Hot Hot Vietnam

It's HOT in Vietnam... very, very hot. Poor Canadian girl is practically vapourising each day. I am sweating so much it leaves salt all over my body at night - it's unbelievable!

After Ha Long Bay, we spent the next 2 days in Hanoi - seeing the old quarter, the Vietnamese history museum, a traditional water puppets show and Hoa Lo prison (the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" - we went to the Hilton Hotel first - the desk staff got a great laugh and put us in a cab). Hanoi is busy, busy and more busy. Generally, I spent a lot of time finding my way around the city - somehow I can't direct myself ina grid system, but Hanoi's streets all make sense to me.

We hopped onto the "reunification Express" overnight train from Hanoi to Hue, the ancient capital of North Vietnam. Traveling by WWII era train by night was an interesting experience, as well as navigating the squat toilet on a swaying train. I think I can do anything now. Bonus points to one of my tour mates who developed a locking system with a piece of a sinutab box and folded pamphlets to lock people out of our carriages. I wish I had taken a picture - even the conductor coundn't get in unless we let him - made us feel a whole lot safer.

Hue was a welcome respite from the busy, busking Hanoi - a small city on the river, Hue feels like you can breathe. We took a beautiful leisurely bike ride through Hue, listen the the propoganda on the street-based speakers (locals snidely refer to it as "the cicadas") and generally tried not to get ourselves runover.

In addition to the beautiful architecture (from when N. Vietnam's emporer's were in full power) we had a chance to hop on some motorbikes and tour the countryside around Hue - visiting local food markets, a fortune teller, the conical hat makers (who still use bomb fragments from the war in their craft) and getting on a dragon boat to cruise down the perfume river, the major life-blood of transport in the area.

Next - off to Hoi An, Da Nang and entering the ancient kingdom of the Champa!