Happy in Hoi An

We've just finished our five day motorbike tour, and it was amazing. Our "Easy Rider" tour guides Hieu and Thien were super enthusiastic and know everything about Vietnam. It started with a visit to Thien's house to meet his family (his father was the first Easy Rider) where they fed us green tea and mulberries and a cup of "medicine" (ginger wine) for me because my tummy hurt that morning. Then to the oldest house in Dalat, Thien's grandmother's, where we met her and his uncle. They took good care of us the whole way; stopped often so our bums didn't get to sore, practically force fed us to make sure we had energy for the next leg of the trip and so we wouldn't get hungry "half night", and made sure to take our picture in front of everything we saw just about.

Most people we pass by have never seen a "foreigner" before, all the kids wave, yell and jump up and down, the adults often stare in awe, and the men all want to know if we're married. Thien said he was jealous because everyone kept telling them how beautiful they thought we were while he got no compliments. Not suprising considering they all covet white skin (all the women are always wear gloves and masks in the sun) but still, a big boost to the self confidence.

The Ho Chi Minh trail was incredible, reminded me alot of driving through B.C. .... but with more jungle. The only disappointment was not seeing any gorillas, but we did get to pet a baby monkey. We learned all about how they make silk, and how they grow everything and what they use it for - rubber, rice, tapioca, mushrooms, coffee, bananas, pineapple, tabacco, peanuts, cashews, lots of other fruit that I can't remember the name of, and I'm sure I left some out. We visited numerous waterfalls, a couple pagodas and war memorials. We ate lots of different food NOT including dog, cat, snake, scorpion, crickets or monkey brains, but they do eat all of that. We saw how they weave baskets, make bricks, coffins and canoes, altogether an informative 5 days, mind you I probably already forgot half of what he told us, should have been taking notes.

We ended up staying in fairly nice guest houses apart from the cockroaches, which we're almost used to. Not really actually, neither of us showered this morning cause there was one in the bathroom, 3 inches long or so, but I managed to pee in there still, all the while keeping my eye on it to make sure it didn't come to close. We almost didn't shower the day before yesterday too cause there was a frog in the bathroom that could jump from floor to ceiling, we had Hieu shoo it out for us though (with a stick, he wouldn't touch it either)

Robin can fill in some of the blanks here, this leg of the journey was to much for one entry. We're in Hoi An now and pretty tired. Our room is really nice with controls for air conditioning, fan and lights on the bedside table, plus satellite T.V.! I don't think I'll leave the room tonight, they also have room service. Wish us luck on not going WAY over budget here. There are tailors everywhere that will make you anything from any fashion magazine at a pretty good price, just thinking about what I could have made makes me giddy.
Love and miss you all,
Carla