No Hue!

our cyclo drivers sitting on some machinery left behind from the war.
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Vietnam,

My apologies.  I take back any and all judgement that I made about this beautiful country based on the sights and sounds of Saigon.

Hue is absolutely beautiful and the train ride here left me very excited about the next two weeks in Vietnam.  I'm looking forward to our time together.

Signed, Ashamed.

a common sight in these parts. he may be on lunchbreak, but he can still dig for gold. (i didn't notice this upon taking the original picture).
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The weather is the coldest we've felt.  It has dipped down into the sixties/seventies and I'm freezing!  I was laughing at all the winter jackets, scarves and hats that we've seen, but I'd give anything for my own puffy coat right now.

We road our first cyclo's.  Can you believe it took us this long?!  What a great way to spend the day.  We quickly made friends with our drivers as they led us around the city.  They had us jumping a fence to look at tanks and other huge vehicles left behind from the war.  Before we could question whether or not the four of us should be breaking onto these grounds, we were crawling in and out of these tanks.  Now, I've seen the inside of a tank before, but nothing like the real deal.  Tanks at our museums are always repainted and cleaned out on the inside.  These were left exactly like they were thirty/forty years ago.  I crawled in the tank to see rust, gears, bullet holes, hooks and gizmos everywhere and none of it was repainted!  It was pretty cool.  The image of these two Vietnamese men sitting on a gun with Laureen made me smile.  As they sat there, while I took a photo, the one driver and I kept exclaiming, "war. kong tot!" War.  No good.  We've come a long way.

here's why i like this picture: monk on a moto, talking on a cellphone, while smoking a cigarette.
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Christmas in Vietnam.

What are wonderful Christmas!  It most definitely was lacking in the family realm and it was surely missing the pickles and cookies, but nonetheless it was a great holiday.

The restaurant that we chose to have our holiday dinner came complete with a Christmas tree and presents!  Our waitress gave us each a gift.  I was the lucky recipient of hair straightening cream and Laureen opened up a nice big box of q-tips.  Gotta love Asia.

laureen driving the cyclo.
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We spent the day riding motos out into the countryside.  We managed to get lost and create our own routes amongst the rice paddies and farm land.  These two men out in a longboat waved us down and from their charades we gathered that they wanted to take us for a "spin" through the rice paddies.  I'm not quite sure this happens every day.  I don't think that I've ever seen foreigners riding around the rice paddies... nor have I seen four people in one of these boats before.  We couldn't say "no" to the kind strangers.

the merry christmas.
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In fear that the boat would tip or sink we sat very still.  The water was just spilling into the boat as we rode around.  This felt like the right time to play a game... let's call it, "what's in the water?"  The game consisted of us listing the number of leeches, spirogyra and other interesting creatures that probably thrive in this wetland.    (Maniacs, remember the racing boats in British Columbia... these were even closer to the water than those).  The men just laughed at how amazed we were by the world around us.