Pink Threads & A Dong Silk

Jess writes: Hue is a small city, bustling with tourists. Every 5 steps there is someone asking you moto, moto. They all want you to pay them to take you around to the city's sights. They also want to charge you for EVERYTHING. This we found out the hard way. Hue is home to the Perfume River, several famous pagodas and tombs, as well as a beautiful Citadel. The two motorbike drivers we found were father and son and after 20 minutes of confused supposed bargaining, it was going to be $7 each for a 5 hour tour of the city. The Vietnamese definitely know how to confuse and take advantage of any weakness and we got on the bikes feeling a little ripped off. They were supposed to take us to the Citadel and one other pagoda that was out of the way compared to the rest of the sites. On top of that, without saying a word, they took us to another pagoda, a tomb, a hilltop lookout with a famous bunker and the sleeping buddha. Each time we told them, this is great, but this not what we asked for. At the end of the day, they dropped us at our hotel and asked for more money - of course. We gave them the agreed amount and walked away from two very angry Vietnamese men. The rest of Hue was somewhat similar, so we learned never to agree to anything, because everything costs something. If you even ask someone on the street where to eat, they try and bring you to their family or friend's restaurant. By the end of our stay, we were quite tired of the constant - no thank you, no thank you. No please go away. We did end up seeing one of the angry moto drivers the next day. He was in a great mood, hoping to convince us to take another trip with him. Too bad we had to leave.

Hoi An - Clothes making central. Donovan's version of the second level of purgatory. Except we have sweetened the deal by renting him a motorbike to drive from place to place. Hoi An is a small, but very pretty city. Again, people trying to sell you something everywhere. You can pick any style of any clothing or shoe or bag or whatever else you can think of....then pick the material...then you bargain. We're getting better at the bargaining part. It's more tiring than I thought it could be. New wardrobe - empty wallet. However, at least it's fun trying to calculate the money in dong ($1=approx 16,000 dong). Around every corner there is another store - A Dong, A Dong Silk, Le Dong Silk. And yes, the donger jokes are endless. Brandon - you'd be proud!

The last day in Hue, we met a great couple from Buenos Aires, Argentina. We're staying at the same hotel in Hoi An. Took a long motor bike trip to see some Champa ruins (My Son). The ride was more eventful that the ruins. After Angkor Wat nothing really compares.