Na Trang to ???: I could really figure out exactly where we ended up on this drive, but it's a little more honest to have no clue. Was literally "drive in at night, leave in the morn" sorta thing. Along the way, we experienced more playing chicken (rice) with other cars, scooters buzzing by and car horns. We enjoyed lunch at a ramshakle of a restaurant that mocked Trinh for not reading perfect Vietnamese, then ate some bony chicken while ugly stray dogs sniffed below. From my memory, this drive, however, was marked by a stop at Trinh's long-lost relatives. This was another little village along the side of the road, where we met her aunt and cousin, and other cousin, and other cousin. OK, the entire town was out to see our arrival, and needless to say, they were intruiged. I can't claim to know exactly what a celeb feels like, but it must be something like this. Curious onlookers watching your every move. From praying to Buddha to eating mystery desserts, these cats have apparently never seen a real live American up close. The drunken uncle was a highlight, too. In all, Trinh got to pray to the relatives and see a mural of the fam up close, all worth it.
??? to Hoi An: Another great Vietnamese breakfast of fish noodle soup and breakfast, then on the road to Hoi An. This is where the temples really started to kick in. A bit like churches in Europe, temples are everywhere and you soon start to enjoy the smell of incense as pretty familiar. Buddha is a popular fellow in these parts, so he rewards them with warm weather, Coke milk and nice cities like Hoi An. Although we encountered white tourists again in Hoi An (yikes!), it's a really nice small city that has ancient influences from China. Nighttime gave us our first taste of the lanterns that are omnipresent throughout the city, which gives it an atmosphere like there's some holiday occuring.
Hoi An: We decided to give Phillip (and ourselves) a rest, and actually spend an entire day in one place. Well, worth it, since Hoi An was probably our fave stop on the trip. We decided to go local, and rent bikes to explore the city. This allowed us to see the ancient villages, numerous temples (more incense) and markets. In Vietnam, people are never at a loss to sell crap to tourists, but good Lord, these markets were like a firesale. From Tiger balm to jewellery and adidas shorts, we were hounded by vendors left, right and center. My response was a quick, "no, no thanks, no, nope, nah, um...lemme think, no" It was almost like zombies coming at us, one-by-one: American, buy a coconut...one dolla. After dodging those bullets, we biked our way to the beach. Great ride along the rice paddies and villages. On the way back, we even were intercepted by the end of the school day, which had us riding amongst throes of school kids on their bikes and wearing traditional uniforms. Classic. We debated among 3-4 lantern restaurants and then enjoyed what was some sort of Buddist holiday in town. The 14th of the month symbolizes something, which brought everyone out, including families, kids and of course tourists for music, games, etc.
Hoi An to Hue: Our final journey up north took us to Hue, another city with lots of history. The battles in Hue are depicted in the 1987 classic movie, Full Metal Jacket, famous for the line, "me so hooorny, me love you long time." I mean, that alone should make it a classic. While searching around for the spots where Raptorman and Joker fended off the enemy, we also caught the Perfume River (still trying to figure out origin of that name) and more temples, fotresses and castles. All very impressive, just couldn't say what related to what. That would mean referring back to the guide books, which are a ways away.
Hue: The second day in Hue brought along more temples, more Buddha and ridiculous looking traditional hats. We even got to see how they made those upside down bowl looking straw hats and purchased our very own incense, so we could take our very own slice of Vietnam back to America and Australia. This was the end of our journey north, which was a bit of a downer, as we decided to fly back to Saigon in leui of checking out the DMZ. No worries, two more days in Saigon and back to the scooter city.
I'll make this like a hockey game and break the Viettour into three segments. Grab yourself a drink, have a smoke and come back for the exciting conclusion of our journey (if anyone is even reading at this point).
