Goodbye Vietnam

Before you get into the thick of this post we should inform you of the most serious tragedy that has befallen our group yet: Our 175 gram Discraft UltraStar (Frisbee disc- for the non-ultimate players) fell victim to theft while we were swimming on the beach. It was an amazing tool in getting to know locals and other travelers. Whenever we would throw it people would ask to join in. On many many occasions we were flocked by local children who would play with it as long as we would watch them. People with cameras would stop and take film of it flying. They just haven't seen Frisbees here and are totally crazy about them. One day in a park we were throwing around and a group of at least thirty 20-28 year olds came over and were shouting and jumping and grabbing for the disc so we just let them throw it for a while. They were out of their minds with excitement watching it fly. The good news is that we have devised a plan to hook up with Ultimate players in Saigon and get a new one. Anyways...

Before sitting down to type, I read my most recent entry and it was like reading about someonelse's life. It seems like an eternity since I than. Vietnam is a wild place and in the short days we have been here we have experienced some of the most amazing parts of our trip. So right into the thick of things....

We returned from Ha Long Bay and stayed in Hanoi for 2 more nights and 3 full days. Hanoi is a manic city. The traffic and noise are almost unbearable to Alaskan ears. We basically walked around trying not to get hit by motorbikes the entire time because nothing was open due to the Victory Over The USA Celebration Weekend. We managed to get to the Ho Chi Minh Museum 15 minutes before it closed and saw a bunch of cool stuff from the war and Ho's life. It was weird - he's like their Abe Lincoln. We also went to Ho's Mausoleum and walked around the massive grounds. We were the only white people, and locals kept taking pictures of us. A group of young girls even had a man take their picture with us. ...(A brief side note - The BSG stance , or Battlestar Galactica stance , is a pose where a person puts one hand in the shape of a fist next to his temple and the other hand pointing off into the air on the other side of his head, fingers fully outstretched and face stoic and gazing towards the outstretched arm. We have been sneaking into people's photo's and posing in BSG stance for the entire trip, but Ho's Mausoleum was definitely the best ever in the world place for surreptitious BSGing.) ... We departed Hanoi on an overnight "sleeper bus" which was really nice except that the bunks were designed for 5'5" Vietnamese men, not 6' Alaskans. It was rough getting any wink, but we managed, and arrived in Hue in the morning.

We checked-in to a $10/night/person Hotel with a pool, TV, AC, restaurant, and laundry service, and napped. Around Noon we left and rented Motorbikes for the second time this trip. This experience was far different from the last. The roads were pretty crazy and about 10k from the city (we were trying to find a beach) the rain started to fall like Katrina. About 1k from the beach I used my front brake while trying to slow down and it seized on me. I don't know how fast I was going, but it threw me over the handle bars and I ended up pretty roughed up from the concrete (I still have some ugly gashes that i keep reopening). It hurt, but more so I was scared. Motorbikes are serious business, and the roads here are nuts. Anyways, we made the beach and all swam in the pouring rain and the water was warm and there was no one there except us. It was our first time on the ocean this trip and it was wonderful to be in the warm water and float around.

Next day we ran into a 28 year old woman who was traveling alone and needed some comradery, so we agreed to let her ride on Ty's bike while we went to see some of the historical sights around town. Unfortunately there are no maps of the city's here so it's impossible to get anywhere. No kidding. There are no maps of Hue in Hue. About 5k out of town we were hopelessly lost and a local man pulled up beside us and said he was a tour guide. We were skeptical, but paid him 6USD to show us around anyways. Turns out it was a great idea. First we went to an ancient tomb. The architecture was unbelievable. It was like no place I have been in my life. There was moss and vines and ancient Obelisks, as well as the biggest spider we have seen yet. It was in a bathroom stall, and immediately upon finding it John exited the bathroom and finished the job outside. Next sight was a Buddhist Monastery where we chanced upon a chanting session. It was unbelievable. There were old men and children all singing gutturally and banging on large wooden rounds and steel cymbals. We got a video and some pictures. That night we played soccer-tennis and dipped our legs in the pool. Unfortunately the pool was not chlorinated and we forgot to shower afterwards. This led to some nasty bumps that itched so bad we had trouble sleeping for three days.

The next day we went to the Demilitarized Zone from the Vietnam war. Our tour guide was a young Vietnamese man who made the USA sound like the Germans in WWII. The anti-American vibe was pretty strong. At one point we were propositioned by a man selling American Dog-Tags that he had dug up from a local battleground. It was really sad and made me really angry (first time in a while) that he was hawking such sentimental and serious remnants for 2USD. We saw bombs and craters and tanks and choppers and a whole slough of military paraphernalia. The highlight of the day was crawling/walking through 35m deep tunnels from the war that were home to soldiers and civilians. One of our guides was severely mentally handicapped from exposure to Agent Orange and as we were leaving was drawing pictures of American war planes, that had bombed him while he was 6 years old and lived in the cave, in the sand. It was awful. Next to Auschwitz the DMZ was one of the heaviest days of my life.

Traveling on, we were lied to about being able to get a sleeper bus to Nha Trang, and had to spend 18 hours on a bus packed full of locals on terrible seats only to arrive at 6 AM, after getting 3 hours of sleep, with nowhere to stay. Like good backpackers we headed to the beach and spent the day bumming around a chilling before heading to bed early in the afternoon.

The next day we signed up for a Scuba School International course to get certified as open-water divers. I'm going to quit blogging here because SCUBA diving deserves a post of it's own.

We have included another round of pictures. They are of a small boy in a village near the DMZ, a temple in Hue (the one w/ Tyler), the monastery where we saw monks chanting, tunnels where villagers lived during US air raids, and Ho's Mausoleum.

Much love, and Congratulations to Matt Dyal and Macrina on your Graduations!!! We are trying to call but it's not going so well. Also, a little teaser, three hours ago we graduated from Scuba Schools International and are now licensed open water divers. That will be the topic of next post. Very exciting stuff.

Later, Christopher and John