When we last left our protagonists, they were in Hoi An, Vietnam making their way north.
Sadly, 12 of Thien's 13 chihuahuas have died since the last journal.
Friday, 6/13/03
It was the full moon, and Hoi An celebrates the full moon by turning off all of the lights in old town and lighting it with candles, lanterns, and nothing stronger than Christmas lights. (The only reason we were still in Hoi An was because Thien wanted to be their for the full moon festival.)
After dinner at the cafe owned by the family of Thien's friend Boo, the three of us walked through old town. Initially, I was unimpressed. Same old thing, only darker and more crowded. Things picked up when we got to the river. Floating in the river were hundreds of candles in bowl-shaped paper lanterns of several colors. Several old wooden row boats were plying their way among the candles. We hired one of these boats ourselves, and a middle-aged woman paddled us slowly through the water. There were a few performances on the shore.
There was an odd little game going on as well. Small clay pots were hung from a wire and people in the crowd were selected to put on a blindfold, take a stick, and step forward to swing at the pots, hoping to shatter one. Sort of like a pinata, only the participants only got one swing, and the pots were a lot smaller.
Saturday, 6/14/03
We took the bus from Hoi An to Hue. I was kind of frustrated that a 2 hour trip took 4 hours because of all of the stops. (That, and the driver's tuneless whistling with tons of broken high notes.) There was a really cool mountain pass just outside of Danang where you could see a stretch of beach, fields, and fishing boats.
Once in Hue, we grabbed a hotel and had dinner at a restaurant floating on the river. We had one of the local specialties--rice in a lotus leaf.
We took a cyclo to the Citadel--a walled compound of old buildings, most of which had been bombed to the ground. Between the inner and outer walls was a park, full of children flying kites. While we sat on the grass waiting for them to open the gates to go up on the outer wall, a group of Vietnamese college students invited me over to join them for a drink of wine. One of the three spoke a bit of English, but not much, so our meeting didn't last very long. I basically found out that they were college students studying in Hue.
Hue seems like a pretty cool town. Pleasant in appearance, laid back, and with tons of old historic buildings.
Sunday, 6/15/03
Thien and I rented a motorbike and visited the emperors' tombs outside of town. The first, Tu Duc, was pretty impressive. The exterior was quite imposing and the interior was covered with excellent mosiac bas relief. Plus it hadn't been bombed. It was very different from the other 3 tombs we visited that day, which were more woodsy, but cool as well.
We headed back to town for food. We went to a part of town known for a particular rice dish. We ate 4 bowls of it and had the desert that traditionally accompanies it--a glass of sweetened creamed corn with crushed ice. The whole meal cost US 70 cents.
Monday, 6/16/03
We basicly goofed around all day, and took the night bus to Hanoi. Since it was at night, I didn't get to see much. I started reading "The Old Curiosity Shop" by Charled Dickens on my PDA. (It has a backlight so I can read in the dark.)
Tuesday, 6/17/03
I didn't sleep all night on the bus, so when we reached Hanoi, we got a hotel and crashed until about noon.
I didn't feel like sight-seeing, so we just vegged.
Wednesday, 6/18/03
Pretty much vegged all day.
Thursday, 6/19/03
Didn't do much, other than eat, use the internet, and book a trip to our next destination--Sapa. Oddly, you pretty much have to do a package tour of Sapa, which I don't generally like. (Who wants to be herded around like cattle and spend half the day waiting around?) To save us yet another arduous bus trip, we opted for the night train to and from Sapa.
Friday, 6/20/03
In keeping with Hanoi so far, we didn't do much today. Thien is a bit sick. We got out of our hotel and are now killing time until our train leaves.
Hanoi hasn't left me with much of an impression so far. Granted, I haven't seen much of it other than the old part of town. It seems nice enough, but not that interesting compared to some of the other places. It seems that people really like it, but from what I've seen so far, I like Saigon a lot better. Plus, in Saigon, I feel safer crossing the street. There, when you want to cross a busy street, you just walk into the stream of traffic and let it flow around you. (Remember, they are all motorbikes.) In Hanoi, even being careful, I've almost been hit a couple of times.
That's all for now. Off to Sapa and the mountains. We'll see what the Vietnamese train system is like.
Later,
Sid
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