Togetherness

I thought the first lot were bad enough, but the second ... are they strange, or are we? It's natural,after all, we all have to do it. But standards vary; I've seen people sitting in the street here picking nits out of each others' hair in public... But if I seem negative, let me redress the balance by telling you that the peoplehere in Ha Noi are SO friendly and helpful. I was interviewed today by three students (sorry guys, forgot to take their photo, and they were stunningly beautiful), trying to improve their already very good English. We chatted for about an hour, it was such fun. We agreed that they should delay getting married and having lots of babies (one of them wants eleven!!) until they have graduated and then travelled... They couldn't understand why I was sitting in the sun - they stay out of it in an effort to keep their skin a lighter colour!
I have had a really great day today. It was 'free time', so I broke away on my own. I'm attaching some street pictures from here. They show the difficulties when trying to cross the road here - note the local girl inbetween the bikes! You have to remember that when they hoot you they mean 'watch out, I'm here' and not 'get out of my way' - if you jump or deviate from your chosen path, you are doomed.
It is fun finding my way around. I see much more detail than when we're in a group, when I tend to be 'sheepish'. I bought a proper map of the town, and wandered around, visiting Confucious at the Temple of Literature. I then sat in a park and watched the locals exercising. It was an oasis of calm in a mad, teeming city. Everyone seemed calm and happy, except a young man with his head in his hands.I hope he was just meditating.
Off to get overnight train in a minute, so am now going to try and attach pictures - takes ages! Bye or should I say "Dam bee-uht" fonetically, of course...

Oops I don't think any of my pictures will upload - darn it! Sorry,will try again in a coupla days...
-----------------------------------------
Email sent from www.virginmedia.com/email
Virus-checked using McAfee(R) Software and scanned for spam

-----------------------------------------
Email sent from www.virginmedia.com/email
Virus-checked using McAfee(R) Software and scanned for spam

-----------------------------------------
Email sent from www.virginmedia.com/email
Virus-checked using McAfee(R) Software and scanned for spam