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Another day, another blog post. I'm really getting into this blogging thing...

We just got into Hoi An which is a nice little beach town along Vietnam's central coast. They are famous for their silk and tailoring here and you can get a new suit made starting at $20 or so. Later today Marc and I are going to check it out and get our measurements taken. Maybe I will get two suits since it's so cheap and then just mail them home.

Anyway, yesterday and the day before we were in Hue. It's a little further north and close to the former DMZ. On the first day we rented bicycles and cruised around town. The thing is, traffic here is a little crazy. People don't signal and basically everyone just goes with the flow. Indecision is bad, because if you're not moving then people don't know what you are going to do. Whereas if you keep moving everyone else will 'flow' around you and avoid you. Everyone here rides a scooter and it is by far the most common vehicle. If you need to pass someone you honk so that they know you are coming up on the left. At first it's a bit nuts, but it's fine once you get used to it. People also go really slow, so that helps.

We also biked through a more rural part of town and about 20 kids were running after our bikes cheering 'Bye Bye' when we left the area. In general, whenever we get off the beaten track and run into kids they come running up to us to say 'Hello' and get a high five. It's a neat experience.

Hue is a really nice town with an old Citadel in the town center. It's a lot more quiet than Hanoi and I liked it a lot better.

The next day we rented three scooters and a guide to tour the DMZ. It's 70km outside of Hue, so we had to scooter all the way there and back. It was an excellent idea to get our own guide since we didn't run into any other tourists all day! The Vietcong tunnels are quite amazing and a lot more extensive than I thought. They had 300-500 people living in the tunnels and had underground schools, hospitals, meeting rooms, etc. During the war 18 babys were born underground. It was a really neat thing to see. We also looked at a number of other sites and took many rural roads with our guide, so we saw a lot of Vietnam's countryside. It's very beautiful with rice fields, patches of jungle and the mountains in the background. The heat was intense and at the end of the day we were very tired. We scootered more than 200km to see all the sites and get to/from Hue. The weather in central Vietnam is not as humid as Hanoi, but the sky is blue and the sun beating down makes it feel just as hotter.

Our guide told us that up until 1991 Vietnam was a closed country and living conditions were 'very bad' as he said. It's very noticeable now how much infrastructure has been added in the last decade. The roads are all brand new and in excellent condition. Even the rural areas now have cell phone reception and power. Construction of infrasture and housing seems to be happening all over the place. I think in another 15 years it will look a lot different. The country has a great feel to it with everyone looking to the future very positively.

We spent today walking around Hanoi. The first order of business was the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum where the old man lies embalmed in a glass display case. For some reason it's only open until 11am, so we had to get there early. There was a massive lineup of people to get in. They are pretty serious about it and we weren't allowed to bring in any bags or cameras and had to wear long pants - no shorts allowed. Most of the viewers were locals. It turns out that May 19th is his birthday, so maybe there were more people than usual this weekend. It was a pretty calm procedure, except the woman next to me started sobbing uncontrollably when we entered the viewing hall. I guess being their national hero he stirs up lots of emotions in some of the locals.

After that we walked around some more and checked out a few temples, etc. I would describe central Hanoi as somewhat like a giant mall. At the ground level of all the houses there is a sometimes tiny store selling things. Different areas seem to specialize in different goods. Downtown is all about consumer goods, cafes, clothing, art galleries, etc. In more outlying streets sometimes all the shops sell different types of bearings, in the next street it's power tools, one street over it's piping and faucets. Quite interesting. Depending on which block you are in you can get specific things.

Another thing is the weather here. It's very humid and most of the time there is clouds or a sort of haze covering the sky. Very rarely does the sun fully break through the clouds. But it turns out that even so you can get sunburn since the light-hazy clouds aren't strong enough to really filter out the sunlight. So wearing sunscreen is quite important. Standing in the shade is also noticeably cooler, even if it barely seems like shade since the hazy diffuses the sunlight so much. It's evening now and the climate is much milder and less humid. Very nice. We've had a couple of thunder storms and rain, but nothing drastic. Overall I would say the weather is good, once you get used to the humidity.

Tonight at 10pm we're leaving for the train station to catch the night train to Hue. It's a coastal town right by the former DMZ. We're going to check out the Vietcong tunnels and the various types of traps they used in the war. Should be interesting. The sleeper train was $38 US for 1st class with the hostel organizing the tickets and transportation to the train station. Not bad at all. From what I hear the trains here are very nice, but I guess I will find out tonight. Apparently the hostel charges a $2 commission, so if you get it directly at the station it's a little cheaper. We didn't feel like walking to the station to confirm this, so I hope we didn't get ripped off.

Talking about the hostel, they are called guesthouses around here and are basically small hotels. You get a room with made-up beds, fresh towels, TV, AC and a mini-bar. Not at all like a traditional hostel. It's also very cheap. We're paying $5/night/person for our guesthouse in Hanoi.

We spent the last three days on a trip through Halong Bay and just got back to Hanoi. Halong Bay is in the North East of Vietnam and is a huge body of water with thousands of rocky islands rising out of it. We left Hanoi in the morning and caught a bus out to Halong City where we boarded a boat. For the next three days we cruised around between the islands and stopped at different places for swimming, kayaking, and cycling/hiking on the islands. It was a really relaxing time and the scenery was beautiful. We basically didn't have to do anything since we had a tour guide that organized it for us. We were on the boat with about 8 other people -- 3 ladies from Australia and a group from Malaysia. It turns out the guys from Malaysia worked for BMS and had just come from a conference. I immediately thought about the 'ABC' and tried to sell them on quality GenoLogics products. I'm pretty sure the Baller would be proud. Unfortunately they worked in sales and just couldn't grasp the value of an integrated lab and scientific data management system for systems biology research. Fools!

On the second day we went cycling around one of the islands. You know it's a mistake when all the locals are lying in the shade looking at your riding by and shaking their head. It was insanely hot/humid and I had to bow out midway through the trip. I was literally sweating buckets. I don't know how the locals always wear long pants and shirts in this heat and manage to look good. Marc and Elise cycled further into the jungle to look at an abandoned French colonial village (or something like that). In the end I was glad I didn't go along and just relaxed in the shade with some of the other people.

Tonight we're staying in Hanoi and tomorrow night we're taking the night train to Hue. That's about it for now. I've attached some pictures to this post and the others.

Hong Kong is a very vertical city - and I don't just mean the skyscrapers. Since central Hong Kong is on a tiny island with a bunch of tall mountains in the middle, everything is packed onto the mountain sides. So not only are you always surrounded by tall buildings, they are also at different ground levels along the slope. There are tons of stairs everywhere and with all the building being interconnected there's also a whole lot of escalators and elevators. For example yesterday Elise showed us the Hong Kong University campus. Basically we went up/down stairs/escalators/elevators about 10 times and when Marc and I were totally lost we came out at a plaza that was actually on the roof of a 20+ story building. From the plaza you could enter other buildings and take more escalators to take you up/down. It's pretty nuts and my legs are actually pretty sore after walking up/down tons of stairs the last two days. In the end we walked down a massive staircase to a grocery store that Elise shops at. They provide an escalator to take you back up after shopping, but it stops at 11pm, so if you're shopping late you're screwed!

Also, in the plaza at the university there was a memorial for the Tienanmen Square massacre. Hong Kong definitely isn't the same as China.

Anyway, now we're in Hanoi and we're leaving in about 20 minutes to catch a bus to Halong Bay. We're going to cruise around the bay for a few days before heading back to Hanoi. Yesterday we just traveled from Hong Kong to Hanoi via Macau and Bankok. It was a pretty uneventful day.

Today is our second day in Hong Kong and right now we're sitting in a smoothie bar at the top of Victoria Peak. It's pretty convenient that they have free Internet with a smoothie purchase.

Victoria Peak rises right out of downtown on Hong Kong island. The view is incredible and we are lucky that today is a clear day. Most of the time Hong Kong is very hazy. To get to the top you could walk, but that would be grueling in the heat. We took the Peak Tram instead. It has been running to the top of the peak for about 100 years now. Later today we are going to meet up with Elise to look at a temple somewhere here in Hong Kong.

Yesterday we checked out Kowloon which is the other major island. It is a lot less western than Central Hong Kong. We looked at the various markets and Marc couldn't resist buying a lot of stuff he doesn't really need at the LOW LOW prices they have here. Now he is going to have to carry it around for the rest of the trip. Sucker. :-)

We also looked at the goldfish market, flower market and the Hong Kong light show. For the light show all the skyscrapers in downtown Hong Kong are light up. It's pretty cool, but the skyline is amazing enough without the lights. Before the show we met up with Justin and Cheland in their hotel for a couple drinks. Tonight we're going to meet up again and check out Hong Kong's night life.

Anyway, that's about it. Tomorrow morning we're catching the ferry to Macau and then we're flying to Hanoi, Vietnam!