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