after 3 weeks, back on blogger after 3 months. Before coming home for the holidays I averaged a major illness or injury every 2 weeks: food poisoning, followed up by a severely sprained ankle, not to be outdone by a bout of the flu. All around the end of the semester sucked, bringing my total number of Beijing hospital visits to 6 (not counting follow-up visits).

Since then I've been healthy and happy and traveling, first to the Caribbean with my family and Vietnam and southern China during my winter break.

Vietnam was the perfect respite from the cold and pollution in Beijing I went to there with few expectations or preconceived notions. I simply knew it was close (to China at least), cheap, and not as heavily touristed as Thailand. What little I had read and researched about the country didn't really prepare me for my trip. Vietnam is incredibly beautiful, so beautiful that it breaks your heart to leave. The people we met were warm and outgoing (even when they're trying to squeeze a couple extra dollars out of us). Wherever you go there's an infectious energy in the air (besides bird flu) that lifts your spirit despite bone chilling winds in the north or sweltering heat down south.

I couldn't help but draw comparisons between China and Vietnam, two "communist" countries embarking on projects of economic reform and opening up. While China is wealthier and growing faster than Vietnam, people there aren't as hurried or harried as people in Beijing (I've got a lot of gripes about Beijing, but their are enough of those to fill a book). People in Vietnam seem to make it a point to enjoy life to it's fullest, whether they farm in the rural Northeast or own a business in Ho Chi Minh City. These are simply generalizations from about a year living in China and 2 weeks in Vietnam, but I'd readily take another trip south of the border, sooner rather than later. Here are some highlights from north to south: