Wow ....have I ever been lucky! Somebody is on my side because I have been all over Vietnam in the last 6 weeks and I havent seen 1 flood! I talk to people every day that say how terrible their trip through central Vietnam has been. Mudslides 3 feet deep over highways, flood waters 6 feet deep forcing people to stay in side their hotels for days at a time and watch the cock roaches climb the walls in groups of 20's and 30's, and people comming off of buses with their luggage dripping wet! I on the other hand have stayed just out of Typhoon range. There has been 2 major typhoons hit the central and northern regions and now as I write this a third is commin into the south, but not as big.
I landed in Hue a town that is close to the DMZ or (de militerized zone) the border that used to separate North Vietnam From the South during the war. I rented a motor bike and followed a tourist group on motorbikes as well. We visisted this Pagoda temple where this famous monk Quang Duc lived. He was taken from here to Saigon in this old 4 door car which was at the site. He was taken because of the protesting that many monks had been taking part in over the South Governments policies towards Bhudisim. He Got out of the car near Saigon and poured gas all over himself and set himself a blaze. He remained sitting in the Lotus position till he fell over dead, not a word out his mouth while people just watched.
The rest of the tour took me through rice fields on little concrete paths, and through beautifull villages. I met some really cool Argitinian friends that night and 1 guy from Chilie but he lived in Millwoods in Edmonton, Its really amazing how many people travel nowadays! The South Americans have so much passion in whatever they say...they could be talking about how good the garlic bread was they just had, but in spanish and the way they say it, it sounds like they just won the lottery!
Oh ya the rain...I left Hue for Hoi An because the rain was starting to fall there. I got to Hoi An and it was sun sun sun for 4 days. I met up with my English couterparts Dan and Marc again and had a blast! Hoi An is not a town you should bring women! It is wall to wall tailors and clothes shops. Not just Tailors, they will make you anything that you want, boots, sandals, suits, bed spreads, socks, dresses, anything you can find in a magazine they will make it for pennies! I know may a woman that bought so much in Hoi even though it was cheap that they had to shorten their trip!
I had a nice shirt made and it is now crumpled up in a pile in my packpack! Any way the water was comming down the day I decided to leave and it only got worse after I left!
I went on to Nah Trang where it rained for 3 days but I got 3 nice ones as well. I got to give surfing a try again here. It was really cool, if anyone has seen the movie Apocalypse Now, there is a scene where they are surfing in this bay, and it is the same place where these locals took me. It turrned out to be really quite dangerous because ya the waves were great but the rocks underneath were equaly as great ! If you got pushed intowards shore (like I did) because you were a rookie ( like I am) you paid for it. I just finished healing up from it recently (3 weeks later). Anyway the beach was beautifull and I stayed in a hotel that was 50m from the beach.
One night on the street I was talking with a guy and down the street I seen this old Army Jeep come screetching around the corner and run square into this motorbike taxi driver! I ran up and seen 3 totaly lodaded indiviuals fall out of the jeep. They were forgieners and really young. They had rented the Jeep and decided to cruize around after the bar. The guy they hit went to hospital and I seen him get put into a cab and he looked pretty lifeless. The owner of the jeep was this French wank who told me directly that he paid off the famly and the police last year after he hit a local guy with his jet ski! All it cost him was 100USD I couldnt believe it! I watched him pay his way out of this one as well, what a night!
I spent a few more days in Nah Trang, celebrated Halloween there as well. We all took our bed sheets and went as the Greeks. Some girls took palm tree leaves and made crowns and belts for us. We looked the part! I left soon after this for the city of Dalat cause the rain would not stop!
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