hue and hoi an

edit: pics and paragraphs added...

I've had limited internet access since the last post, so I haven't really been able to blog at all (obviously). However, Haskell and I have had a few good days in Hue and Hoi An. We found the city of Hue somewhat unremarkable, though we didn't do too much of the 'cultural' stuff, so maybe we missed a few things. The temps are pushing 100 every day and the humidity is equally oppressive, so doing much of anything during the day requires some significant motivation - which we obviously lack. However, we did manage to get out on Saturday afternoon for what turned out to be an adventurous ride on a scooter. I let Haskell do the driving since I wasn't quite ready to learn how to ride and deal with Vietnamese traffic all at once.

So we headed towards the beach, located about 15km north of Hue. We ended up driving through tiny little villages where just about everyone we passed seemed to be saying/shouting hello. It was actually quite fun. Adjacent to this particular beach (which is 50km long) are a series of cemeteries which you can ride through. After riding through these a little while, we found a quiet spot along the beach. Little did we know that we had been followed by a horde of 15 local kids who - from what we could tell - just wanted to play around with us. We had no idea what they were trying to tell us, but we all started having fun when they started showing off their break-dancing moves and we were snapping photos and showing them what they looked like. Quite funny.

We ended up not going in the water because of the crowd around us and instead decided to go back to another spot along the beach that we had passed and seemed more developed (with parking for the bike, food, etc...) Of course wouldn't you know it, about 10 minutes down the road we ran out of gas. Time for another adventure. So we walked around looking for anyone who could help, and quickly found a younger girl at a small store who had, what appeared to be, a single liter bottle of gasoline. After some confusing attempts at communication, we decided to poor this green liquid into the bike, not really knowing whether it was in fact gasoline. Of course to do that, you need to know where the gas tank is located - which we did not. With the help of another local who seemed thoroughly amused by our predicament, we eventually figured out it was under the seat and got the bike started again (this also was not easy since Haskell had run it completely dry - yes I fully blame him).

Eventually we got to the beach and took a quick dip in the warm water before making our way back to Hue. That evening we met up with someone I had met in Dali, China and happened to also be in town. We evenutally sucked about 5 or 6 other random people into our group and closed the bar down somewhere around 4:30am. Needless to say, the following day wasn't particularly productive either.

Anywho, now we're in Hoi An which we've enjoyed a bit more then Hue - it's a small town with plenty of tourists. The other thing Hoi An has plenty of is tailors. And though neither of us had intended to have a suit made while on vacation, I now have two new custom made suits which are being shipped back home. Haskell also broke down and had one made. The prices are obviously quite reasonable and having a suit made to my measurements was actually quite fun. We also did some more beach-bumming and met up with a few more people - including another admitted Kellogg student - last night for another night of fun around town. Though I did not stay out quite as late as Haskell, at least I still have my shoes and have not sworn off alcohol for today.

So... the last few days have been tiring, not particularly productive in terms of sightseeing, but immensely fun. Tonight we are headed to Saigon for our last stop in Viet Nam. I'll try to upload some pictures when I get there as the computers here are slow as molasses. Alright, time to go wake Haskell up for a game of pool.