a quick update on my brief and limited tour of vietnam.

saturday was a travel day. glad i wasn't hungover. we rode a few hundred km, stopped off in a few towns - not too much to get excited about until we stopped for the night.

we went to dinner at a local barbeque joint, where we feasted on wild deer, mountain goat and weasel. all of it was delicious. the weasel tasted like a cross between rabbit and pork. if you ever see weasel on the menu, do yourself a favor and order it. same for wild goat.

the hotel we stayed at doubled as a brothel under the guise of having a spa and offering massages. its not fun to be sharing a room with your sister in this situation.

today we headed up the ho chi min trail. truly beautful and we continue to be the only white people everywhere we go.

so this post was going to detail the first 3 days of my trip through the central highlands, but instead i got drunk on banana-rice wine with my tour guides. i'll try to do my best, but i'm wasted so no promises.

while drinking all that rice wine, i also ate a bunch of organ meat and cow brains. the brains were quite tasty, and very delicate. of course the last time i ate organ meat in southeast asia i got dysentary and a doctor removed my appendix shortly thereafter. good thing i don't have to worry about that anymore.

so we started the tour in da lat. da lat is like a ski-town in switzerland. It sits on a picturesque lake and is situated high in the mountains. the main difference being that there is no ski slope. however, it's witner here, so everyone bundles up, hats, coats, gloves, scarves, etc and that only add to the feeling of being in the alps. then of course i remember that the temperature at night only dips to 65. in their defense, when i my flight landed in da lat, it was 78 and i was freezing. apparently spending 6 months in weather that never dips below 85 will do that to you.

From da lat, we headed to Lak Lake. Vietnam is one of the most beautiful countries i've ever seen. however, it is a bit emasculating riding on the back of a motorcycle, but thats how things are done around here, so what am i gonna do?

we checked out a few minority villages, watched some traditional minority dances, etc. My sister then insisted (read: whined incessetantly)that we go on an elephant ride this morning. elephant rides are really really fun - when you're 8. after that though, elephants are a slow form of transportation, they're constantly getting whipped and poked by their riders because all elephants want to do is eat and its fucking uncomfortable.

this afternoon we rode to a fairly large town - the name escapes me - and checked out a few waterfalls. tomorrow its up north for a few hundred kilometers.

i just spent the past 22 hours in Saigon, aka Ho Chi Min City. The best way to describe it is Phnom Penh on steriods, or bangkok on estrogen. There are lots of cultural things to do and see here: i walked past the Notre Dame Cathedral, quickly glanced at the Reunification (Independence) Palace - which is closer to a state college administration building than a palace and breezed through the market in about 10 minutes. I did however go to the War Remnants Museum. It used to be called "The Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes," but oddly enough that name discouraged a lot of american tourists. so they changed the name, but kept the content and now americans and chinese go there en masse. I don't think I've ever seen such a stinging indictment of U.S. foreign policy.

This afternoon I'm flying up to De Lat, a city at the southern tip of the Central Highlands. Wednesday morning I start a 6-day motorcycle tour.

my last day of work was friday - the whole office left at 2:00pm and we all went to a bar on the riverfront for afternoon cocktails. friday happy-hour is big thing in my old office. i need to find similar offices for any future employment i may have.

my sister arrived on thursday night and tomorrow the two of us head to vietnam, possibly laos and a couple choice places in cambodia for 2 weeks. i'll update my travels as they happen. wish me luck.