Heading South!

First of all I am always so busy that its hard to update this thing! But ya, so from Hanoi, I took an overnight bus with beds down to Hue, which is central vietnam. The bus left at 6pm from Hanoi and arrived in Hue at 9am the next day... rough night of sleep, but I was with my German friend Falco, who is absolutely hilarious. This guy is a cook, and he owns his own business where he drives one of those roach coach trucks and caters during movie shoots all around Germany. However, he would never eat his own food, and he eats out for every single meal! He is here in Vietnam for 5 weeks, and the main reason he came was for this one island (Phu Quac) in south Vietnam.

Anyways, Hue was like the IndoChina capital back in the day, and there is a huge citadel closed in with big walls... Then within that citadel is another citadel, called the Imperial Palace, which is where the king ruled from. I took a day tour set up by the hostel, where we learned about the history of the city, saw the citadel, saw the imperial palace, went to some famous pagoda and saw monks singing and praying, and then took a ride on a giant dragon boat through the river in Hue. Also, I met these two nice british girls my age from London, and they told me they hired a guide and were gonna ride motorcycles from Hue to Hoi An. Me and my german friend Falco had already planned on doing that, but now we could tag along with the british girls AND have a guide so we wont get lost! A win-win if you ask me! a 6 hour motorcycle along the vietnamese coast and then up into the mountains for $27 with Falco, Mr. T, and the brits...sounds outstanding to me.

So then on Tuesday, our motorcycles arrived at the Hostel, however it was pouring rain... But we all said screw it we'll go anyways, as we had already paid. "Mr. T" was the name of our guide, and he was this skinny chain smoking vietnamese dude who also seemed like he was always drunk. But really was useful to make sure we didnt get lost. So me, Falco, the two british girls, and Mr. T rode motorcycles along the Vietnam coast for 3.5 hrs from Hue to Danang through the POURING rain, but man was it fucking awesome. We saw goats and cows and HUGE oxen crossing the road. We passed through tons of villages and all the little kids would wave and stuff. Feeling the rain on my face and hauling ass on a motorcycle along the ocean of Vietnam..can't top that. Then after stopping in Danang, the rain cleared up and we headed into the Marble mountains, which was really green and misty, and the air was really fresh. We stopped at an american bunker from the vietnam war, and I took pictures while this vietnamese lady kept trying to get me to marry her... "You from America? Look America Bunker! You not marred! Me no marry. You marry me? You my friend. You handsome. You my friend" hahaha it was funny but kinda sad too. Anyways, from the tops of the mountains we motorcycled another 3.5 hrs down into Hoi An, which reminds me of a small french town on a river. The big thing to do in Hoi An is get a tailored suit where you can pick the threading, the buttons, etc. etc. all for like $80-130. I dont have space in my bag though to do that. Thought about getting one and shipping it back home (which a lot of backpackers do), but I ran into some financial trouble:

Today, I went to the ATM, took out 1,500,000 dongs, which is like $80, and then walked away and left my card in the machine. I realized this like an hour later, and have spent the last 2-3 hours calling my bank and parents. All's figured out, and I have $80 which is going to last me the next 8 days... Then on the 28th (8 days from now) I'll meet up with my old roomate Nick and he'll bring me my Dad's credit card. In Vietnam you can definitely live off $80 in 8 days...but my problem is I'm travelling rather than living in one city, so for the bus between Saigon and Cambodia i'll likely not have the money.

Also, I bought a hop on hop off bus pass for the entire country of Vietnam, however the bus tonight from Hoi An to Nha Trang (a big beach party town) was completely full...So I have to ride on the back of "Mr. Dung's" personal motorbike up to Danang, and then from there ill catch a night train to Nha Trang. In vietnam, the way to get around is hop on some random guys motorcycle and he will negotiate a price. So it would be like if I had a motorcycle and hungout in LA and offered people rides at whatever rate I wanted. Pretty nuts, but so far everything has worked out and I havent been robbed or anything haha

Easy come, easy go in Vietnam, but its still rainy and overcast so Im ready to head south to the beaches. I want to upload photos, but Facebook is blocked in Vietnam...again, Communism! Apparentally there is this way to get around the block, but its kinda nice being on my own and detached from the real world back home :) more to come soon