Vietnam

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I left China on a good note and still calls me back for more. It was hard to leave Yangshuo, about as hard as leaving your home for an extended time. Leaving with lots of new life long friend that I will nodout meet up with sometime in the near future. But the traveling bug was biting and giving me that itch to be on the road into the unknown. So I packed my giant backpack and I left for Vietnam with Abi an amazing girl from Britain that I met in Yangshuo and now fortunate enough to travel with her and her best friend Sarah, the Sweds and Rob where are you.
Vietnam was a bit of a blur and full of hectic activity and peddlers looking for a westerner to over charge and scam. Hanoi was nice for a couple of days but it is such a fast paced city that you don’t get to appreciate it as much with the constant sounds of horns and engines. So we were there for a few days and then moved on to Hue, which is half way down the Vietnam coast. An extremely nice city full of old French colonial houses all painted their own brilliant color. The streets, very wide with trees lining the sidewalk and a much slower pace to it then Hanoi. With a wide variety of French cafes we could take our pick of french baguettes, amazing pastries and some of the best coffee on every corner or just fried green eggs and ham. There was also an amazing beach just outside of town that we spent most of our time at. We could rent motorbikes and cruise to the beach for beers and fresh pineapples, not a bad life. After a while in Hue we made our way to Hoi An where they are famous for there hand tailored clothes and hand made shoes for super cheap. I ended up spending about 150$ on a new wardrobe and suit and two new pairs of leather sandals. Holy shit that’s a lot of money when traveling. Owell life goes on and money is meant to be spent. In Hoi An we went to bed late and got up late for a one o'clock breakfast then went to the beach and did a lot of chillin. The town was also like a little French villa with small little Asians running around everywhere. Also a very laid-back town but still tourism has taken over and everyone is trying to sell you some thing that you don't need, it was a bit much after a while.
After Hoi An we traveled back up to Hue for a day and then planed to go to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) where the boarder was between North and South Vietnam, also where a lot of action took place during the Vietnam War. We also had the chance to check out the Vin Moc Tunnel System where the South hid from the North Vietnamese army. The tunnels had three levels and over 5kms of tunnels. The bottom level was a good 25m under ground. I found it hard to imagine that a lot of people lived under ground for six year only being able to come out at dark.
From there we headed to the Loa Boa boarder crossing and on into Laos. It took us up on a winy mountain road away from the coastal white sand beaches and into the hart of South-east Asia. Our tour guide dropped us off at the boarder and went on his way as we got swarmed by little Asia ladies looking to exchange Vietnamese Dong into Lao Kip at a horrible exchange rate. Here we are no bus no taxi and about 259km to Savanakhet, the next closes town to sleep and eat good food. We step through the boarder into Lao and into the unknown with no ride……

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Photos

Harbor Town
Small fishing town out side the town of Hue, Vietnam

Waiting For The Tide
A local fisher man on a Hoi An beach Waits for the tide to come to take him out to sea.

Comments

[mom]

mom's comments
Hi Colton, love the pix and great word images. How amazing lyou had clothes and shoes made! No wonder you aren't writing e-mails with this outlet.