The Wars fought in Vietnam

Over the last few days i have seen interesting perspectives on a lot of things. Some chosen, some forced, other expected. Its been a busy few days with many different stories and angles. All are separate stories but i'll try to fit them together somehow.

So my friend and I have finally split-up. It was not an emotional moment. No tears shed (c'mon, we're men). Well, it was kinda. I did see this guy everyday for the past 6 weeks. We've gone through a lot, seen a lot, partied a lot, talked a lot. He is the first person that i have ever lived with and i'm glad to stay that i could handle living in tight quarters with, who was at first, a total stranger. But now, life must continue on and we have gone our separate ways to do the things we need/want to do. I'm not sure if i will be able to meet him in Thailand before he's gone, but only time will tell.

Partying in Hanoi. An old but good photo.
The following are just some random photos. This is on the way to Dalat, the mountain city.The view from our hotel. On the weekends they shut down this round-about and turn it into a walking market

Some fields on the way to Dalat

This is a cell phone tower i believe. Does it seem familar to any of you frenchies?

Our last adventure together was to the Cu Chi Tunnels. A famed tunnel system in which the Americans had a very difficult time penetrating. There were approx 200 km of underground tunnels where civilians and soldiers lived and fought against the American forces. The tunnels themselves were not open access to the public, but a 90 m set of replica tunnels was setup as well as a bit of history of the tunnels, traps and tactics, and short propaganda film (the standard type - smiling soldiers and civilians, trash talking Americans, etc). I was told the tunnels would be so cool to see, but i was a little disappointed. It was neat to see the types of conditions the people were living in but b/c it was all fake, it was more of just a tourist trap.

A typical tunnel entrance

Looking into the entrance

The entrance for the tourist tunnels. They are still quite cramped but much safer than the originals.

Ho ho ho, a tunneling i go...(that was quite lame, but then again, it was a very lame tunnel...)

However, the things that did impress me (and completely made the trip worth while) were the gruesome traps which the south Vietnamese set, their unwavering will in the fight with the technology backed Americans, and the ingenuity they displayed. Poor peasants armed with AK-47s, scrap metal, primitive digging tools and sharpened bamboo sticks, were fighting with Americans armed with M-16s, and backed by tanks and warplanes carrying napalm. It is the soldiers and civilians that went out after bombing runs into the fields to collect unexploded ordinance (live but unexploded bombs), carry them back by hand into the tunnels, cut them open and reuse the explosives inside to create new weapons. How does someone in their right mind walk up to a 50 kg bomb, put ropes around it and carry it off on their back? This is the same thing that turned their house into a crater. I'm sure it is something that only a person that has experienced war can fully understand.

My friend trying to get a little taste of war. Here he's shooting at a cow.
I'm just kidding. He's using an AK-47 and i feel really bad for him because i know his ear muffs are just as useless as mine but at least i'm 5 feet away.

But most of all, its the traps that i loved/cringed at the most when i saw them in operation. Their simplicity, effectiveness, lethality, and demoralizing power of these devices really drove home the ugliness of warfare. I can see why now so many Vietnam vets are messed up in the head after fighting in such a difficult place. I have no pictures of the traps set but let me say that the carnage inflicted by my favorite one, it not something you would want to see in action. Powered by gravity, stepping into this trap causes two barrels loaded with spikes to spin inwards. Now the true magic of this and the other traps, is the sheer grotesqueness of the death/injury. Its brilliance is not just in the effect it has on the victim, but on the surrounding group as well (both fellow soldiers on sight and everyone else that sees them on their way to the hospital). Picture seeing a comrade fall into one of these traps. The primitiveness, simplicity and raw brutality is simply stunning.

I just had to take a pic of this painting.

The day ended with a visit to the war museum. Also, a very moving and powerful exhibit. They had the usual stuff, old tanks, planes, and guns. But the most interesting parts of the museum were the photos they had on display. I wanted to take some pictures of the displays and comments but suffice to say i considered it inappropriate and decided the power of the pictures cannot be accurately conveyed in a photograph of a photograph anyways. I'll just say the pictures, although slightly blurry, were graphic, grotesque, saddening, and most importantly, completely real. They included soldiers preparing to execute prisoners, dead civilians, soldiers posing over carcases, blown up body parts, napalm victims, and worst of all, children who have suffered the effects of Agent Orange.

I must admit that i'm very surprised and a little embarrassed to say, but that day was the first time i've ever heard of Agent Orange. From what I gathered from the exhibit, it was a herbicide with which the American forces sprayed to remove the jungle terrain so that the Vietnamese had nowhere to hide. However, the effect of the toxin also wreaked havoc to the soldiers on the ground. The toxin would accumulate in the body and then be passed on to the children. I'm not sure the exact mechanism of the toxin, and whether it affects the adult or the developing fetus, but in the end, it is the children that suffer. The horrible mutant children born during and after the spraying of Agent Orange is appalling. Its indescribable what some of the mutations were but science fiction/horror movies have little to compare with. Living, breathing, but mentally undeveloped, these children litter the country after the war and provided the Vietnamese a living memory of the war they just finished.

The museum, although terrible biased, also had a view of the war from the south vs the north. This part of the story i did not understand as well considering i had such little background in the matter. But i think a good point that they show is that regardless of who's fighting, its the civilians that always lose.

Why won't anyone think of the children? (i'm kidding)

It was after the museum that i went back and booked my 3 day Mekong Delta tour. My friend was exiting to Phnom Penh tomorrow and I figured, i'll see the Delta, then its time for me to leave as well. The next morning we went our separate ways.

In the morning i went off on my multiday packaged tour. Alone again for the first time in 6 weeks, i found it quite hard to talk to other people on my tour bus. Fortunately, it only took me a couple hours to warm up and i was right back in my groove, talking with strangers again. And i'm glad i did since its with them i did my homestay in the Mekong Delta (originally i was going to stay in a hotel which would have been so stupid). The tour itself was nothing spectacular. Very packaged like and quite annoying. Its always time to go to the next place and never enough time to sit down and absorb. But it was expected and very ordinary for Vietnam tours. I'm so glad that i did vietnam on my own and not touring everywhere. it was a definite headache, and the rain was a bitch, but in the end, so much better. But then again, there is something to be said about not having to think and being brought everywhere. But when you're sitting in a bus filled with people and sitting on a broken chair, you really want to have your freedom back.

On the Mekong River in the Mekong Delta

Floating through some canals dug on the mekong.

The delta is an interesting place as it is so close to sea level. Everything here is flat and probably during the rainy season, gets pretty wet and flooded out. During typhoons, i'm sure so many things get destroyed because there is no geographical protection. Its really just flat. Like a marsh or swampland. The rice fields here are everywhere but not as large as i had expected for the number 2 exporter of rice in the world. But i guess its because everything is done by hand since there is little in the way of farming machinery.

A monkey bridge. These are the standard bridges used by villagers to get around. And of course i went across. This one, and a much higher one. Proper fun as usual.

On our tour we went to see a few different things (nothing really of interest to me). But the one thing they all had in common was that they were made by hand. I'm sure there is some machinery here but still many things are done by hand and it makes Vietnam seem like such a primitive country. But still, you take a look around and soon realize that this country is poised to have a major industrial revolution. This country will be so different in the next 50 year. At least, if the government does things properly.

View of the delta from the only mountain in the area.

There were some interesting things happening on the bus throughout the tour. All from the people on the bus (something i'm not used to since i've been on my own tours for so long!). I met a very nice young couple from Cali (strange, cool Americans!). They recommended me to goto Borneo and do some diving and trekking. I was like Borneo? Where is Borneo? Then after looking at a map i was like holy shit! I'm going to goto Borneo (Malaysia and Indonesia)! What a wicked place to put on my traveling CV. Along with Nepal, Galapagos, N Korea, Burma, South America, etc.... damn, I still have so many places to see!

So i met them but they left after one day. At the same time i also met 3 British people, 2 guys and 1 girl, all a tonne of laughs. We had so much fun together that we're all going to try to meet up for the full moon party and new years eve. Its going to be wicked! More on that later. The real fun on the bus happened when the tour guide started arguing with some of the customers. Now i'm not going to be racist/prejudice here but its starting to become kind of a trend. It seems that no one likes Germans (and British for that matter). Now i'm not saying all of them are wankers, but the ones on the bus definitely were. They had booked the tour with a different agency that had promised them that their boat ride would be 3 hrs. Now their agency had lied to them and they were actually going to be on the boat for 7 hrs. I completely understood their argument, and i also understood the tour guides argument. Both were acceptable and if there were cooler heads, everyone would have went home annoyed and disgruntled, but not yelling at each other.

Instead, they started to argue more and more and more. Then finally some women said fucking Vietnamese, to which he replied fuck Germany! Of course nothing good could come of this. And the final statement from the German woman was, in my opinion, completely and utterly out of line and she's lucky she didn't get punched in the face. I'm pretty sure i would have punched her, regardless of the fact that shes a woman. I would have knocked her the fuck out. She said, and i quote, "when they dropped the bomb they missed a lot of you." Now, i'm not Vietnamese, and i'm already very offended by that statement. I'm sure if another person had said that to a German tour guide in Germany, they would have been tossed off the bus. Its like c'mon woman, the tour cost 26 dollars. For 3 days, 2 nights accommodations, 2 meals and all transport. What were you expecting? Geez.

Anyways, so after coming back into Saigon, i ended up rooming with the British girl for the next 4 days. For you ultra conservatives, i don't care if you think its inappropriate for an unwed man and woman to share the same room (but separate beds of course), i'm not paying 10 USD per night when i can pay 5 USD! Anyways, we hooked up with another British girl who was traveling with a friend of 12 years that had now separated from him (not dating, just friends). When we first met she was in shambles, but i'm quite sure she will be alright now. The two UK girls are traveling together and will be meeting me (hopefully) in Koh Samui for the full moon and then NYE. Anyways, the main point of this was i ended up spending the next few days with 4 British people (3 from London, 1 from Wales, same same but different? nope, and don't ever tell anyone from UK that they are English when they're not, its like calling Canadians and Americans the same thing! Learned that the hard way). These guys were the absolute, most hilarious, raunchiest people i have ever met. I'm even starting to pick up on their slang, although it is very slow going. They can have an entire conversation in 'English' but its not English. Very fun group, will definitely have to hook up with them when i goto the UK.

Am I the only one that didn't know that the UK still uses the imperial system? I really thought the US was the last country still using the Imperial system. I guess it makes sense that they still use it. No problem then, i know miles, feet, pounds, ounce, yards too. But then they started talking about stones? Now what the hell are stones? 1 stone = 14 pounds. How many kgs is that? damn, thats too much math for one drunk conversation...

Anyways, final story. Our last night in Saigon, my Welsh friend got robbed walking home. We had been at the bar enjoying our last night together as a group. I had enough drinks and was starting to fall asleep on the table so i decided to head off early. She followed me home on the same route 2 hrs later and that was where 2 guys on a moto knocked her over and stole her purse. Of course some other people saw it, but they did nothing. She ran to the hotel and one of the customers came up and knocked on our door to get me. At first i was like what? who's there? 5 min after being roused from my drunken stupor, i finally realized the gravity of the situation. She was crying in the lobby, with a big bruise on her arm and a gash in her knee. I tried my best to comfort her but things were pretty serious. She had lost all her ID, passport, money, cards, camera, fone, and other misc girly stuff. We immediately reported it to the police which of course did nothing (no surprise there). I've been in Vietnam 5.5 weeks and twice i've had to goto the police. How can i still like this country? I have no idea but i still do.

We spent the night canceling her credit cards and in the morning, amazingly found her passport in her luggage. Apparently she forgot that she had put it there, but it was a very lucky mistake. Either way she will be going back to Saigon after some much needed RnR to get her police report, and then its off to Laos for them. Hopefully she can put this incident behind her and look forward to the rest of her trip (she's going round the world).

Now as promised, my new hair do courtesy of my stylist in Nha Trang. Same same but different yeah? And no, i'm not naked. Shirtless yes, but i decided to save myself the embarrassment of my badass t-shirt tan and cropped the pic.

HEY! BAD CHICKEN! MESS YOU UP! - kramer

Damn, last night was miserable. We set out to go looking for some clothes in the shopping district and came across two dancing chickens. My friend's like lets go eat there. I was like whatever, fried chicken is always good.

The prices were much cheaper than expected (26k for 2 pieces, fries and a drink, what a deal!). Of course i ended up paying for it a lot more than i expected. The chicken was pretty tasteless. Nothing really worth writing home about. The leg was pretty standard, but the other piece was more of a mystery. It wasn't a wing. It wasn't the other part of the chicken that you usually get when you order from KFC either. I'm not exactly sure of what part it was from but i didn't eat much of it. The meat was a strange color and i'm guessing it was probably the chicken's ass.

Either way. I returned home to a pretty bad stomach ache. At first it was just annoying. Had to goto the bathroom a few times (not good times either) and sit it out for a bit. Eventually, i didn't even feel like going out nemore. Which is a good call on my part since around 12 i started to puke. After about 6 serious heaves into the toilet i decided that it was enough and i would be fine to sleep the rest off. Had a small drink of water and a vitamin pill and went off to bed. Of course not a good idea as about 2 hours later, the vitamin, water, some more chicken, maybe some of my lunch, decided to get together and come forth, bursting out of my mouth. No worries though, i was again well prepared and in close vicinity of the toilet. Again, 3 normal heaves and one serious one later, i finally emptied the entire contents of my digestive system. Of to bed for me now.

After losing so much fluids last night, i decided to sleep in nice and late this morning. Waking up, i downed a bottle of water and have taken it easy all day. I've eaten just a few fruits (testing to see if my stomach can handle solid food) and everything seems to be fine. I guess i'll be having a big dinner tonight.

Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City is a very interesting place. I've finally figured out how to use the local map and the city now seems so much smaller. With my orientation figured out now i'm going to go look for another hostel/hotel to stay in. My friend will be leaving this weekend for Thailand while i plan to spend a few extra days here. I'd like to see the war museum (went today but never found it, damn tourist maps, looking at another map i was right there at the museum, just the wrong corner, idiots), Cu Chi tunels, and then when my friend leaves, head down to the mekong delta for a 3 day trip (homestay too hopefully). And then its off to Cambodia.

-bk

Nha Trang, the best/worst of times

Yeah, i know its been a while.

And i HAD tonnes of beautiful pics to send. But now, you'll jsut have to look at the text. Please remember that this is more for me and not for you to remember. Now that i don't have the pics (i'll tell you why later) i need a written record of my time here.

We left Hoi An early for Danang to catch the morning train south to Nha Trang, the party capital of Vietnam. Down here, its all beach, tourists, clubs, dive shops and resteraunts. It didn't take us long to find a cheap place to stay and we were out clubbing/partying the first night. After so many nights without a good party i must admit i went a little overboard. Regardless, i still made it home in one piece even after getting ripped off by the moto taxi guy, but whatever.

Next day, after recovering (by this time it was late in the afternoon) went out and walked the beach for a bit, then clubbed again at night. But of course i have taken it a lot easier since then. Its much cheaper to party here than it is in thailand and the people are quite fun. And of course we're in the foreign clubs so any locals there can speak a bit of english, but nothing great.

The next day we decided we need to send our passports out for visa extensions. Our 30 days runs out on Nov 19th so it was send now or rush to Cambodia. It takes 5 days to send our passports to Saigon and come back. So we had a 2 day buffer zone. Fortunately our passports are back now without any issues and now we can stay till Dec 19th (well, i can at least).

I did my first two fun dives with a company called Vietnam explorer. I finally had a chance to test my underwater case (12 m, 40ish feet) as well and it performed spectacularly! Vis was not the best, about 6 m, but for me, it was absolutely fine. There were 3 of us open waterers, 1 dive master and 1 instructor. My friend and the other tourist (korean girl) both had about 5 dives worth of experience. I was the only true noob. But i had no problems at all. Wet suit didn't fit the best and i did end up getting very cold but diving with a wet suit is so much more fun than with a dry suit. You can float upside down, swim in a loop, do basically whatever you want! All my skills came back in the first 10 min of the first dive and i quickly became neutrally bouyant. Its wicked to float upsidedown looking at coral reefs and holding my camera out for that perfect shot.

We came across the usual assortment of animals. Clown fish, angel fish, parrot fish, starfish, puffer fish, and corals. I had a great pic of Nemo and his dad too. No really, it was a pair of clown fish, one big, one small, just sitting in their anenome, posing for me. We also came across a family of these little black fish living in some type of sponge and we all surrounded them and just stared. It was quite fun to watch them when they calm down and go about their usual routine.

The second dive was also a great dive, but this time i left the camera to my buddy so i could focus more on my breathing (bouyancy control) and just experience the life/view more. The coolest thing we saw on the second dive was a yellow spotted eel. It was again just sitting there staring at us. It was looking up at me while i was looking up at him (i was floating upside down). The dive master even tried to pet it! Not somethign i would do as these guys are known to bite and can take fingers off easily.

So all in all the dives were lots of fun (for me at least, my friend was used to 20 m vis). I just wish i had the pics to show, but don't worry, i will be diving lots more. Julia, learning in 2 m vis was tough but well worth it. I was nervous for about the first 30 sec after my head went under the water. I had trouble sinking because of not enough weight, but that was quickly solved. I decended to the bottom, no problems equalizing, no problems with my gear either. Its a different world under the water. And without the worry of the drysuit squeeze and other problems, you can just sit there and enjoy. With the right equipment, you are truly floating and exploring a completely new world. It is like no other and although dangerous and scary at times, the experience of it all is indescribable.

08/01/05 - addition
I cannot believe i completely forgot about this! But it jsut came back to me a few days ago when i was chatting with Vicki. Its either our first dive or our second dive, but Marco got hooked by a fisherman! No really! He had a hook with a sinker attached to his wet suit when we were down there. I told him when we got back to the surface he should have went up and scared the shit out of the fisherman. Now that would have been a sight to see!

I will no longer visit aquariums to see fish. I'm going to where they live and watch them there. I think i'm going to consider nitrox or rebreather diving. I really just want to sit on the ocean floor and have the animals come up to me. But the bubbles really scare them so i guess i will have to take up free diving if i want to do that. But thats gonna be tough. Need to learn how to drop my heart beat and increase my lung capacity.

The next day we went on a boat tour of the surrounding islands. Again, a super fun trip with an absolutely hilarious host. He kept standing at the front of the boat, holding out his arms and singing the theme song to titanic. They took us out around the islands, did some swimming, tubing, drinking and tubing (open bar with wine!), and just chat with the other foreigners/locals/tourists (Nha Trang has lots of viet tourists as well). There are a surprising number of people from Vancouver here. Even more than people from TO or Montreal. I was quite surprised. But i didn't talk with them much. Nothing really to chat to them about and i'm not here to hang out wiht people from home. I spent most of the day with some duchies, a greek girl, and 3 viet local girls, 2 of which were from Ho Chi Minh, and one of which was Chinese born Viet (2nd gen) which spoke Cantonese, Mandarine, Vietnamese, Japanese, and English. She will be leaving Saigon on Dec 2 to goto Taiwan to train to become a flight attendant. If we make it there before she's gone she promised to take us around which will be a big help.

The boat was fun and all, food was good, swimming was a little cold and sorkling was pointless (we dived in the same spots the day before) but the best part was the live music! They started singing some english and viet songs for us but the best part was still to come. They decided, to make everybody feel more at home, they would sing the national anthems or popular songs of peoples countries. With the people from that country of course! We had some drunk old korean guys get up and sing, some viet people sing, and russian girls sing. But the best was when my swiss friend got called up to sing. He's from the german part of Switzerland so they sang a german song. A very popular german song apparently. One which my friend didn't know at all! It was hilarious to see him up there singing a song he had no idea to what the lyrics were. I had the whole thing on vid as well, it was quite classic! Of course after reviewing the vid, my friend was like, hey, i do know that song! Hahaha. It was quite the moment. I'll have to get the vids from the greek girl later.

The next day we decided to goto the spa. Upon arriving there we decided against the mud bath and went instead for the massage (clean of course). Quite honestly, for 100 000 VND (about 6 USD), you can get resort quality service, treatment, and surroundings for a fraction of the normal cost. After the massage (1 hr) spent the next 4 hours playing around in the heated pools, heated waterfalls, and hotsprings. There's nothing like jumping into a nice warm, mineral water pool (38 C). No chlorine so swimming with my eyes open was no problem at all. And even better, a cut on my hand from diving the other day did not sting at all in the mineral water. Also, nothing beats sitting in a warm water fall and letting the water presure massage your back, head and neck. I really want a shower like this now at home. Probably only gonna cost me about 15 000 CDN.

That night it finally rained. And did it rain. The real tropical shit. But not that i wasn't used to it, but it just really sucks. We did go out anyways (in between the torrential downpour there were a few minutes of clear skies, and i mean a few min, like 5 min). Clubbing as usual. I wanted to find the girls that we met at the spa that day.

Here is of course where things started going sour. I must admit that we've been getting pretty careless the past few days. Coming home drunk, not taking care of our valuables. And it finally bit us in the ass. Someone went into our room while we were out clubbing (or maybe when we were sleeping) and stole my camera bag. Of course i dont' care about the camera, i only care about the pictures, 1 GB worth (basically the past week). I'll buy the same camera probably in Saigon if its cheap, if not i'll wait till i get into Bangkok. At first i was really choked up about it. Because after gettting home from the resort, with the rain pounding down it would have been the perfect time to go onto the net and start backing up files to my friends portable hard drive.

Of course its here that things got worse. My friend soon discovered that his portable hdd had been taken as well. Goodbye 1 month worth of pictures. The last time i burned a DVD was in Hanoi. From there, the journey to Halong bay, and everywhere south, all gone. It really hurts. I know that i have some really good shots on my blog, but those are also the low res versions. All the hi res ones are gone. It was really, really was hurting a few days ago. BUt i'm trying to forget it now. It happened, its over. I'll contact the greek girl for some of the pics from the boat, but other than that, i think everything will have to come from my memory (and my blog).

I often think if i had gone and backed up the files would i have burned them onto a disc that night? Probably not and i have now firgured out that its pointless to dwell on the past and just look forward. But don't worry, i will get some of the pics back. Maybe about 10 %. But all my dive pics and Halong bay will be gone. Not to worry, Karabi in Thailand looks similar, and i will be diving again so i'll just have to pretend. Hahaha.

Just to get my mind off things i went and got a badly needed hair cut. Really helped to get my mind off the current situation. Force me to remember that life keeps going on by doing routine things. Hair cut cost about 4 USD with tip. Now i really look like a viet guy! I'll send the pic home soon. For people that don't know me its nothing special, but those that do i'm sure will think i look pretty different!

Note to Family, Julia, Gary
I had a wicked picture for your guys to look at but i'll just have to explain it instead. Which definetly takes the coolness out of it but whatever. On the boat cruise day, we headed out about 45 km to the small islands. On the way out, there were strange looking ferry boats coming into the bay. I looked out over the horizon and saw that they were coming from a cruise boat. Hey, thats cool i thought, didn't know that people come to vietnam on cruise ships. As we approached the massive boat i wondered, hey maybe they will stay overnight and there will be more people to party with! And if its Carnival cruise lines then it will be with young people! Was it Carnival? No. In the distance i couldn't see what it was (didn't have my glasses). But the boat looked like an old person boat. And then i thought, hey wait a minute, i've been on a old person boat. And yes, sure enough, the boat was......



......the Sapphire Princess!

Anyways, so i think i have updated up to my current point. I'm not sure what i'm going to do from here. we have extra time now, well at least I do, but my friend has a much tighter schedule to keep than I. I think i want to spend more time here. Vietnam is cheap, the scenery beautiful, people so friendly, fantastic diving (not here in Nha Trang, but an island west of Saigon), great cheap fashionable clothing, and beautiful women. What more could i ask for? I'd definetly like to have my pics back, but whatever, lesson learned, just don't do it again right?

I could stay here and intern to become a dive master (3-6 months) and dive the rest of vietnam (about 4 major locations). Maybe specalize in nitrox and underwater photography? Or maybe deep diving specialty? Hahaahhah, i'm just kidding. If i'm gonna do that then i'm doing it in Indonesia which has much better diving! =)

Don't worry, i'll come home one day!

-bk

damn you mother nature! We give up!

Its been raining forever it seems. Since i left Cat Ba Island and headed south we've been having nothign but issues with the weather. The weather forecasters are no help either. I've checked 3 different sources and they all predict the weather incorrectly. I'm still the best weather man there is. Whats the weather going to be like tomorrow Brian? Rain. And the day after that? Rain. And for the next month? Partly cloudy but mostly rain.

According to the lonely planet and other sources, Vietnam weather is quite special. Being a costal country, its not unusual to have lots of rain, monsoons, and even typhoons (its typhoon season right now btw). But the interesting thing is not that its wet, but that its only the southern half of the country is wet during the summer and dry and warm during the winter while the reverse happens in the north.

Anyways, interesting meterological facts aside, we have decided to give up on the northern half of vietnam. We're taking the overnight train to Danang which is south of the Hi Van pass, a geological formation that splits the country in two. Its here that you are supposedly able to look north and see one type of weather (rain, mist) and look south and see a completely different type (sunshine).

I must say that i'm a little disappointed because i will be missing one major city (Hue) but in the end, all we do is sit in our room and watch tv. It just ends up being a major waste of money on hotel rooms. I'm just hoping that things will be better in the south. Looking at the sat images of the region are not too promising. It looks like some kind of major weather pattern is moving in and it will be wet everywhere. At least for the next week I believe.

But then again i'm no weather man.

-bk

PS, spell checker is not working in Vietnam for some reason, looks like you'll just have to put up with my spelling errors.