we made it to Hoi An today - really charming place with 'old' (we've discovered this means before 1900, possibly because of the many wars fought in VietNam) Chinese-influenced wooden buildings. 2 nights per month (full and new moons) there's no electric lighting allowed and instead there are paper lanterns of all colors. we're not here during those nights but it's still a pretty cool place - only problem is it's so charming that it's FULL of tourists and the accompanying pleas to buy something, anything...
on the drive down from Hue (which is OK and probably a lot closer to real Vietnamese life - insane traffic of mostly motorbikes driven by crazy guys and women wearing face masks for 1 or more of the following reasons - to minimize their exposure to air pollution, and/or because they have a cold and don't want to spread it around, and/or to keep their complexions as fair as possible) we passed several bunkers left from the american war and visited a huge cave that was used as a hospital by the VC until it was bombed by the americans and exposed to the outside world. we've been wondering if we're hearing different versions of some of the history because we're american - it sounds like the french were much nastier (e.g. burning down an old pagoda in hanoi for spite just before being kicked out) and the japanese were the worst (causing 2 million people to starve by forcing them to replace rice planting with rubber during WW2) - no animosity towards the US as far as we can see (possibly because it's now considered ancient history) and we saw a tour guide today at the Cham museum in an Obama T-shirt
speaking of ancient, we apologized today because we always forget to hand over things (like our passports when checking into a hotel) with both hands as we've read is polite in Asia - we were assured that it's OK because it's always the OLDER person who hands things over with 1 hand and the younger has to use 2 hands! since we've encountered very few Vietnamese older than us, it's been no problem!
our hotel room here in Hoi An is amazing - old Chinese-style building with gorgeous woodwork, paper lanterns for lighting (causing it to be a bit dark but very atmospheric), a 2-room bath area (one with 2 sinks and towel rack and then a sliding wooden screen to the area with the huge bathtub, toilet and bidet - there's a courtyard for reception with huge porcelain planters and bas relief Chinese gods and goddesses
I realized just now I probably completely forgot to write about our cruise in the luxury junk on Halong Bay and will have to fit that in later - must sleep for our very active day tomorrow!
hope everyone had a Happy Valentine's Day - it's caught on big here and there were lots of flower sellers out yesterday (also a few little heart-shaped candy boxes, but bouquets of roses wrapped in colored cellophane seemed to be most popular)
