Hanoi Hilton, jellyfish and former US Presidents???

I looked up at the Indian Man and asked "you're from India, then it must be good Indian food" He confirmed, then looked to Max and said "you're friend, he looks like Al Gore". Max qithout missing a beat, "Damn you get Al Gore and Kennedy, and all I get is fucking Nicolas Cage". Not sure where he was coming from, but he made some terrible Indian food. We soon saw why, a Vietnamese girl was the actual cook.

We had just arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly/currently Siagon) and had made our way acros the metropolis of 7 million people in about 15 mins while nearly killing (or at least maiming) several scooter drivers on the way. It is actually insane how they drive in Vietnam. There really are no rules, or at least official ones. When 2 streets intersect, there is no need for a stop sign or traffic light, you just go, literally. We saw 2 accidents between scooters while we were there, and were almost hit ourseles while drinking beer on a street corner in Hanoi. Apparently 408 people died last year in traffic accidents, and so far this year 387 have died in Hanoi, about half the size of Saigon. Its only for how slow they go that more werent.

Back to Hanoi. Arriving from SF, I literally almost passed out on the street. It was in the middle of a heat wave and I was doing some serious sweating (4 shirts the first day alone). We alked around for a biut, or sort of limped around while drinking beer and adjusting. Apparently the smaller the chair the cheaper the beer (or at least this was what Conni a nice Dutch guy said). And we found a place on a street corner that had you sitting about 2 inches off the street, so he beers were 20 cents a glass! While fun we escaped the next day.

Halong bay was amazing, only a bit out of the city, and we were on a Junk headed across the bay of several hundred (or thousand ) islands. The islands are just bits of limestone sticking out of the water with dense jungle on top filled with mostly cicadas. We swam and kayaked around them and under them in caves and generaly enjoyed ourselves. We then actually got to stay on one of the islands, and wakeboarded and swam in luminescent water under a full moon, hard life.

Then it was back to Hanoi, and an overigth bus to Hue, about halfway down Vietnam. My bad feelings were confirmed when our taxi could not find the bus stop. The fun continued with two drivers whose family were probably killed during the war, and thus had an intense dislike of Max and I. Everytime we put our feet outside of the "bed" made for a vietnamese midget with his feet cut off, the guys actually slapped them, and by the end max actually took to putting his knees where they would whack the guys as they passed. Good thing we took valium and sleeping pills, so by the time we stopped we were so groggy we almost passed out in our food. We then stopped to say whats up to the remaining families of the drivers and then took a rest stop halfway through the night for about 2 hours. So all in all the trip that should have been 14 hours took 19 hours of pain. Never again.

Hue was gorgeous, we rente4d bikes and checked out the whole city including the former palace, and surrounding royal graveyards and rice paddies. It was nice to have a day to relax. We then rented bikes to travel the 140 km to Hoi Ann, along the coast. We found a desolate beach and ate fresh cuttle fish, swam in the crystal clear water, and then biked over the dividing mountain range of Vietnam before heading into Danang and then Hoi Ann. While heading through Danang, we witnessed our second crash and then ate some fresh fish and swam on the infamous China Beach. Hoi Ann is basically just a shopping town, so we shopped. I got an amazing suit of charcoal cashmere, and a custom pair of leather shoes, all made within 24 hours. We organized our flight to Saigon and got out of dodge.

So here we are, just got in to Bali. We bought surf boards, got a car rental figured out, (15$ /day for a new SUV) , and will surf tomorrow fro the first time, and then head to Lombok. We are headign to Kuta Lombok. Imagine white sand beaches, crystal clear water, and world class surf breaks, and then multiply by 15 or so. I hope to get lots of reading done, climb a volcano or so, and basically refresh ourselves.

More soon.