It has been a while since we have wrote anything, thanks to the very bizarre restrictions on vietnamese internet use. so we are now all the way down in Ho CHi Minh CIty. it is monday and we will be leaaving on wednesday to go to Cambodia.

after we left Hanoi we went to Halong Bay for 3 days on a junk cruise. it was a really beautiful place but our trip was a bit sketchy. we also spent one night on Cat Ba island. it had really nice beaches but it was a wierd mix of a ghostland with high rise hotels. so then we had our night on the boat which was nice and a cruise back the next day, great weather the whole time.

then back to Hanoi for some shopping at the enormous markets. we then took the night bus down to Hue.

Hue was really cool. we went to some of the tombs of the old chinese rulers, then to a huge pagoda that was really beautiful. and there was an active buddhist monestary there that was the home to the monk who burned himself alive in Ho Chi Minh back in the 70s. they still have the car that he used to drive himself down to HCMC. we also went to the Citadel which was built by the Chinese rulers and then later used as the hiding place for the Viet Cong during the vietnam war.after about 3 days we decide to keep moving and headed down to Hoi An.

Hoi An, what a great place, although the weather was a bit crap, we loved it here. probably because there was so much stuff to buy. every store was a clothes shop, a custom clothes shop! it is a very small and very old town, but easily the nicest people we have met in vietnam so far.

so one night after dinner, on our walk home , we stopped and had some things made. we were seduced by the cute little vietnamese women, and the ridiculous low prices! there was also an amazing market there, and the best fried wontons we have ever had, so we had them every day. on our last day we walked along the river and stopped at a place selling glasses of beer for about $0.18! we had a lot of time to kill.

so eventually our time was up, having repacked our bags and stuffing them with our new clothes we got on the bus headed for Nha Trang. another over-night ride but there was no sleep involved. we had a bit of an argument with the drivers... but no sleep. we arrived in Nha Trang the next morning but it was pouring and since its a beach town, we chose to keep going.

we got to Dalat about 7 hours later. dalat is a hill town and it is significantly colder than the rest of vietnam. we booked a room, watched a DVD, and then slept from about 5pm to 9 am the next day- it was pitiful. but again we had rain, so we walked about town and went to the food market. some very interesting choices and some serious health codes being violated!

after 3 days in Dalat, we are now down in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh). We have booked our bus to Cambodia, so we have 2 days left here. its nice weather and really busy, but theres lots to see.

we spent the moring in the US Embassy beacuse i had to get more pages in my passport, but we will be going to some of the war museums and some palaces. well thats all for now, and not long before we will be in our next country! its flying by!