Spotty internet access as usual. i have no idea how people actually live blog from indochine. Marcia and I are a little homesick and feeling a bit zapped for energy as we head in to our last few weeks, we leave for India on Saturday. We arrived in Saigon today, from Hoi An and here’s an email from a few days back:
Greetings from Vietnam. So we’re in a small coastal town, half way down the coast between Hanoi and Saigon. It’s called Hoi An and the town is known for it’s gorgeous center full of 200-300 year old buildings and it’s amazing array of tailors. The guide books warn you, that when you arrive you can’t survive a trip here without purchasing a new wardrobe and they were right! I had a button down shirt that i’ve worn to death and so I had them make two new versions of it (for $15). Marcia and I both got jackets made and sneakers too (in chinese silk!). Hoi An is a shopper’s dream, it’s like one big giant mall, but every store has something THAT YOU MUST BUY!
It’s really a gorgeous town too, today we rented a motorbike and took off into the surrounding towns, to get out of the shopping mindframe We came across a bunch of older ladies picking through the rice fields. They were very nice and loved the attention this blue-eyed blonde-haired foreigner was lavishing on them.
Everyone in Vietnam is in love with Marcia, the guys and the girls as well. all the girls remark how beautiful she is and they wonder if she’s japanese or chinese, they love her skin color (and of course her spotless complection). i love watching all the girls give marcia attention. she secretly loves it, although she’d never admit to it. Of course I stick out like a sore thumb and Marcia has begged me to cut my hair on several occassions (from getting a bit too much unwanted attention).
Hanoi was amazing, but large and smokey. 10 gazillion motorbikes and and old quarter that was essentially one giant market, with each item being sold on it’s concurrent street: hat street, backpack street wooden bowls street, sweater street, christmas tree light stree, fishing pole street, etc… It made Phnom Penh look like Puerto Vallarta.
After Hanoi, we took the night train to Hue, an old imperial city with a huge citadel and tombs of several emporers. Hue is known for it’s cuisine and I tried everything I could find. It was cold and rainy and humid. At one point I woke up on the train to see frost on the ground outside. We then took a bus from Hue through Denang and on to Hoi An. These areas are seperated by a huge mountain range that essentially makes the weather systems completely different. Here in Hoi An it’s been rainy, but when the sun comes out it gets hot and it’s on the ocean, so we went to the beach today to find people sunbathing. such a change.The vietnamese countryside is insanely beautiful, and if there was ever a part of our trip i’d love to do by motorcycle, this is it. Vietnam is nothing like I had expected. It’s quite mountainous. rice fields everywhere and then abrupt mountains shooting into the clouds. there is tons of history here and the underlying culture is much more chinese-influenced then I had imagined. Pagodas, temples and towns right out of something you’d see in a movie like “crouching tiger, hidden dragon”. the people are a little hard to deal with. we do find sweet people here and there, but mostly people are very pushy and in your face. it’s most definitely a cultural thing, but i wouldn’t use “relaxed”, as an adjective to describe the vietnamese. daily life is hectic and everyone wants something from you. it can wear you down, for sure.
On wednesday we move on to Saigon and then saturday we are off to India. Time is flying by now. and I can’t believe we have another month of traveling. we’re definitely getting a little tired. we’re gonna need a vacation from our vacation.
we love you all and miss you. we have a million and one stories to tell…
love you,
// mundo y masha
