Just chill the f*** out, man.

We've been hanging out at this amazing beach south of Danang, Vietnam
for the past few days. China Beach is where American soldiers went
for R&R and sick leave during the war. It's really beautiful here.

We are staying at this fantastic little place called "Hoa's Place" -
Google it if you're the Googling type. It's just a simple little
guesthouse 1/2 block from the beach in a pretty remote area, but it is
a standout. Hoa (pronounced "Wah" or "Wow") is a total character.
He's probably in his 50's, about Matt's height, and speaks
very good English that is sometimes difficult to understand because of
his laid-back, relaxed hippie-esque drawl. Every other phrase out of
his mouth is "Just chill out, man" or "Hey man, relax" and he peppers
his stories with a few F-bombs that I imagine he has picked up from
the backpacking crowd. Hoa and his wife Giao have been running Hoa's
Place for like 16 years and their specialty is a nightly "family
dinner" where they serve a changing set menu to all of their guests.
It is so much fun and we've met a bunch of new friends from all over
the world with whom we've been talking, laughing, playing on the
beach...hey man, just chill out for a while...just f'in relax, man.

We're staying here one more night, going to a nearby town called Hoi
An, which is supposed to be very quaint and beautiful. We might meet
up with some of our new friends there. Hard to believe we only have
two weeks left. But just chill out, man.

Driving in Asia

Hello all,

We are leaving Hanoi for DaNang/Hoi An tonight by train. As Lindsay stated, we really like Hanoi. Particularly, the food. I think it's something about all the vendors and restaurants going to the market everyday instead of having Sysco truck it in. So far, so healthy.

Today, a Danish guy at our hotel said he had only one day in Hanoi and asked what I thought he should see. We've been here 5 full days and I really had nothing to tell him. We like meeting good people and eating good food. I've found that I could really give two shits about site seeing. So, I told him to check out the lady selling live crabs out of a bucket (which she boils for eating) one block over.

We have seen a couple of neat things- the Hanoi Hilton where US airmen were kept as POWs (complete with John McCain's flight suit), some 1,000 year old temples (yawn), and a free circus act featuring contortionist and monkeys, both of which seemed forced to do their outrageous acts. Yesterday was the 35th anniversary of Vietnam winning the "American War," as it is known here. So, there were lots of free and packed events happening around our hotel... but that's all kinda boring. What was exciting is how we got to Vietnam...

We spent 14 days driving around Laos in a 4X4 that we rented in Vientiane, Laos. Not a lot of foreigners drive around Laos and no foreigners have driven to some of the areas we visited. Cartography of Laos is surprisingly underdeveloped considering how much time the US spent bombing them during the war. Anyway, we found a map that was apparently the first english map published about 10 years ago. It was made up by some Australian who drove around on a motorcycle for a couple years to make it. Anyway, we took some dirt roads that were not in our guidebook, but were on this map. We also took some dirt roads that were not on any map. Some of these dirt roads were just mud roads- others were rock roads- but we definitely tested the limits of 4 wheel drive (which I now love). Most of the driving was through mountains where we drove at incredible inclines next to sheer cliffs through mud, clouds, smoke (slash and burn agriculture is everywhere), landslides, and other obstacles. We picked up villagers along side of the road, ate some very questionable meats, and had to bribe our way into Vietnam (I don't think a whitey has ever driven a rental into Vietnam). Unfortunately, I type slow and have to get off of the internet now. I will try to tell more of the story at a later time, but I will tell you more later. Sorry we didn't mention this earlier, but the driving is over now- so, don't worry about us on the road!

Alright. Love you all.

Matt

What? No Facebook?

Vietnam has apparently banned Facebook. You can only get on in some places where they somehow get around the block. Our hotel for the past two nights in Hanoi is not one of those places. Also, one more thing about the food here: the pastries. They are everywhere. They are delicious. They are an argument in favor of French occupation. (Just kidding. Not funny)

In a few hours we're leaving on an 11pm train to head for the central coast...Danang and Hoi An.