Hu�

Good morning :)

I've finally found a place where I can upload my
photos but it's taking forever so I've decided to sent
an e-mail about Hue while I wait ;)

Hue was a fantastic little town on the river. I
rented a bicycle and went to see the old citadel. It
was a pleasant cycle and a nice wander through the old
ruins which date back to the 18th century. The
citadel itself was pretty but a slight disappointment
when compared with the ancient cities in Thailand and
Cambodia. The other side of that is that neither of
those countries have suffered through war for as long
as Vietnam has. After my bicycle ride to the Citadel,
I headed about 5 km southwest of the city to a
beautiful pagoda on the side of the lake. From there,
I cycled a bit further through town, checking out some
more temples and a religious park/alter. It was quite
a nice day on the bicycle but I was definitely in need
of a shower by the end.

The next day, I headed to a further pagoda set around
lily pads and a tomb by motorbike. There are plenty
of temples and tombs around Hue but once you've seen a
few, it's not really worth seeing piles more. I
wandered along the river, had lunch and then went to a
luxurious massage for an hour. They have similar
techniques to those used in Thailand but different all
the same. It's funny because here as in every other
Asian country I have visited, they have a saying "Same
same but different" and it applies to shopping, food,
sights, temples and massages :)

I'm in Hoi An right now and I feel like I could spend
the rest of eternity here. I'm going to relax at the
beach this afternoon after having a custom made suit
ordered for myself. The city has a relaxing, happy
atmosphere and I think that I'll stay a few days
before heading south to Nha Trang as there's stuff to
do and a beach a short distance away.

For those of you who have been curious, I've managed
to get a few photos up on the internet (it took 5
attempts and 2 hours of internetting) but they can be
found at the following link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/decouvert.sarah I may add
more later but for the majority of the photos, you'll
have to make time to visit with me;)

Thank you all for writing and I apologize about not
always being ableto get back right away.

Miss you all,
Sarah

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Ninh Binh and the DMZ

Good morning to all :)

I made it to Ninh Binh on the bus, secured myself a
hotel and headed off to the Tam Coc caves (about 8km
southwest of the city) on bicycle. I met up with two
local ladies who told me they'd take me to the caves.
We ended up at one of the ladies houses' and rented a
boat. (I left my rented bicycle at her house). We
paddled away and landed somewhere. They told me that
I had to walk up a hill, away from them, to get to the
caves and I was worried that they'd leave me there and
keep the bicycle so I didn't go to the caves :( I
don't know what their plan actually was but they were
annoying about a tip the whole way back in the boat.
I passed the "actual" place to catch a boat to see the
caves on my way back but didn't feel motivated to get
on a boat and see the caves.

The next day I went to see Ken Ga which was supposed
to be a floating village (Pascal - don't bother) and
the third day, to kill time, I went to see a cathedral
in a nearby town. The scenery around Ninh Binh is
beautiful and there are few tourists but I wasn't
wholly impressed with the sights. I then caught a
night train to the DMZ on a hard sleeper with a
British guy. This time, it truly was a hard sleeper
(a wooden plank with a straw mat on it). We had an
entreprising conductor who sold us the staff quarters
for about 6 CDN each so we slept well :)

I had a tour of the DMZ and spent the night in Dong
Ha. It was truly hard to imagine the war as there's
overgrowth and vegetation everywhere. My guide was
particularly informative, supported the south and
still believes in two separate countries for Vietnam.
I found it interesting how the north fighters have
received all of the glory and the south fighters have
received no recognition, despite the unification of
the country. The Vinh Moch tunnels were interesting.
It was 25m underground at it's deepest points and
people lived under there for 3 years, as many as 300
at a time. It was clausterphobic feeling after about
a half hour in the tunnels.

I have since made my way to Hué but I'll saved that
for another e-mail as I don't want to go on forever :)

Miss you all!!
Sarah

Tug - I've written you a postcard but you're not on
Canada411 so I need your address if you'd like to
receive it :)

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