So, it's been a loooooooooong time! So prepare yourselves for a long post.

I have now officially seen "all" of Vietnam. About two weeks ago, the four of us on my program went on a 10-day tour through central and northern Vietnam. It was a much-needed break from the craziness of the city, and I loved seeing the more rural Vietnam.

1st stop: Hoi An

We flew from HCMC to Da Nang, and then drove a short way over to Hoi An. I absolutely loved Hoi An!!! Our hotel had a little balcony that looked over into a school and a small soccer field. I loved waking up in the morning to the sound of children. And the weather there was so nice! So much better than the sweltering heat of HCMC.

Hoi An is known for its tailors...sounds strange I know. Basically, the streets are lined with tailor shops, and you can get clothes, shoes, jewelry, you name it, made in just a day or two. And really cheap! I got two pairs of pants and a red pea coat made, all for about $35. So great!

Hoi An is also near the coast, so we all rented bikes and rode for about 20 minutes down to the beach. I was just a little bit terrified, because I haven't ridden a bike much since I was really little. So riding down the street with motorikes, cars, buses, and trucks (albeit a whole lot less than there are in the cities) wasn't exactly the best time to try and pick it up again. But once I got comfortable with the bike, I really enjoyed it a lot, and actually rented the bike on my own the next couple of days and rode it around the city.

We also went to My Son, the holy land of the Champa people. I never actually got a full explanation as to who the Champa people are, but the buildings there were really cool. They were kind of Angkor Wat-esque.

We also got to take a boat ride on a very very small boat. I'm pretty sure it wasn't meant to hold 5 people plus the rower. Haha. But we did it anyway. Definitey an experience. It was one of my favorite parts of the whole tour.

2nd Stop: Bach Ma National Park

We headed off toward Hue, and stopped at Bach Ma National Park on the way. This was our "roughing it" part of the trip. The park is in the mountains in the Central Highlands, and it was absolutely beautiful!!! We drove up to the summit after we got there, and the view was absolutely amazing. I took pictures, but they really could never do it justice. Then we spent the night in this really run-down hotel. The room was just two mattresses on the floor and a pretty crappy bathroom, and there were bugs everywhere! Two people got locked out of their room, so we had to spend the night in the same room. It was interesting trying to fit 5 people on 2 mattresses. I got stuck in the crack. haha. Then the next morning we went on a hike to two watefalls. Both were beautiful, but one of them was really really huge and breathtaking. We actually went to the top of it first, and the view from there was unbelievable. Then we walked down 700...yes 700...stairs to the bottom of the fall. And then we walked back up 700...yes 700...stairs to the top. Luckily we just had to walk a little ways further to meet our driver to take us back down the mountain. It was definitely an interesting experience, and this is where I have seen some of the most beautiful things that I've seen in Vietnam.

I couldn't even get the whole waterfall in one picture...it took 3!

Next Stop: Hue

This is where we did all of our really "touristy" stuff. Hue was the capital of Vietnam during the Nguyen Dynasty. first we went to the tombs of two old emperors (spelling?), which were both pretty impressive. Then we had lunch at the house of a princess, which her granddaughter now owns. There was a lot of history there, which was cool. Then we went to the citadel, or forbidden city, which is where the emperors used to live and work with the royal family and all of the "government" officials. It was really big and all the buildings were pretty much the same, but we stil had a good time. Then we went to the national pagoda of vietnam, I can't remember the name. It has a 7-layer tower in the front, and then a typical pagoda in the back. We got to see the monks there doing their chants and walking around the pagoda. It was strange because all of them were really young. they had "monks" as young as 7 or 8. I still don't really know what to think about buddhism, because I know next to nothing about it. but it was interesting to see that.

I finally got my own leaf, or conical, hat! This is the cone-shaped hat that you always see women wearing in Vietnam. The way they made it is really cool, because when you hold it up in the light, you can see shapes in the shadows. One of them is the 7-layer tower that we had seen there in Hue.

Final Stop: Hanoi

I'm not sure what to think about Hanoi. It's so big and we didn't really get to see very much of it in just 2 short days. It has a very different feel from HCMC. I mean, the traffic is just as insane, but the whole atmosphere is different somehow. The people speak with a very different accent, and there is a lot of history there, and the city definitely has a French feel to it (Hanoi is the city that France used to control the country when Vietnam was a colony). And they have really good Pho (Vietnamese beef noodle soup, the most famous food in Vietnam)!

We went to visit the Presidential Palace, where Ho Chi Minh lived and ran the government of Vietnam after French occupation and before the Vietnam/American War. We also went to see Ho Chi Minh's Mosoleum. Usually you can go in and actually view his body, but it was closed the day that we went. It's really interesting to me, because Ho Chi Minh wanted to be cremated, and never wanted his body to be put on display. But after his death, they went against his wishes and built this huge mosoleum and preserved his body for display. Kind of weird...I'm almost glad that it was closed. I don't think I want to see the body of a guy who's been dead for about 40 years.

Because of timing, Hanoi is where I spent Easter this year. A very unique easter, walking around a lake in Hanoi at sunrise. Certainly an easter that I will never forget.

Before heading back to HCMC, we spent an afternoon in Halong Bay. This is one of the most famous destinations in Vietnam. We took a boat out into the bay, stopped at some caves on the way, and had lunch while enjoying the scenery. So beautiful! Again, pictures wouldn't do it justice.

Time to go back home

We came back to HCMC, and all of us were dreading it. At least I know I was. It was so nice to get out of the city, and now it was back to life-as-usual. Not too much has been going on since I got back. Basically just going to class and my internship. I can't remember if I've written about it before, but I'm interning at a place called the Little Rose Shelter. It's a shelter for girls ages 12-18 who have been sexually abused, or are "at risk." I've kind of struggled getting started with it, not really sure what they wanted me to do, or what would help them the most. But I've finally settled in now. I'm teaching english really informally to some of the staff there. They've had english before, so I'm basically doing reading comprehension and helping them with pronunciation. After doing that for about an hour, I basically just play with the kids, which is a little hard right now because they're not used to me and we really can't communicate at all. But I'm starting to have more fun with them, and I've decided to start bringing my video camera and letting them make a video. I'm not sure how that will work out, but I think it would be cool.

We're heading off to the Mekong Delta (again...for me) next week. We'll be there for about 4 days, so it'll be good to spend more than just a few hours there.

5 weeks and counting! I'm heading home exactly 5 weeks from today. As bad as it may sound, I'm counting down the days. Three months is a long time, and although I've had some really great experiences and learned some really invaluable lessons, me and Vietnam never really cliqued. I'm ready to come home.

Well, this didn't actually turn out quite as long as I thought it would. I hope you've enjoyed it!