Vietnam's Southern Coast

After a day and a half in Hue, we got back on the bus for a gorgeous afternoon ride down the coast to Hoi An, a beach side town famous for it's tailors as well as the nearby Cham ruins at My Son. None of us arrived in town with very specific plans to take advantage of the back-to-back tailors shop, but we all caught a bit of the crazy. Ben had a beautiful suit made, as well as some light sneakers to replace the heavy hiking boots he'd decided to send home. Linds and I each had a gorgeous winter coat made, as well as a few dresses on the cheap. In the late afternoon of what we belatedly discovered to be Vietnam's Independence Day, we biked out to the beach which was simply packed with local families who come out as the day cools (and wade right into the ocean fully dressed!). The smell of sugary, fried cakes was on the breeze, and we just laid back and people watched. With the sunset, we rode back into town, along with hundred of others on bikes and motorcycles.

Our last day in Hoi An, we took a bus out to My Son, the oldest of a series of ruins across SE Asia which include Angkor Wat and Borobordur, both of which complexes we'll be visiting later in our trip.

After walking throught the temple complexes, we took a boatride back into town.After our relaxing days in Hoi An, we made a big final push down the southern coast, doing two overnight bus trips in a row to get to HCMC. I miraculously slept like a rock almost the entirety of the ride to Nha Trang, though the other two were a little groggier when we pulled into this great beach town at 6am. We left our packs in the bus office, and after grabbing breakfast and changing into our suits, we spent the entirety of the day reading, lounging, swimming, and eating at the beach. It was lovely and just the day off that we needed. This was what we had for lunch: jealous?

At the end of the day, Linds and I dashed across town to see the beautiful seated Buddha which had been erected there in the 60s, just a few years before Lindsey's mom saw it there during the early years of the war. With a view stretching across town and out to sea, we reached the Buddha just in time to watch the light fade.

A final overnight ride brought us into HCMC itself -- Saigon for the more sentimental or romantic -- and we spent the day walking around the downtown area and Reunification Palace, and in the War Remnants museum. The museum was an incredibly one-sided narrative, but no less raw or painful for that, and I think its a necessary reminder for any tourist passing through. Vietnam, afteral, has been through nearly 120 years of fighting that didn't truly end until 1980, and the photo exhibits are a true memorial of that.

That evening, Lindsey treated Ben and me to a fantastic meal and wrapped up her wonderful blog before grabbing a taxi for the airport and heading home.