Parks

The cities are great here, but after hours pounding the pavement and dealing with the traffic (see below) a respite is needed, head for a park. Phnom Penh has some good parks but most lack shady trees. In Vietnam I fell in love with the parks of Saigon and Hanoi, and the Vietnamese love them even more. The noise of the city recedes, the shade of trees cool the body, and the calm surroundings bring relaxation to the nerves. In the early mornings the locals practice tai chi, but after a day of work in late afternoon the parks come alive. The Vietnamese love to stay in shape! Parks are filled with Tai Chi classes, aerobic classes, dozens of badminton courts, walkers making circuits inside and out. And have you ever seen those exercise circuit training set-ups in parks in the US, they're usually wood with bars, the ones where you use your own body weight for strength training. I rarely see them used at home, but here there are buff men and women lining up to work the muscles. Finally, there are numerous games of hacky-sack going on. Instead of a ball they use something like a shuttle-cock. In Vietnam, they're good, but in Cambodia i saw some fantastic hacky-sack circles. These guys would do no-look behind the back heel kicks back and forth to each other, never missing. Here's a somewhat good pic of one.


Another reason i loved the parks in Vietnam was I really came to see the friendliness of the people. Usually while i was sitting on a bench, a local would timidly sit down next to me, and after trying to ascertain whether i'd be open to a conversation or not (sometimes they could tell i was just too tired, and leave me to rest) start up with a casual question. Usually we would talk about what America was like, what i liked about Vietnam, and about each other's families. They were curious but polite and always smiling, sometimes teenagers, sometimes adults, and even some seniors. It happened in any town park i found myself in, and always left me with such a great impression of their warmth.