Hi All! Thanks so much for your notes - it's great to hear from you! We are now in the Central city of Hue (pronounced Whay)which is the old imperial capital of Vietnam. Before we left Hanoi we took a day trip to Halong Bay. Most people take an overnight trip there, but we decided on a one day trip. We were the only ones doing that so we got our own guide and huge boat. It was a sunny day, but hazy, so the overall effect wasn't as amazing as I thought it would be. It's a large bay full of 3,000 huge limestone towers rising out of the water that are about 400,000 (or 400 million - I can't remember!) years old. There are caves you can walk through (you get off the boat obviously) and some you can kayak into. We had a delicious lunch on the boat. The guide was really nice - he said he'll give us a private tour next time we want to come back of different areas that are known for their indiginous music. His brother and sister both play instruments. He gave us some good insight into the state of things with the government these days and how many of the younger generation don't like it. Pretty interesting stuff.
Thursday night we got on an 11pm train heading south. We had an 11 hour train ride to Hue and slept in the first class, air conditioned soft sleeper births (four to a "room"). Only $36 each! They aren't as fancy as they sound, but were comfortable enough. The other two people in our "room" were Vietnamese, but most of the other people in first class were other Westerners. The countryside was amazing - really another world away.
Hue is in the middle of their rainy season and boy does it ever rain here - a lot of rain! Did I say a lot? We found a hotel and then took off to visit the enclosed old imperial city. We spent about 4-5 hours exploring every inch of that, got soaked to the bone, but trudged on. I have the best pants that dry really fast. But, my feet were wrinkly and white as can be by the time we got back to the hotel! And, I had my hiking sneakers on. We had a 7 course meal for dinner which is the old imperial style of having dinner. Today we hired a taxi driver to take us to several temples and pagodas just outside the city. We got to watch the monks at one of the places chanting one of their daily ceremonies. Right in the middle of their ceremony there were huge claps of thunder and pouring rain outside. At least we had the taxi so we had time to dry off a bit in between each place. These places are really beautiful and I don't think our photos will do them justice. By the way, most of the computers we're using seem to be older versions, so it doesn't look like I'll be able to upload any photos right now.
We also visited the local market full of food, clothes, home goods, etc. We did some serious bargaining/haggling, first with buying some tea and coffee. A woman who spoke English "helped" us out and then led us to her stall where she sold clothes. At first she said it was OK if we didn't buy anything, just come look. OK my ass! We ended up buying one thing from her, but she got really mad at us because we decided not to buy a couple other things we felt were too expensive for what they were - we can get them cheaper in NYC. At one point Lynn started talking to me in Spanish thinking she wouldn't understand, but she did! We had a heck of a time getting away from her. We explored a bit more of the city and then had dinner at a place on stilts frequented by Vietnamese that serves good grilled meat and seafood. Lynn had sauteed frog - yes, it does sort of taste like chicken, but I couldn't really stomach seeing his feet on the plate!
Tomorrow morning we get back on the train heading to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City to the rest of the world), an 18 hour train ride! The weather has been pretty comfortable so far, humid, but not unbearable. Saigon will most probably be pretty steamy, so I'm trying to prepare myself mentally for that. We've been meeting some really nice people here - the Vietnamese are incredibly friendly, well, except when you don't buy enough things from them in a market I guess. Will hopefully check back in with you all in a few days. Much love from both of us!
