Davisnerd

The last few days have been jam packed and I haven't had the opportunity to get to internet. Friday morning, we took a tour of Hue by motor bike. We went to the Pagoda and Emperor's tomb. We took about a 40 min ride on the perfume river and stopped to observe locals making incense, and even tried our hand at it. I was not very good at it, and apparently made mine too fat. We stopped by a beautiful look out point, where there were American and Vietnamese bunkers. We found bullet shells on the ground that still remain from the war. The countryside was beautiful. All in all we spent about 6 hours on the back of a motor bike and it only cost about 8 bucks. We stopped for lunch at a nunnery ... read more

Lauren and I made it to Hue today. We had a 5 hour bus ride from Hoi An that stopped several times along the coast to check out some nice beaches. To get to Hue we had to pass through the marble moutains and got to stop by a marble carving factory, which was pretty interesting. Several people from my group got to sand some of the finished marble statues. Pretty neat! Hue is the educational capital of Vietnam apparently. The city seems a bit larger than Hoi An, but I really haven't seen too much of it. Lauren and I were pretty exhausted after our traveling today and really just wanted to eat pizza and pastries in the comfort of our ACed room. Hue is soooo hot! It is currently 87 degrees and 10pm. Tomorrow ... read more

Today we spent traveling to Hoi An. We had a morning flight to Da Nang and then a 40 minute bus ride to Hoi An. After getting to Da Nang, we stopped at China Beach and had some lunch. We had a chance to put our feet in the ocean and hang out on the beach a bit before continuing to Hoi An. Hoi An is a very cute and much smaller city than HCMC. The town is replete with tailors, who can whip up just about anything from shoes to evening gowns in about 24 hours. The prices are ridiculously reasonable, so Lauren and I took a look at a few of the shops. I am having a strapless blue thai silk dress made for 50 bucks and a pair of leather boots made for ... read more

After a nice 7 hour bus ride and two ferry crossings, we arrived to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). The ferry crossings are pretty interesting. Basically everyone on the bus has to get off and walk onto the ferry, but there are so many motorbikes, you have to nearly push them over to get past the bikes and get a spot. HCMC is a pretty modern city. There are more motorbikes than any other city i've ever seen. It seems like mass chaos whenever I see anyone driving, but somehow few accidents ever happen. There aren't really any road rules here, and to cross an intersection you don't wait for traffic to break, (because it never happens) you just have to look directly ahead of you and walk and somehow bikes move out of the way ... read more

Today was kind of a solemn morning. We visited S21 (security office 21) and the Killing Fields. S21, was a high school which was converted into a torture chamber during the Pol Pot regime. At anytime during 1975 and 1978 it held about 1200 and 1500 prisoners. From this facility the vicitms were often transfered to the killing fields where they were killed and laid in mass graves. The site we visited had 129 mass graves, of which, only 86 had been excavated. Of these 86 mass graves, over 9000 bodies were discovered. It was very sobering to walk through these fields and still see clothing, teeth, and bone shards lying around these fields. After our morning trip, Lauren and I visited the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, where the royal ashes are held and a ... read more

Hello! After a long bus ride across the border of Thailand we finally made it to Cambodia!!!! Lauren and I checked in with our travel group yesterday evening and then met up with May again. THere are 10 other people on our tour (all couples). I think Lauren and I make the best pair though! Everyone seems nice. THere are two couples from Austrailia, one from Canada, and one from New Zealand. The tour will take us from Bangkok to Hanoi over the next 19 days, but first we stop in Cambodia. Lauren and I had kind of a rough morning after our farwell dinner with May's family last night. We were out quite late, and it was tough getting up to have to sit in a 10 hour bus ride from Bangkok to Cambodia. The ... read more

Hello, I am having a great time with May in Lauren in Thailand. I think I have probably gained 30 pounds in the last 3 days though. We literally eat every two hours. Lauren and I go to pretty much every street vendor we possibly find and eat. The only good thing, is that everything is pretty much bite size so you don't ever really get stuffed. So far one of my favorite things to eat are these little mini coconut creme pancakes that have green onions in them. You can get about 8 silver dollar sized ones for about 20 bhat, which is about 60 cents. I have also really been enjoying all of the fresh fruit. I tried to upload photos of some of them, but the internet is too slow. One of my ... read more

I made it and miraculously found May in the airport! Trying to get there however was quite an adventure. Because of the monsoons, Lauren and I decided that we'd leave 5 hours early for the airport, which is 1.5 hours away. We figured this would give us enough time to read and relax before our flight, plus there was not too much to do in Mumbai with all the rain. We arrived at the airport, and it really kind of reminded me of a cattle ranch. There were people everywhere and no one really has any idea about what is happening. After getting in line for our flight we were told we had to get out and get our baggage screened. After getting our bags screened we had to get in another line, and then someone ... read more