We had a free day in Hoi An yesterday and just spent the whole day in the town which is very interesting, touristy but fun. We went to the central market where they sell everything, as we walked through the food part there was an old woman selling vegetables who had a table about 5ft square and she was squatting in the middle of her produce eating a bowl of noodles. Looking at everything we were glad we didn't have to eat it, and today the realization hit us "We are eating it". Every vendor comes out trying to hard sell you and your face is frozen into a smile and throat is sore from saying "No thank you.


The Vietnamese have a great sense of humor, one young woman in the market held up her baby and said " Souvenir Madam?" Then the peanut seller was joking with Len trying to get him to buy and she patted his stomach and said "You're a happy Buddha".

We went into lots of shops and saw lots of things to buy until we realized how far we had to carry it until the flight home.

Today we drove north through Danang and stopped at a holy site called Marble Mountain. It is a temple carved into a natural cave in the mountain. There are steps up into the cave to the top with a view out to the South China Sea. Len and the guide went to the top and said it was beautiful. Our guide for the three days we are here is a young man named Ahn, who we like a lot. He is a native of Hue and is married with a 13 month old baby.

In Danang we stopped at the Cham museum where there were a lot of artifacts from the numerous sites in the central part of the country.

From there we drove over a high pass, about like Logan pass, but starting and ending at sea level. The road was build by the Americans during the war and there are still remnants of bunkers at the top, and also some down lower in the rice fields. There is a tunnel through the mountain opened in 2005 which makes a fast trip for everyone but tourists. We had a warm day but it was hazy, not sure if it is haze or air polution.

Our hotel in Hue is the Saigon Morin which was built in 1901 and is very elegant. It sits just 1/2 block from the bridge that was in the video clip John found on the web. We walked down to the market after lunch and bought a scarf from a vendor who said he had a sister in Seattle.

Tonight we went on a boat on the Perfume River, just Len & I and our guide on the boat with a musical group of 7 young people. They played and sang beautiful traditional Vietnamese music, then gave us each three lotus shaped boats with candles in the middle to float down the river for our three wishes to come true.

We ate at a little hole in the wall place down from the hotel and walked away stuffed for $7.00 including tip. We are spending more on laundry than food.

We are missing seeing you Kate & Cameron..