Thought I heard a rumblin' / callin' to my name

Vietnam!

Been here for a few days and it's like night from day from Malaysia. For one thing beer isn't jacked up to first world prices by a sin tax. In fact not much is jacked up once you get haggling. Considering that and the dwindling days left in my trip I think some major major shopping is in order. Beyond that I've been duly impressed by the country (although somewhat exasperated as well). It's truly frenetic although in a way that is distinct from the freneticness of Beijing. Millions of motor scooters anarchically swerve through every major street and every single one of them seems to want to give you a ride. I don't really have time for a major post right now but just to give a short advert as to my whereabouts I've spent the last three days cruising through the impressive Halong Bay archipelego. A series of islands that protrude vertically from the soupy green water of the gulf of Tonkin. It was like floating into one of those oh so exotic landscape wall scrolls that everyone seems to bring home from Asia. I bought some pearls and made friends with some Brits one of whom basically was the brother-in-law from Match Point. I learned from him that apparently 'Eton these days is mostly for new money.' I liked him a lot, for all that he was very good natured. I wasn't really at my social best though, I was feeling introspective and couldn't decide whether I really wanted to play the social game of who sits at what table etc. that's inevitable when you stick a bunch of twenty-something strangers together on a boat for three days. The result was that I pretty much did all of the group activities, but dragged my feet a bit. In hindsight it was a pretty shitty attitude to take. It's far better to either commit to the party, or commit to being a recluse. I did get pretty smashed playing Asshole the first night though. I ended in the # 2 seat. Drinking games are vicious.

Got back to Hanoi yesterday and immediately caught an overnight bus to Hué. Got here at 9 just as a major thunderstorm was breaking. Walked around a bit but mostly just went from restaurant to restaurant to take refuge and gorge myself on they ultra-yummy Vietnamese food. Tomorrow I'm going to rent a scooter and go check out some tombs, and the next day I'll head for the DMZ.

Heart.