Longwalkhome

We have been holed up in Hue, which is smack dab in the middle of Vietnam.  This city was a the center of the old Vietnamese Empire prior to the French colonization in the 1880’s.  We are in the section of the city called the Citadel.  10km on a side this part of the town is seperated by a moat, huge walls, and ring impeneratable cyclo drivers yelling “WHERE YOU GO!”

The rain and mist makes gives this place a really exotic feel right now, very happy here.

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We are across the street from the Imperial Enclosure (more walls, old palace, and place called the Forbidden Purple City (snerk!)).

Today we hired a driver and went up past the old DMZ and checked out some of the war remnants.  Highlight, the Vinh Muoch Tunnels.  A sprawling series of tunnels dug by residents of the village to escape the heavy bombings from the US.  Since the weather is a little rainy the place was deserted, we were the only people there.  We wandered around unground in tunnels that I could almost fit in.  Kate boldly lead us up a “path” that turned into “a perilous washed out gully” which we slide down…becoming covered in red clay mud!  AWESOME!

We actually ended up outside the park by a quite a bit and had to walked around the barb wired outside and come back in the front gate.  Needless to say, the ladies selling stale mentos were quite amused.

We are off to Saigon again tomorrow.  Home on Monday, weird.

Tossed some more photos up on flickr

Most Surreal Part of the Day:

Quang Tri Church, a site of intense fighting after the North crossed the DMZ.  This place was on the side of highway 1.  The roof is long gone, but the walls and raised diases in the middle is in tact.  The place is covered in bullet holes.  Absolutely just peppered with them.  There are even a long line of them on the ceiling. 

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Still suffering from massive burning, so we nixed the beach today and spent a nice mellow day hanging out in restaurants and watching people go by.  I drank 3 bottles of sprite before noon, take that teeth.

Tossed some more photos up on the flickr-net.

Does it wig anyone else out how easy it is to stay in communication now?  The first time I went to Asia (10 years ago now) there were internet cafes in a few major towns, some countries here didn’t really even have them.  Now I can toss photos out, upload videos, and pretty much stay in constant contact.  The world is much smaller.

We hit the beach and it hit back. There was a gap of about 15 minutes when I was sun screen free (being drug along the sandy ocean bottom by waves tends to make that happen) and the sun schooled me! I have an almost exact replica of the Euro-Asian Landmass (minus the Indian sub-continent) burned on my left side. Niiiiice.

Hey, Science, how about figuring out a way to block that sun a little, eh? Just saying, we can put a man on the moon but we can’t build a giant umbrella in space to protect me? Sounds like Big Sunscreen has some politicians in their pocket. Walk up America!

Tomorrow, back to the beach. Go super sun burn healing powers, GO!

Oh, by the by, the beach is lovely. We camped out in some beach chairs in front of a restaurant drinking fresh squeezed orange juice. The sand is very fine and stretches to the Northern horizon, actually quite a bit further (20 miles or so). Lines of breaking waves line up and roll in slowly, great to play in.

Off the breakers there are fishing boats and the funny wicker boats that must have seemed like a good idea here.

Boat Builder One: “So, check out my new boat design! It’s perfectly round and made of wicker! Whoo-Boy, this sombeech is going be awesome!”

Boat Builder Two: “Right. Like it, very bowl like. Although, won’t it just go in circle if someone were to row it?”

BB1: “Oh, well. Hey, to be honest…I don’t know. I, personally, don’t go near the water, terrifies me frankly. Plus, did you ever wonder where fish “take care of business”? Ew.”

BB2: “EXCELSIOR!”

Snerk!

Add more photos on the ole’ trusty Vietnam Photo set

Ah, the rain and overcast has passed! We had awesome sunshine yesterday, which worked out well since we went on a sunrise trip to the near by My Son temple site.

My Son is one of the Hindu inspired sites that dote S.E. Asia (Bagan, Ankor, Attuyia (spelling!) are others). Hitting it at sunrise, we were the only group there, about 10 of us, I led Kate immediately away down a cool winding path opposite of the tour group. We only ran into them for about 2 minutes the whole time, excellent.

This place was built by the Cham, a people who lived in Central Vietnam and had a pretty large empire until they cheesed off a Vietnamese king and were absorbed.

Hoi An is absolutely charming. We are now BFF with some tailors here, I am coming home with a stack of custom fit clothes. Plus two, rather silly looking shoes I had made. Good Stuff.

Thinking we will loiter here in Hoi An for another day, then off to Hue for a few more days. Home in little more than a week (yiiikes!).

H’ok my Monkey Headed friends, updates!

We spent a few days in the town Nha Trang, renowed as a “party town” on the South China Sea.  Oddly, this visit coincided with a change in weather.  On the plus side, we now know the Vietnamese word for “TYPHOON! RUN!”

Not really, but it is rainy and windy here right now.  For the last few days it has been about 80 and overcast with occassional heavy downpours of warm water.  Weird.

That didn’t stop us from spending a whole day at the beach.  The up shot was that the ladies on the beach selling fresh (like, right in front of you) boiled crab were totally into us.

Oh, we got lost one night trying to find this mythical place that served Schneitzel….ended up in some hole in the wall.  We ordered several beers and the weirdest things on the menu.

Kate had crab (an entire, angry looking boilded beast) and I ate a few frogs.  Weirdest part:

“This isn’t egg plant! THIS IS FROG SKIN!”- We were big hits.

We headed to Hoi An today, and I must say this place is one of my top aisian picks.  Firstly, there are about 2% of the motor bikes on the road as anywhere else.  Secondly, it has a real architectual style dating from the 1900’s (kind of).  It is protected, in that they don’t let people put up 5 story tell neon-light colored discos next to the historic building.

We have been here for a few hours (we flew from Nha Trang this morning, beat out a 12 hour bus ride over bad roads). So far I was fitted for custom shoes ($15!), ate a crazy good lunch (Fish in Banana leaf for me), and got a nice little hotel with a view over an old bridge.  Plus!  We watched part of Back to the Future Two.  Major cultural tour de force.

Some random things:

“Happy Birthday to you” is phone ringer numero uno, as long as it is set to “deafing loudness”.

When confronted with too good of food, I simply utter “Wow! Woooooow!Wow!” over and over again.  This has removed any respect for American Oration these folks had…also, the waitresses find me hillariously ackward.

Some houses have mini gas stations out front of their places, just a cart that says “Xang” and pump.  Looks like about 5 gallons max.

Hoi An is known as a place to have clothing, shoes, whatever made.  It should better be know as home to the world’s most powerful sales girls.

Some photos of the trip so far on our Vietnam flickr set.

Painfully slow connection prevents me from posting them here.

The world is very small. Please, enjoy for you very special video of driving in Dalat. Reflection from helmet catches most scenic view for you. Very gooood!

Dalat Crusing from longwalkhome on Vimeo.

In the past, when I was younger, unmarried, and possibly invincible I would rent a motor bike and get good a lost in country side.  Good times indeed.

Now, I prefer to go the safe route and hire a driver (actually two, one for Kate as well).  We used the very well organized Easy Riders.  This group grew out of local taxi drivers who covertly (Hanoi wasn’t always so big on tourists hob-nobbing with locals) drove outsiders around.  Now that the country has gone full bore into tourism, these guys have been given license to provide top-notch (bad ass?) rides to whities.  Speaking excellent english, they can be hired for $20 to take you to all the sights near Dalat.

Having just got back, I am psyched about these guys.  We had a great little trip, about 100km and 7 hours (lots of stops) we scoped out some of the local industry.  Happily, this wasn’t hokey, factory tours.  They stopped by at families’ houses and kind of let us wander around asking questions.  Checked out a coffee plantation, silk farm (AWESOME), various temples and buddhas, and checked out a very neat waterfall (picture a Klipping book, minus the child reared by wolves).

Random observations:

The male silk worm only lives 3 hours outside of the cocoon, entirely in the process of “continuing the species”.  Wink Wink, nod nod.  Of course he is then eatten by the female.

Kate’s eyes are celebraties here.  I feel invisible (except for my head, more on that) whenever her peepers are out.  I totally get what Dave Mustane feels like now.

My head is beautifully, freakishly huge.  Whenever I strapped the tiny helmet on my mighty goard of a head, it solicited great interest (Laughter and pointing) from anyone in visual range.  Seriouslly, the helmet looked like I was wearing a shinny Yahmeka (maybe not quite).

Even with a huge head, some wise guy needs to make a “happy buddha” comment about me.

Okay, off to shower, nap, and wash the shame of huge headedness from my soul.

Love,

Ryan 

Still in the town of Dalat, really feeling good.  After changing to a new hotel (upgraded to a deluxe 5th floor with soaking tub, $25) after we left the $6 beauty we had the first night.

Walked around the town, enjoying the lack of heavy traffic, the hills, and the very market.  Oh the market, really Kate’s first foray into the sometimes dicey world of open air meat, spices, and limited ventillation.  Surprise, surprise, this is one the top 5 markets I have ever been too.  We bought lots of weird fruits, things I hadn’t seen before, a prison shank to cut the fruit, and Kate took some captivating photos of the toads and eels in the Squiggle Town, home of the freshest eats.

Despite the fact this town isn’t exactly off the tourist track, we were the only ones in the big market.  I got some serious winking, nodding action down, while Kate shrewdly bought everything we were offered in the way of snacks.  No complaints.

 Dalat is one of 5 towns I would happily live in, one of only a few places I have been to world-wide.  Of course, that means Kent, Wa is off the list forever.  Time to sell of my flannel.

Tomorrow, the country side from the back of a motor bike.

Ah, Dalat.  We bugged out of the HCMC this morning and made our way to Dalat, up in the highlands.  It is probably 75ish out now and it feels great!  Everyone here is wearing jackets…except me.  I am in my traditional vacation garb of european cut swim bottoms and tube top.

We made the usual tourist rounds in HCMC earlier this week.  Here is something surprising, turns out I am much much bigger than a VC.  We learned this by using a simple method of shoving me in an old tunnel system North of HCMC (technically it reached all the way into the city) and observing how I couldn’t back out but had to power through the tunnnel.  Poor Chu Chi (pronouced, Coochie) Tunnels…survived the war but now have ruts drug through them by my mighty elbows.

 The highlight of our trip so far was hanging with my Step-Cousins, Tim and Jenny.  They have been in Vietnam on business for about 7 years.  Tim gave us a top notch tour of the city, lots of insight, and some good laughs.  Great folks that went way above and beyond for Kate and I. 

 More updates in the next day or so, folks.  Any questions?