pretty much all of vietnam at once...

...well then, this site isn't a big fan of vietnam or something since until that first computer i used in saigon it hasn't worked since. but ill try to remember about what all i have done since last time. we had that terribly long train ride (which i think i already talked about) and then made it to saigon which i was pleasantly suprised about after hanoi. lots of fun in saigon, we hired some motorcycle guides to take us around for a few days and had a blast. the war memorial museum was quite hard to see since they didn't really censor any photographs, and it was interesting seeing the other side of the war (not that i really knew much about the war to begin with). it was sad and hard seeing the photos of the effects of the chemical orange and seeing photos of american soldiers torturing their enemies...not really something you see in textbooks back home. on the lighter side we saw many beautiful scenic images while driving around. we went to the cu chi tunnels which were the tunnels that they hid in while the americans tried to bomb them. crazy to think they built all those just in preperation for a war to happen (i think they took about 20 years), but they went on for miles underground. i crawled through a short one only about 100 meters long and i couldn't imagine doing that hours on end getting to the next destination or just hiding until the bombs stopped. we saw the man made weapons they had on display there as well and its hard thinking about getting in the mindset of coming up with ways to actually kill and tortue other human beings...but i guess thats war. we passed up on the chance to fire all the machine guns and such cause they were quite expensive (about $1.50) a bullet, though i think i regret that since the chance doesn't really come along that often. though i made up for that by giving into eating the cobra at once of the restaurants the drivers brought us to. i thought i was just going to eat cobra when i ordered it but i didn't realize there was a "show" involved as well. YOU MIGHT WANT TO SKIP THIS PART IF YOU DON'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT THE DEATH OF THE SNAKE... they brought the snake out for us to see and aprove of first before they killed it...right in front of us. they put a bag over its head and then put a bunch of rubber bands around its neck to strangle it i guess. then they took a knife and slit its throat and let the blood pour into a bowl of ricewine. they mixed that up and then poured it back into a bottle for us to drink with our meal (a nice start to the meal). then they felt around along the body and cut open the snake and took out what we thought was the heart and put it in a bowl for us to eat. since clem was the one really wanting to do this, he took the honor of swallowing it down with some blood wine and i was going to just take the next organ they gave us...though it turns out that that was another organ (i think liver...or kidney?) which was suppose to be really good for the back (make it strong). or course we found out about the mistaken identity of the organ after the brought out a shot glass with another organ in it...that was still beating! so in went some blood wine into the shot glass and then in went it all into my mouth and down my throat...which was weird, but it made me feel quite weird (i believed we settled on the title of "it feels like i can shoot lasers out of my eyes). the drivers told us it was good for the brain and keeping you awake...also good for the libedo aparently too (for those married folk that want to try it out). then we ate a 3 course meal of different dishes made with snake (intestines with sause and vegetables, grounds up like with lemon grass, and a soup). definitely an experience i won't forget any time soon. the next day we went to a water park that was pretty sweet, due to it having many slides that didn't need any pushing to go faster...sometimes you even had to slow yourself down. we requested this place to the drivers so they took us there, but later they told us that there was different park that had bigger rides (that i can't really imagine since these went pretty fast). not sure if anything else too exciting happened in saigon. we then went to muine, which was really nice since it was back on a beach (one starts to miss those after awhile). the city was a lot quieter so it was quite relaxing (there were hammocks everywhere. we went on a tour of the city by bus this time which was pretty sweet. turns out this place had dunes not to far away, so we went there and slid down on plastic carpet likes things for awhile. we also saw a pretty sweet fishing village that was quite beautiful. we stayed there 2 nights and then headed to delat. this was a mountain village so it was much cooler and made me bust out the jeans and sweater...though it was really beautiful so it was worth it. it had quite the french influence to it with all the buildings so it was like we stepped into another country somehow. another bus tour brought us to gardens, temples, waterfalls and our first XQ...which is a sweet place were they make embroidery pictures and dresses and such. i couldn't believe the beauty and detail that went into each item...something i wished i had the money to buy and bring home. we spent 3 nights here after finding out we booked to late to leave after 2 and everything was full...but that was okay cause we made up on sleep there. after that we made our way to nha trang, which was back into more of a touristy place...and beaches. we took a boat tour at this place and went snorkelling and just cruising around in a boat. we didn't see much interesting things but it was still a good time swimming around with a bunch of people drinking red wine out of dixie cup like cups while floating in the ocean on an inner tube. this was the day that i burnt my back quite bad which im now paying for since my beautiful tan is peeling away as we speak. after a few nights there (can't remember the exact amount), we headed to hoi an. this was another beautiful place but in a different way since these building were more of a chinese influence and looked old and dirty which added to the effect. more like what i imagined when i thought of the streets of old vietnam or china. this place is known for certain food specialties and cheap tailor made cloths...so i participated in both. so now im probably a little fatter but i look better dressed. i think the total of clothes i bought was 3-3 piece suites, 2 jackets, 4 long sleeve shirts, 2 short sleeve shirts, and 3 ties...for the grand total of $300. hopefully they won't just sit in my closet when i get home though...perhaps they'll look good with my bruce lee shirts somehow. few night there and we were off to hue on a 12 hour bus ride (the rest were from 4-6 hours). once there, since we didn't sleep too great on the bus, we slept some more...i think...we sleep a lot so i can't get it all straight. we hired some more motorbike taxis to take us around for a couple hours the first afternoon and then took another bus tour the next day. after seeing many temples, tombs, and gardens we were on are way on another 12 hour bus ride back to ha noi (though this time we spent a little extra to get a sleeping bus. and thats were we are now. i have to admit though that this time ha noi is coming off better...i think we are in a better area, plus we knew what we were getting into this time. well im tired so it is off to bed for me. until next time...