No time to write just yet but here are some pics for now…TBC…

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means little blog action!

hahha usually I don’t have life and I’m not so ashamed to admit it. Year 2 is a lot more introspective and not about the par-tay.

Here are the note worthies of late:

1. After months of desire and a bit of fear, I actually drove a motorbike to Hue….unexpectedly the encouragement came from my roommate who drove all the way (108km) without breaking a sweat. The funniest thing is that we got soooooooooo dirty and didn’t notice until we looked in the mirror in our hotel room and saw army faces (streaked w/dirt) staring back at us. It took a bit of scrubbing to get that off us. Motorbiking is dangerous on highways and def something I wouldn’t necessarily recommend for the faint of heart….I had thoughts of death as we whizzed by humongo trucks with treacherous cargo (logs that didn’t seem so securely fastened, pointy sticks, buses with motorbikes stacked on top) and even with a helmet, it’s not safe. Motorbikes do not have seatbelts….Highways in VN have villagers, cyclists, students, cows and water buffalo, unsturdy and uber-polluting trucks, and other motorbikes as obstacles that can turn an afternoon’s ride into a stress-filled but still very cool adventure. We saw an 18-wheeler (ok maybe it was smaller) transporting Coke toppled over on the side of a mountain (part of the Hai Van Pass) with Coke streaming down and local residents (who came from who-knows-where since there aren’t houses on this mountain) collecting cans and milling around. Def picture worthy (sorry!) but we didn’t stop or have the sense as we passed to fully take in what was happening.

2. The point of the trip was to visit nearby hot springs (35km from Hue) since we were all sick of the rainy weather in Danang. SCORE! Good for a getaway and a soak with friends…bad b/c even in the “winter” I get tanned.

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Cheerio! With Marisa and Shueey (Aussie mate) in tow, I spent a rainy day in Hue. You’d think it’d be easy to get there when you look in the Frommer’s Guide, go to the tourist office, and wait for your car, but this is VN, and nothing is straightforward!

The car we rented had a few problems:
- It was leaking exhaust b/c we could smell it, but it didn’t leak enough for us to go delirious.
- The passenger side door could only be opened from the outside, and there was a perma crack b/w the window and the door so it never was fully closed.
- We had hoped for a CD player and had expected A/C, but instead, the speedometer didn’t even work, and the driver had to put in his own clock b/c the car didn’t have one! We think we might have been putting our lives into a bit of danger at this point.
- It was pouring for most of the day, and the backseats were damp so we think s/thing must’ve been missing b/w the seats and the bottom of the car.
- Our driver didn’t know Hue so we had to use our tourbook and give him directions on where we wanted to go. We felt like backpackers, but with a car!

It was dangerous but oh so fun…on the way back, we made sure we had stocked up on HUDA, Hue beer, and asked if our driver had lights that worked, knew how to change a tire, and would drive slowly. I also had cellphone reception for most of the ride just in case…

The city tour for us was a grey, wet mess. But the city had lots of history and ancient tombs of the past rulers of the Nguyen (my surname!) Dynasty. IT was a fun little ego boost for me to see my last name plastered all over the place, and yes, even though I was wet, I kinda felt like royalty.

Upon returning to Danang, I discovered that for the same price, I could have had a nice Mercedes van if I had rented from another place. Gotta luv that!!! It was a one-time deal and at least I had good company. As MK likes to say: Ghettofabulous!

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Wow! So only a stone’s throw away from Danang is the lovely, picturesque town of Hoi An. It’s actually a UN-designated world heritage site which is full of old houses, temples, and beautiful crafty stores.

Unfortunately, the pics will be slow coming cuz I can’t upload them quickly here but they will come once the IT guys at the uni “fix” (hack and “soup up”) my laptop.

Anyway, I spent an afternoon there, after being ripped off on the bus (they made me pay $1.50 instead of $0.50 but oh well), and within minutes, was charmed to death. I got a pair of dressy but “monsoon proof” sandals, two silk bags and an orange necklace for under $20! The necklace was a splurge though cuz I don’t really need it at this time. See Melodie, I can for sure get you one or two sans probleme!

And the food is delicious: their specialty is called cao lau, a marinated noodle with crispy rice paper and thinly sliced pork. And their milkshakes do not contain condensed milk so they will fit nicely into my diet.

And there are a million foreigners here! In Danang, they are few and far between but in Hoi An, I saw a French contingent from Normandy and they said that we were like cousins!!! Yippee! Then I met an Aussie family with redheaded 5 yr. old twins! Then I saw another cute French guy but he was a bit too “old” looking for me (aka il etait poilu) so not to my taste.

I need to post the pics cuz my fuzzy descriptions probably do not represent the beauty of this wonderful place.

And then on the way home, I faced incredible danger. I missed the last bus and had to decide b/w an hour long motorbike ride in the DARK (me = afraid!) or a doubly $$$ taxi ride. I flipped my coin so many times but decided on the motorbike cuz I have spent way too much here (see phone call posting). It was dark and I was scared but then it turned out that many ppl take this ride and so I had nothing to be afraid of. IT was fabo and I’m glad that I didn’t choose the safest route cuz then I’d be broke. The dust got to me eyes a bit but my driver was tres, tres amicable and so I had fun, challenged my “wussiness”, and got to see the area in another light. Cool!

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