I’m a good sort of tired. I rode my third night train last night up to Sapa. It is the main tourist town in the north. Yet, it’s small and excellent. I’ve lucked out to blue skies in a place that I’ve been hearing for weeks is cold and wet. The main part of town is about three blocks long and it is swarming with women in traditional hill tribe dress trying to sell you crafts. But it’s not like the husstle of other places. I made friends with two different ladies. They are just super happy and positive people. It’s really nice. Of course their dress is awesome looking too. And the majority of them speak decent English which is a huge difference from the typical Vietnamese person that is trying to sell you something.

Everyone goes “trekking” here. Often times with home stays. Today, I pulled together my own most excellent hike by leaving the tourist path and going on my on through rice patties, along a beautiful river and past small communities. It was most excellent. And I saw no other tourists.

Tomorrow I really want to rent a moto and ride out to this other part of the country side. So that leaves the possibility of a home stay the night after if I still feel like being in Sapa. I did get invited to home stay with multiple of the nice women that I talked to today. And I was welcomed in to a very typical house on my hike. Dirt floors, no furniture, a big barrel of homebrew “beer” (it looked like something else). That would be a traditional home stay, and I’m not sure I really need to do that to grasp what poverty is. The home stays that tourists stay in are different, typically buildings built specifically for the purpose.

Hanoi has black market Chacos. Even some locals wear them.

I’m sitting between two deaf girls flirting through video chat with sign language to deaf guys on the other end. I’ve got to say that all the waiving is highly distracting (and funny). I keep thinking that the one on the left is going to log off because she waves so much.

Hoi An is interesting. It is known for two things. Old buildings and tailored clothes. While the old buildings are just buildings it is really nice to be in a place to is pleasing astheticly. The tailor shops are pretty amazing, though I’m not indulging. I’ve just never been in to clothes that much. You can get anything you want made in a day, including leather shoes. With some pretty cool styles and all very cheap.

I took my first ever packaged tour (besides going on ocean going boat trips) today. I visited My Som, which was the most important Cham ruins. It was pleasant, though most of the ruins were bombed to smitherenes by American planes. Being a part of a 50 person tour group was novel and fun, but reaffirmed exactly why it’s a bad way to travel. Then, in a town full of tourists I was the only one hanging with the locals watching boat racing on the river.

I took an overnight train to get here. It’s a great way to travel, although double the price of the bus. Vietnam’s trains are gross though. The employees all sit around drinking and smoking (under the no smoking signs) while it looks like the train has NEVER been cleaned. I did meet some great people to hang out with during the trip and had a lot of fun. And the infant in my compartment didn’t even cry all that much.

Keeping with the theme of traveling, I’m going to move again tomorrow. I like moving to new places and Hoi An doesn’t have much to keep someone anyways. So, off to Hue tomorrow. I’m not sure if I’m going to go by rail or bus. I’m also feeling like spending a maximum of two more months South East Asia so I will likely fly somewhere else in early April.

I’m wrapping up my second day in Saigon. I again walked a lot. Went out to Chinatown and visited three different pagodas. Relaxed with some bubble tea and ate some delicious chinese food. Then I visited the museum about Ho Chi Minh’s life and the Reunification Palace. The former was better. Really cool 1960s architecture. Finally I’ve been killing time in Vietnam’s version of Starbucks which is even more expensive than the actual starbucks. I’ve been traveling for a month as of today and I feel that I can start ’softening’ my travels and not always due the local’s children’s stools on the street thing. I got my fourth book of the trip today. Under The Banner Of Heaven, it’s weird to read about home in southern utah while in Asia.

I pulled in sleepily at 10pm last night. It was a super fast, comfortable and overpriced ride that was made enjoyable due to friendly companionship from an english law student next to me. We grabbed a taxi in to town and got deposited in to my first backpacker ghetto of the trip. Immediately I was greeted by a German couple that I hung out with back on Rabbit Island a week or so ago. The traveling circuit is a small world. They told me that rooms were scarce and expensive, not what I wanted to hear while half asleep. Lucked out though and got a room quickly and only a little over priced.

Today, I’ve done my usual thing of walking an excessive distance. Brought my laundry to be washed. Went to the War Remanents Museum, and gazed on the atrocities of the war and seen through the communist “winner’s” eyes. The first room was humorously titled the “Truths Room”. Then walked, walked and walked. Bought a new battery charger as my last one broke during a power surge. Visited a cool Chinese pagoda that was extremely busy and choked with incense. Sat by the river and talked with a weird guy. Ate Pho. Sat and watched the traffic. Visited the cool central post office. Thought about the rest of my stay in Vietnam. I want to go to Hoi An soon, which means skipping some of the southern things in the country that don’t inspire me. It’s going to be an 18 hour trip, but I’m finding the only easily accessible way to get there is through the travel agencies in the tourist ghetto.