Busy life in the North

We are still in Vietnam and enjoying our stay very much. The north has a little different feel than the south, a little crazier and hectic with hints of India chaos and pestering, but still great. We spent 5 wonderful days in the very atmospheric town of Hoi An. Wow, I need to go back there with the girls because the shopping (i.e. custom taylors that will make anything and everything for you at a very, very cheap price). It was hard to walk around the place and not buy much. Like many places we've been we keep saying that if we were here on a shorter vacation and had some slush money, oh the amazing things we could buy. So, if anyone needs a fresh new custom suit, winter coat, wedding dress, or anything else go to Hoi An.

Aside from the shopping, the town was old and crumbly and so dang cute. It looked like a modern designer came through and created this old french look, exept that it was authentically old and french and a designer couldn't recreate the buildings to look as great as these. Exploring the streets and buildings was a highlight of Vietnam.

We took a scooter one day and visited China Beach which was a popular spot for the U.S. troops to have a day off while over here during the war. The beach was nice and empty but the currents were too strong to swim. We had and interesting lunch on the beach (no menu's in english) and I think that this is the hardest country so far to be a quazi vegetarian, everything is made of meat, and strange meat at that. We stopped at some interesting temples and mountains made of marble on the way back to Hoi An.

After Jared successfully pried me away from Hoi An (seriously ladies, go there) we went to Hue to see some more historical stuff. We are getting a little board of temples, forts, stupas, palaces, museums, etc... but there is still so much to see while we are here, so we must press on. The town itself wasn't real great, but we did see old cities ruined by the wars and masoleums for the past emporers who ruled in the 1800's.

We left Hue a little early so that we could get a visa extension in Hanoi before ours expired. This required taking an overnight bus (haven't done one of those in a while) to Hanoi, the Capital city of Vietnam. It is interesting to see the difference in the local people of the north v.s. the south. Its more hurried up here and the sellers/taxies/touts are more persistent and in your face but it is buzzing with life. We took a short overnight tour of Halong bay but probably should have done one more day. The tour itself was cheap but wasn't great (setting aside the rats and cockroaches on the boat, I guess its like they say, you get what you pay for), but the bay was absolutely beautiful. We slept on the boat with a great family from Australia who made us feel part of their own since we were the only outsiders. We swam and kayaked for a bit around the bays limestone Karsts and saw a few caves that were all lit up with different colored lights (felt a bit hoaky and disneylandish, but much of the tourists sites are like that here in Vietnam). It would have been nice to have our own boat and guide to explore more of the bay, but we enjoyed the beauty regardless.