From Hue

Hue. Not Hue as in Hugh but Hue as in Hway. We all made that mistake too. Hue is in central vietnam, just below the demilitarised zone where the most intense fighting took place during the vietnam war.

This hotel i'm in atm is great for internet- its fast enough to upload a few pics and lets me access yapped. Go to my flickr for a quick snapshot of the things i've been getting up to here in Vietnam so far.

For the past 10 or so days i've been exploring the north of vietnam, starting in hanoi, then making my way to halong bay, cat ba and sapa. Halong bay was incredible. Emerald waters with rock structures jutting out of the water. Had me my first swim since beginning this trip, with a junk we were travelling on acting as a good jump off point. Halong bay is in contention for a unesco world heritage site, and i think it deserves it.



Cat ba was great for kayaking, which we spent nearly 4 hours doing in some incredibly baking mid day sun. I would love to take up kayaking back home, purely to get that bruce lee body, but something about the cold water keeps me away. Yes i know, i'm a wuss.



Sapa is in the highlands, and so the scenery and climate is alot different. We stayed with a local family in a homestay which was nice, playing poker with stones for chips, and then eventually using real money as chips. We all got our money back in the end. Learnt a good vietnamese card game that's very similar to big 2, but not quite. Or, as the Vietnamese say, same same but different. Highlight of the sapa trip was trekking through rice paddies and seeing how the locals use an ingenious water catchment system to keep their rice fields wet. Vietnam is the second largest exporter of rice in the world, and given that rice is probably my favourite staple food, it was great seeing where alot of it comes from. Respect to the rice.



Hue is also fascinating. We did a royal dinner last night, where we drew straws to decide who would be dressed as the emperor and emperess. I won and got to sit at the head table, with my four mandarins eating a level below me. I can see why power is so addictive. I could get used to having 5 musicians entertain me as i eat. And every time someone looks at me funny, death would ensue. Brilliant. I couldnt however get used to wearing so many clothes in such a hot place. Which is why i think the story about the emperors clothes involves him being naked. He wasn't stupid or proud or whatever the moral of the story was, he was bloody baking under all the fabric.



And now we continue our trip southward, which fills me with anticipation because i'm craving some clear water and beach. We're off to Hoi An tomorow, which is world famous for its many tailors. Apparently you bring them a magazine cut out of ANYTHING, and they'll recreate it for you for next to nothing, ready to try on the next day. I'm gona get some shirts for work.

Oh and i have travelled on 3 overnight trains so far (12 hours each time). One was amazing, one was ok and one was terrible. But fortunately sleeping helps take away the motion sickness. I was however gutted to miss the champions league final while on one of these trains, but was glad to see Man u won it. I miss pro evo. What can i say. I'm human.

Until next time...