South Vietnam (Hue, Hoi An, Siagon) - By Brian

After Hanoi, we spent a couple of days in Hue. We spent a day riding around on the back of motorbikes touring the beautiful countryside and seeing some of the great sites around the area. Two of these that were really cool were the tomb of emperor Tu Duc. There are several tombs around Hue, but this one is suppose to be the biggest and grandest. It was completed before his death in 1883 and must be at least 100 acres. There are some 50 buildings, a couple lakes, streams, gardens, you name it. A bit lavish.

For those of you that are my age, or really hip older folks, have you ever looked at the Rage Against the Machine album cover with the man on fire and wondered if it was real? It was, and we visited the monastery were that monk lived prior to driving to Saigon on June 11, 1963. They have the car that he drove to Saigon that day. There is also a large tomb were he is buried. His name was Thich Quang Duc and he was protesting the government's repression of Buddhists.

We then made our way to Hoi An for three days of wondering around and eating some of the best food I've ever had. Hoi An is a great town, but we really didn't do a whole lot. We just relaxed and ate. And were very happy with that.

Then on to Saigon. We made the obligatory stop at the War Remembrance Museum. To say it's a bit one sided would be an understatement. The entire first floor was all about all the awful things the US did during the war (I am not saying we didn't do bad things, but we weren't the only ones). It's really so bad that it discredits the information. Nevertheless, it was interesting to see it from a different perspective. Later that night we had a great conversation with a local woman that works for the UN Development Program in Saigon. Just sitting on the sidewalk on plastic chairs drinking beer and talking world policy, stereotypes, etc. That was the best part of the visit to Saigon.

No idea who these kids were. They came into the store in Hoi An and asked to take a picture with us. It wasn't a challenge to the kid that came and talked to us, I asked. Only thing I can think is that they though we were famous. It was pretty strange.

Sticky rice vendor. Not too bad, not the best.

Leafy dragon, Saigon.

War Remembrance Museum

Pho. Beef flavored broth with noodles and beef. Real tasty.

Thought this sign in the War Museum was a bit out of place.

Hoi An

Hoi An

Thich Quang Duc's car. Over the car and in the windshield you can see the famous photo.

Thich Quang Duc's tomb

Crossing a bridge in Hue on the back of a motorbike. A few seconds after this, when I wasn't looking ahead, but behind, my driver locked 'em up and I ended up munching his hair. All was good.

Tu Duc's tomb

Tu Duc's tomb

Tu Duc's tomb

Herding ducks to market.