So I arrived in Vietnam a few days ago...I know I have been falling behind on the blog, but have been incredibly busy, no downtime to write. We left Phnom Penh via boat on the Mekong River to get to Vietnam. It was such a beautiful boat ride and took about five hours. We stayed in a small fishing village off the river for a night and then continued on by bus to Saigon.
Saigon is a huge city in the south of Vietnam as there are about 8 million people almost all of which drive motor bikes. The motorbikes are crazy....going every which way, it's like frogger trying to cross the street. Also the noise from the bikes is so loud and they like to use the horn..they beep at everything, it a constant buzz. But the city has a great energy to it and the people are very nice and friendly (even to Americans). The only bad thing it the heat, it's considered the cool season and it's still so hot and humid..also it rains just about everyday.
Saigon has an incredible market with laquerware, buffalo horn utensils, clothing, good fake watches and handbags and of course an amazing food market. I bought way too much that my extra bag is overflowing with stuff. It's just so hard to resist, b/c it's super cheap and fun to bargain.
We left Saigon yesterday and took a flight to Hoi An which is on the coast. They have had major flooding in the past couple weeks but has receded somewhat in the past couple days. The town is so cute, all french colonial buildings from the seventeenth century. The city is known for workshops that make custom clothing, particularly suits.
Last night my travel companions and I had a fun night at the Karaoke bar...singing Asian pop songs mixed in with Britney, Madonna, Michael Jackson...I of course made an ass of myself, I just couldn't put down the microphone (god help everyone that had to listen, especially my "like a Virgin" performance).
We leave tomorrow for Hue, which is another small town about four hours north!
