It's been a little while since I last updated the blog, so here goes.

We only got to spend one day in Hue, but it was enough time for me to fall in love with it. Before my visit the only reason I knew of Hue was because of the Vietnam war. In high school I we were studying the Tet Offensive and we saw this picture of the citadel in Hue after it had been recaptured by the Americans and the South Vietnamese. I'm not doing history any justice in this description, but think of it this way.. The fighting there was so intense during the North Vietnamese offensive and subsequent counter attack the 5,000 South Vietnamese troops were killed. As you can imagine, the city was pretty much leveled during the war, but a lot has been reconstructed since then. The spent the day going to the various sites around the city on motorbike (we didn't rent motorbikes, we just rode on the backs of them - we're not that crazy). My favorite part was definitely the Citadel. It's hard to describe, but its enormous. There you are walking down back roads and you just want to get lost amongst the colonial architecture (restored) and the many gardens.

The tour of the demilitarized zone the following day was... Well, it was a let down. The tour guide knew very little and his English wasn't that great. BUT, I was still happy to have visited it. It's one thing to visit the Vietnam War memorial in Washington DC with the names of the more than 58,000 American soldiers that died in the war. It's quite another thing to walk on the battlefields where those soldiers fought and died. Names like Khe Sanh which are being forgotten by more Americans each day are one thing when learned about in books. It was... I can't even think of the word. But it was, at the same time, an amazing and terrible experience walking to various bunkers and seeing the pictures in the accompanying museum. I definitely left the DMZ with a different outlook than the one with which I had started the day.

That night we took a night bus back to Hanoi so we could meet Drake's sister who was flying in from Taiwan. I thing about non-Western countries... Prescription medications are easy to come by. Even unknowingly!!! Knowing how much trouble I had had on the first night bus ride to Hue, I stopped in a pharmacy and asked for a sleeping pill. The lady gave me Diazapan - but under a different name. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is a heavy duty sleeping pill used in hospitals and can only be purchased with a prescription in the US. I got on the bus. Took one of the pills. Didn't fell tired. Suddenly I woke up and we were in Hanoi. And I was groggy all morning!

I'm not the biggest fan of Hanoi. I can't tell you exactly why. I just don't like it. We spent the day going to the Hanoi Hilton (another experience that's hard to explain), a church and some other sites. The neatest part was a water puppet show we went to that night. The stage is a pool of water. The puppeteers are hidden behind a screen, yet they still manage to move the water puppets (that can be seen by the audience) to the music and the plot of the skit. I have no idea how they do it.

The next day we fled Hanoi (none of us really liked it) and went to HaLong Bay - considered one of the seven natural wonders of the world. It is a bay east of Hanoi that is marked thousands of rock formations jutting out of the water. It is truly an incredible sight. We also splurged on this part of the trip. You can get rock bottom rates on trips out to the bay. We decided to pay a little extra to ensure good quality. It definitely worked. The first day we drove there on the bus (the roads were so bumpy again I couldn't even read a book) before taking a bus towards a private island. On the way there we stopped and went sea kaying. That night we swam in the ocean off of the hotel's private island, ate a 5 course meal and slept - very well. The next day was the best part, though. We took a boat to the main town and went trekking and rock climbing through the only western certified climbing agency in the bay. The trek was.. Absolutely brutal. We hiked up and down hills. The sun was hot. Really hot. The rocks reminded me of spikes. I was very afraid of falling. But, the climbing in the afternoon definitely made up for it. There we were, climbing up these rock formations that we had been looking up at all day. The experience was incredible. But, the heat and humidity were killer. After every climb it looked like people had just jumped in a swimming pool. I tried to stay hydrated while climbing, but I think it was impossible. Afterwards I chugged 1.5 liters in less than 2 minutes. That night we slept VERY well.

The next morning we biked to a hospital cave (the North Vietnamese built a hospital in a cave during the war. Incredible), before heading back to Hanoi. But, no sooner had we arrived when we got on a plane headed for Saigon - hoping that that city would be more promising.

That get me through last Wednesday night. I'll try to do another blog entry tonight to catch up. Now I have to go get in a car for 4 hours.