Wasting Away in Japanese Slipperville

We woke up in a hot sweat Wednesday morning. I didn’t know if I was sick or just extremely hot. It turns out the hotel saves energy by turning off the AC around 6 AM,,,, not a good idea. Such a gorgeous hotel and a beautiful room went way downhill when the AC automatically went to a LOW setting. Our guide explained that the city regulates electricity so they are forced to do it. If you communists are reading this,,, bad idea,,, keep the AC on,, keep the tourists happy.

Katie and I packed quickly, took cold showers and headed down to breakfast where the AC was still in full force. I love Katie for thousands of reasons but on the top ten list is her ability to get ready quick when she wants to. Since the heat woke us up an hour earlier than planned we had some time to kill at breakfast. At 8:30 our guide showed up and we started our journey to Hoi An. But wait,,,, we forgot our “masterpieces” from yesterday,,, after about 5 minutes we realized we forgot our artwork and had to do a U turn and grab it…. Back on the road… 3 hours from Hue (pronounced Whey) to Hoi An.

The drive was much like the rest of the country. There were a lot of fields, lots of people working very hard for what we learned was a little amount of money. There were a lot of boats hauling sand up the river. A boat of 3 people anchor somewhere and dig the riverbed up, loading the sand on their boat. It seems about 2 pickup trucks full of sand. Those 3 people can make 3 loads of sand per day to the cement factory and earn $30 per DAY. That’s $10 US per person per day. During the drive we took turns laying on each other’s lap,,,, sleeping. At one point the guide was excited to tell us of a pass that goes up 3k feet “cloudy pass” where we can look out over the country. We asked about the road up and back down,,,, he said “it’s narrow, twisty and steep” --- great… Anyone that knows us well knows we’d much prefer to be in a helicopter, airplane or boat.

The guide kept going on about the history, the people, etc etc…. then,,, he mentioned a tunnel they built for the busses and cars (mopeds forbidden) that goes through the mountain. We asked him “wow, that sounds good, why can’t we do that” --- his reply “sure, we can do whatever you want.” What? Why didn’t you say that earlier? The timing was perfect; we were just before the turnoff. Katie and I quickly decided to take the tunnel saving about 30 miles, 45 minutes and 2 sour stomachs.

Along the way our guide wanted to show us Da Nung. It’s an up and coming city,,, very cutting edge. There is a lot of land along the water prepped for major development. There are signs for multiple resorts including the future Park Hyatt with an 18 hole golf course. It’s easy to see this place will be the next Dubai or at least the next Maui,,, I thought it would be a good investment but the government here only lets foreigners lease land for 50 years,,,, you can’t buy it. Another FYI to the commies,,, lighten up! Get some foreign money in your land. We stopped at a museum, learned about the Cham people (Vietnam’s version of the American Indians) then headed on to Hoi An.

We passed our hotel and headed straight to town to our predetermined lunch destination. Along the way our guide asked us if were allergic to any types of food. We politely asked them to allow us to select from the menu since the preset menu didn’t work so well for us in Hanoi. He said “Says here the Biters want to enjoy the local cuisine at the finest restaurants”… I guess we did say that to our travel agent but after a week in Vietnam, eating the same dog stuffed spring rolls, it gets old. It would be like eating anything for an entire week; you’d probably get sick of it. They obliged.

We arrived at the restaurant excited to eat,,,, but wait,,, an outdoor facility? Words can’t justify how hot it is here. It absolutely sucks the energy right from your body. Fortunately the place was right on the water, our table was in the shade and there was a strong breeze. Between all of that and the “Japanese Slippers” (ask Katie for the recipe) we were loving life.

Lunch was simple, Salad, Vegetable Rolls, Chicken Stir-fry, Mixed Fried Rice and French Fries. It was nice to sit alongside the water and enjoy such a great lunch with a very attentive staff and a very beautiful wife. After lunch we started the walking tour of Hoi An which included another temple with rows of incense hanging from the ceiling. Apparently for $20 US you can buy an entire pyramid (see the pictures) of incense and have it burn for a month for you answering your wishes. We donated a few bucks to get some incense sticks and burn them for the temple gods. I guess it was for the god of child birth, the god of heroes and god of money but we only have one God so we just went through the motions out of respect for their ways and to please the tour guide.

After the temple we went to a clothing store which was basically a tourist trap. I have to give them a lot of credit; they have a great system for extracting black cards from white people. First, they showed us the people working in poverty to create hand embroidered art work (starting at $700 US, we didn’t buy any). Then, the loom. We learned out how ancient and then not so ancient women weaved fabric on their loom. After that they took us in to the backroom where two women from my high-school National Geographic magazines were making Vietnamese mats. After that experience we went upstairs to learn about silk.

I guess Katie never learned that silk came from worms,,, she was grossed out (check out the pictures). This place has their own silk farm along with a demonstration of each stage of the silk extracting process in their store. I have read about it before but it was really something to see it firsthand. Then,,,, the silk store (of course). We were given the opportunity to purchase shorts, shirts, pants, suits, etc. We priced out a bunch of clothes for the two of us (3 pants and 2 shirts for her, 4 shorts and 1 pair of pants for me) which came to over $500 US. After a long stent of negotiation and a few attempts to walk out (with smiles on our face of course), we agreed on $380 which made us all happy. Little did I know that our guide had no intention of us buying anything from them.

A few stores away we went in to his (our guide’s) personal clothing store and bought another 4 pants for me, a sport coat and a few other things for about $300 US total. Either way it’s a great deal and much better than you’ll find anywhere in the US. It wouldn’t be the worst thing for these folks to make a few extra bucks. We go back tomorrow for our first fitting (pictures will follow). After the 2 stores we were done and ready to head back to the hotel.

The hotel??? Are you kidding? Trip over, we’re staying here. This place is amazing. So far on this trip we’ve been at hotels,,, this is a resort in every sense of the word. The place is surrounded by a moat and a very secure front gate. The guide and driver dropped us off at the front entrance,,, they apologized they couldn’t take us further because “help is not allowed inside.” The resort had four people great the car plus our butler (5 total),,, all welcomed us to the resort. The butler took our bags to our room while Katie and I went straight to the bar for our welcome drinks.. After the quick bar stop we headed to our room. Words can’t do this place justice,,, just check out the pictures and make sure to watch the video of the room,,,, crazy.

After getting the tour of our room along with another in-room check in from our butler we decided to head to the pool. Normally we’d unpack but our butler was all over it,,,, this time we had no problem accepting her help. After 6 or so stops of unpacking, packing, unpacking, packing, etc, etc, etc – the help was very much welcomed. We are staying in a 3 room compound. 2 of the rooms are ours; a living room and a bedroom which they call “the Mansion”. The Butler has her own building with her room, a bathroom and a kitchen. Anything we want to eat, at anytime, she cooks for us and serves in our bedroom, our living room, on our porch or at our own private pool. I’m not one to write on and on about luxuries but this is a first for me,,,, I was very impressed,,, this place definitely takes the cake (so far anyway).

We made a quick stop at the complimentary minibar and headed off to the main pool to enjoy some R&R. At the pool we met up with Michael and Carrie. We spent our time in the pool catching up on the last day’s activities. After the swim we headed back to the room, showered up and got ready for dinner. The outdoor shower was amazing --- the lights were very dim making the stars seem extremely close,,,, I loved it.

We called for a buggy and we were driven up to the restaurant; which was gorgeous. The water, the lights and the live music made us excited to sit down and get to work. Their wine list is quite large but it only had a few US selections. The food and beverage manager, Erica, was able to help us select a nice Australian wine (her home town). The food was excellent; I had the snapper while Katie enjoyed the risotto. After dinner we moved to the piano bar where we enjoyed the live music. The singer was a super sweet Aretha Franklin looking musician from the Philippines. She has been here for 2 years of her 3 year contract but hopes they keep her, she loves it. We bought her a drink and sang along for about an hour before heading to bed. It was a long day and we were beat. Check out the photos:

2010-06-16_Honeymoon in Hoi An

Happy Anniversary

One month! Can you believe it? The best part is marrying the man of my dreams. The second best part is being across the world expanding my brain with him. We continue to be so enlightened, so invigorated, so blessed to be able to take this amazing trip. Every day we have stopped (usually at our most favorite part of the day) to say "happy honeymoon". Everyone is so excited for us that we are on our honeymoon "holiday." I think America is the only place that takes "vacations" because people from all over have asked us "why the holiday?" we are like "huh?" but they are asking why are we on vacation. We get it now. :)

Today we were sitting by the pool, during sunset, after a loooooong hot day, and as we watched the sun go down and pink flood the sky, I looked at him and said "Happy honeymoon." (You get the idea...).

I wanted to share a few Vietnamese words with you... Phonetically

Sin chow = hello

Cam uuun = thank you

Chew-k su quay = Cheers! (or best wishes)

Thats it.... We got a new guide last night. He is ok. He's not as wonderful as Phoc in Hanoi. We begged Phoc to come with us to this town but he assured us he did not know as much about Hue as our new guide did. I like our guide, he is just very matter of fact. I think he has read every single history book in Vietnam. He knows dates, names, places, and times. He should be a teacher...well, I guess he is to tourists.

We go to Hoi An tomorrow and the itinerary says "beach town." We have been so busy and on the go since we arrived to Vietnam it will be nice to explore a little beach town.

To keep you in the loop; we had pizza tonight and it was amazzzzzzzzzzzing. :)

Until next time....

xoxo

Katie

How you feeling? Hot Hot Hot

Tuesday, our 1 month anniversary….. the alarm was set for 8 AM but we were up by 7 AM.  The early morning light coupled with the sound of scooters honking at each other on the street leaves no doubt that morning has come.  We got ourselves ready and headed down to breakfast.  The buffet was ok,,, basically what you’d expect.  We met our guide in the lobby to start the day of touring but not before running in to Michael and Carrie who were doing the same thing.  Too funny..

We left the hotel and headed to the dock which is just a short walk.  We hopped on one of the dragon boats which doubles as the dragon boat’s captain’s family’s house (got that?).  Their plan is: 1) get tourist on boat, 2) get cute baby to look,,, cute, 3) get husband to drive boat, 4) get wife to sell anything she can for the entire 30 minute ride.  Knowing this was the case (our guide warned us), we bartered with her on a few things and made a small purchase.

The dragon family dropped us off at another pier where we climbed some stairs and started what was to be a long day of history about Vietnam.  It was interesting but our guide was hard to understand and it was SOOOO HOT,,, the whole day we were glistening.  We toured the firs t Pagoda for about an hour,,, learned some pretty interesting stuff then headed over to the King’s palace which was mostly destroyed in the war.  It was very fascinating to see inside what has been totally off limits for 150 years or more.

After the King’s home we were driven to another pagoda but this one was more private and just for women monks.  They were super friendly, showed us how they pray (had us copy them) and then said/sang a blessing for us and our marriage.  Our tour guide is in love with our camera and insisted on taking a lot of photos.  After the blessing they presented us each with a gift,,, a very nice bracelet.   Then they prepared lunch for us which we enjoyed.  We ate,,, toured the property some and then headed off to yet another tour.

Off we went to King Tu Tuc’s vacation home.  It was a great tour but we were really starting to get burnt out on the all in the information and the unbearable heat.  Our guide was wearing long pants and a long sleeve shirt and wasn’t sweating.  Impressive!!  The last stop of the day was a lacquer / bronzing craft store.  We picked out our own templates, painted them and left them to be baked.  We’ll take pictures of the final product tomorrow.

On the way back to the hotel I called the spa to see how much a couple’s massage would cost.  I couldn’t believe my ears,,,, $60 for 90 minutes,,,, wow!  This is a 6 star place,,, in the US it would be $350.  We got back, showered and headed to the spa.  The treatment was awesome,,, the best yet.  After that we went to the pool bar to hang out for a while.  We met 2 French guys one of whom is in love with Dave Mathews Band.  We chatted for a while about each of our trips and what we’ve seen thus far.  I asked them “Is it true the French hate Americans” – he said “Not each American individually but we hate America,,, what America says goes and that really gets us.” --- that was interesting to hear.

After the pool bar we decided to venture out on the town.  We did some shopping but as far as we can tell every store in this country is the same.  We bought a few knick knacks but quickly got sick of the heat and headed back to the hotel to call it an early night.  Tomorrow we leave for Hoi An at 9 AM, another 3 hour drive….. more then…

Angry Women

Katie and I woke up to the Junk boat's engines starting up as the crew set off from our quite cove.  Around 8 AM we came out of the cabin to see the table already set for the breakfast.  The morning air was cool and refreshing, the water was calm and the sky was clear,,,,, beautiful morning.

About an hour later we arrived at a floating village.  The Red Dragon Junk was already there, Michael and Carie's Junk showed up shortly after us.  We hung out for a bit,,, finished breakfast,, then we boarded the tender and headed to the main dock.  We transfered from the tender to a small Asian lady's row boat where she proceeded to paddle us around the village (no, she isn't the purpose of this Blog's title),,,, These folks live a very different life then any of us could imagine.  Katie and I were blown away.  Their homes are extremely small, they float on the water and they are tied up to each other in groups of 2 to 10.

The village makes its money from fishing and harvesting pearls.  Within the last few years the tour companies started paying the village to allow tourists to come in and paying the villagers for each pound of trash they give to the tour company.  We saw a boat with a lot of barrels on it going around the village,,, I asked if that was the pump out boat.  This term wasn't familiar to them.  "You know, the boat that empties the toilets" --- Response: "No sir, toilets are direct" --- swim anyone?  It turns out the boat was the water boat that fills the fresh water tanks in each house.

We bought a few knick knacks at the floating local store, toured the school and headed back.  On our way back we passed the grocery store,,, it's a lady on a boat with everything you can imagine.  She boats to each house and you buy direct from her.  The guide referred to her as a floating 7-11.  We also saw babies, no more than 2 years old, running around by themselves on the docks.  I guess they teach the kids to swim at an early age,,,, we can only hope.

The ride back to the harbor was interesting.  While cruising along we started to hear gun fire.  We came around a rock and there were bullets hitting the water and two Vietnamese navy ships near each other.  Out of no where a little speed boat comes at us with guys waving little red flags telling us to leave the area.   We did a quick U turn and found another way home.

Along the way they fed us, again,,, lunch was beef and scallops for Sir (me) and chicken and scallops for Madam (Katie).  Everyone in Vietnam refers to us as Sir and Madam, it's really funny.  Our guide said we had a ton of time to kill and asked if we wanted a Vietnamese Massage.  For your reference, the answer to this question should always be No Thank You.  Not knowing that at the time and,,,, well, we love the "spa" annnnnnd we did have some time to kill sooooo, sure, why not.  Our first Vietnamese Massage, here we come.  But wait,,,, how much?  Oh,,, don't worry, it is only $15 US including the tip.  (Red Flag),,, For $15, Katie and I will take two masseuses each,,, (bad idea)

The place we showed up at was not exactly spa like.  It looked more like one of those laundry facilities you would go to in college.  We went upstairs to the group massage room which was a small air conditioned room with 6 lazyboy like chairs on each side of the room.  They had us change in to these very bright colored shorts.  Katie couldn't stop laughing,,, well, until they came back in the room and started the massage.  It hurt.  It hurt so bad,,,,, they were rubbing the skin off our arms, pushing extremely hard on anything they touched, hitting / pounding us with their hands all while making a snapping sound.  Our guide was getting a massage with us (I guess group massages are the thing) and we kept asking why it hurt so bad.  He kept saying "Vietnamese Massage Feel So Good" --- uhhhh, no.  The best we could come up with that these women were very angry and needed to take their frustration out on us.  Afterwards Katie and I decided the pain was worth the experience,, we laughed from our gut,,,, but once was enough.

After the massage experience we jumped back in the car and headed out on our 3 hour journey to the airport.     We stopped at a gas station about halfway to the airport.  Another heads up to all of you future Vietnam travelers,  never use the restroom at a Vietnamese gas station,,,, ever.  I'll leave it at that.

We got the airport and got checked in,,, no problem.  The airport was dirty, very dirty.  Once through security we went in the business class lounge and hung out for 2.5 hours.  It was all you could eat rice and all you could drink beer.  We decided to build a beer tower,,, it helped pass the time and made the place feel not so dirty.  We saw them boarding our flight, left the lounge and hopped aboard.  Katie and I were the only 2 in a 16 person business class,,,, that's the first time I've ever seen that on any plane.

Just when we thought an airport couldn't get any dirtier we landed in Hue,,,, the pictures speak for themselves.  We grabbed our luggage, found our guide and headed strait for the hotel.  We met up with Michael and Carie at the bar, compared stories of our Junk adventure and then headed off to our room.  This room is amazing,,, very large with a much larger balcony.  It's the largest room in the hotel with it's own private walkway to the hotel lobby,,,, according to the bell person this room is reserved for "kings and queens only" --- we thought that was very funny.   That was our Monday,,, off to bed.....

2010-06-14_Honeymoon in Hue

39ºC

Which BTW = 102.2ºF. It is SO HOT. I think I've lost 5 lbs or shall I say 2.3 kg's. Not only from the void of pizza and cheeseburgers on this side of the world but the fact I haven't stopped sweating - is a big contributor. Plus the humidity is 100% (if not more!).

Don't get me wrong, I'm having the time of my life. Honestly, how often can you go on vacation and come back skinnier? We might need to come to Asia more often :).

We spent last night on the Junk Boat (see Jesse's post below). Not so junk. It was fabulous. I am a water baby by nature so the open water breeze, swimming in the bay, and beautiful sunsets warm my heart. The crew was great and we really enjoyed their company as well.

We are sitting in the airport here in Vietnam. There is no air conditioning in the airport. Let me repeat that...No air conditioning in the airport. We are blogging near a fan. The airport really isn't that bad, all the shades are closed. I would certainly rather be in here than outside. Don't be surprised if J and I are "glowing" in all the pictures from here on out. From our understanding, it's going to just keep getting hotter. We are in the north part of the country now, next stop is in the middle, lastly in the south (aka closer to the equator). We've heard Cambodia is even more sweltering, so we will let you know.

We had to say goodbye to our tour guide, Phoc. He was so sweet, he kept saying "I am so sorry I have to say goodbye to you." He really made our trip in Hanoi. He is such a friendly guy, so sincere, and very funny. He laughs a lot and I love it. He has a wife, daughter, and is expecting their next little girl in 3 months. I asked him to show me a picture of his wife so he went home that night and took one on his phone. She is beautiful. They are both very lucky. We will miss Phoc, and wish him all the best.

Oh and also, the government has blocked Facebook in this country....communism at it's best. See ya on the flip side FB.

Until next time...

xoxo

Katie

Rise and Shine

6:30 AM, beep beep beep,,, time to wake up and head out.  The service here is fantastic,,,, we called the front desk for a bell captain and within 1 minute (no joke) there was a knock at the door.  They loaded everything up and we headed down to breakfast.  While at breakfast our butler showed up (on his day off), to say goodbye and to ensure our checkout went smoothly.  In fact, he handled everything for us while we sat and ate breakfast,,, nice.  After breakfast we met up with our guide (the car was already loaded) and off we went --- Ha Long Bay,,, here we come.

We drove about an hour and a half and stopped at a very touristy junk store for a pit stop.  The store was about the size of a Walgreens with wall to wall arts, crafts and jewelry.  The saleslady followed us around the entire place for 15 minutes.  At no time was she more than 3 feet behind us.  After a lot of shopping and price comparison we made a purchase --- 3 Heinekens.  After that we were back on the road.

Another hour and a half later we arrived at Ha Long Bay,,, this place is beautiful!  We stopped the car and we were greeted by the junk boat crew.  They offloaded our luggage and led us to the tender parking.  They loaded up the tender and we were off ..... or maybe not.  The 15 HP Yamaha wouldn't start.  Because my good friend Cary Dickieson taught me how to start a hot, old, overworked Yamaha outboard (he's the master), I knew what they were doing wrong.  Finally, I had to jump in.  Choke in, throttle to zero,,,, 2 pulls and she came to life.

Katie and I were both concerned about a night on a "junk boat" in Vietnam.  After seeing how most of the people in this country live we didn't have very high hopes and even questioned what we are doing this far away from civilization.  5 minutes in the tender and we were at the boat.  It was impressive yet quaint.  The Junk boat was very old looking but seemed to be well equipped.  Boarding the boat was an experience, we were greeted by an excited crew of 5 (6 if you include our guide), fresh flowers and a welcome aboard drink,,,, nice.  Katie and I had full reign of the front of the boat, our cabin and the top sun deck.  The crew quarters, galley, helm, etc,,, the entire back of the boat, was off limits.  They gave us a little remote control to push whenever we wanted help from the crew which included the captain, mechanic, deck hand, chef and bar tender/server.   We quickly reverted to our American ways of boating and asked for two Margaritas on ice.

As soon as we were settled they fired up the engines, lifted up the sails (the sails were just for looks as best I could tell) and headed out of the bay.  It was neat to see all of the different junk boats in the harbor including 2 others from the same Princess Junk Boat Company.  Everyone set sail together so it felt very much like the start of a regatta.  After about an hour or so a few of the bigger junk boats broke off and about a half dozen of the 1 to 5 couple junk boats stuck together.  It didn't take much to explore the boat but what we found was very nice.  We had our own private bathroom (big weight lifted there) inside our own air conditioned stateroom.  Very clean and very nice.

The scenery in Ha Long Bay is amazing, not anything like what we have seen before.  It was very surreal, something out of Princess Bride.  Rocks jettisoning out from the water, very deep salt water, an amazing sky line --- it looked like a big city.  As far as the eye could see,,,, mountains and water,, beautiful.  Katie and I felt like royalty sitting at our table for two, drinking Margaritas while enjoying the scenery and the cool breeze.  Out of nowhere the server came with a fantastic lunch.  At least we thought it was our lunch,,, it turned out just to be the first of five courses.  We enjoyed the lunch ,,, the blue crabs were amazing.  After lunch we moved to our own lounge chairs and quickly fell asleep.

After a quick snooze we woke to the boat setting anchor in a private little harbor.  Katie and I, along with our guide, swam to shore and climbed some stairs to an amazing cave inside one of the rock formations.  After exploring the cave for a while we climbed down a different set of stairs to the Kayak / beach area.  Normally we'd expect to pay to rent the kayaks but on this trip everything was included.  We ended up just sitting on the beach drinking beer.  Another couple showed up at the beach, Carrie and Michael, after their kayak trip.  It turns out they are doing a very similar trip as we are,,, they were at our hotel for the last few days and we are even on the same flight out Monday to Hui, same hotel there, same flight after that, same hotel after that.  We chatted with them for 30 to 60 minutes and then headed back to the boat.

Once on the boat we headed down for showers and the crew set sail for our next destination.  After our showers, and feeling very refreshed, we headed to the front of the boat to relax, enjoy some wine and read.  About an hour later we arrived at a private lagoon and dinner was promptly served.  The dinner was amazing,,, not necessarily the food (which was good), but the presentation.  The chef made each serving look so special,,, by far, our favorite was a junk boat carved from a watermelon with sails made out of carrots.  On the sails were our names (definitely check out the pictures).  For dessert the lights dimmed and the entire crew came out clapping.  They had a cake with lit candles that said "Happy Honeymoon" --- so nice.  We insisted that the crew stay for cake and beer,,, they reluctantly obliged.  During that time we insisted they stay with us to hang out,,, again, they reluctantly obliged.

The crew moved to the front of the boat, sat down and, through our translator, Katie and I started asking questions.  To break the ice I asked a lot of nautical / captain related questions.  The crew then started asking us about America, how to make money, how long we've been together, about our wedding, etc.  One of the crew members ran to the back to grab a guitar and they started singing us songs about their country.  They asked us to sing for them,,, again, we had to decline.  They asked if they could get back to work because they had a lot to do before they could sleep,,, we said no problem provided the captain stay to teach me to tie a new knot.  It was hysterical, we were at this one knot for an hour --- Katie has some great pictures / video of it.

After that we stayed up with our guide drinking wine and teaching him American phrases he didn't learn in school, such as "It's 5 o'clock somewhere", "You get more bees with honey" and "Beating a dead horse."  We also shared dumb jokes,,, a big shout out to my father and to Joe Farrell for an endless supply of dumb jokes.  Then.... bed time,,, the room was so cool and comfortable,, we were both very glad Admiral Travel suggested the Junk Boat….

Saturday morning started off a bit slow for us;;;; I don't know, maybe it was the tequila from the night before.  We headed off to breakfast around 9 AM and met with our guide at 9:45 (about 45 minutes late).  He took us over to see the Ho Chi Minh Museum.  I think it's the first time I've ever seen a real live dead person (embalmed anyway).  Ho Chi Minh was one of their great leaders who is very much respected by the people.  The line went on forever but somehow we had a line pass and we were able to get moved up to the front.  Katie had to buy a sarong to cover her sexy knees --- that's not allowed in the museum.   This was also our first real experience with communism.  The guards were not friendly, talking was not allowed, everyone (including us) was pushed by the guards to ensure the line moved fast.  Other guards were walking around with SKS assault riffles and they didn't seem afraid to shoot at anything.

After that we toured the grounds along with 3 million other people.  It was hot and crowded.  It was interesting,,,, I'm glad we did it,,,, but I was happy when it was over.  I also wasn't my normal full of energy self,,,, again, maybe the tequila?  :-)

Once the tour was over Pho escorted us to a preset lunch at a local restaurant.  Katie and I dinned together and we enjoyed the experience albeit the food was a bit exotic for both of us.  After lunch we headed back to the room for some much needed R&R.  After cooling down I headed out for a quick walk around the local town.  I was afraid for my life.  The people walking around and the shop owners were very friendly but the ones on the scooters had no concern for human life.  ;-)   Seriously, it was hysterical. They drive these scooters down the side walks, through the parks, through red lights, right in to traffic, down the wrong side of the street, etc etc.  The most we saw on a scooter at anytime was 5 but very often you see a family of four,,, no big deal.  The worst (and I got a picture of it) was a man, woman and a baby but the baby had two legs in casts.  There can't be any laws,,,, as best I can tell you do whatever works.  Most all of the women are covered up because they want to have as light a complexion as possible,,, we're told the lighter the women the more the men like them.

After my walk,,,, I got my second wind (actually my first for the day) and was able to get a p90x workout in.  Also, the butler, Bui Due Hoan, knocked at the door to present us with a gift,,, a beautiful book about Vietnam.  He also booked our dinner at one of the other restaurants in the hotel and setup spa treatments for after dinner.  Overall, a good day.  Tomorrow we head out on a 3 hour drive to stay on a junk boat for the night.  Should be interesting!!