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8/18/13: Last day at central Hue, its a quieter city. The forbidden city does not have alot to see unfortunately, all were ruined from the two French and US wars according to the publication.  They are trying to restore it but there are just so much work and things are going very slow, they are doing alot of constructions by hand still - it took three years to just restore the front wall.  I afraid the restoration just wont be the same as the original too.  Anyways, the Thien Mu pagoda was nice to see; The monks were doing their daily chanting while we were there, so it was nice to see and hear.  We also went to the Tu Duc king's tomb, also very simple, he used it as his summer palace before he passed.  He also design the tomb himself which was untraditional, but he did it as he didn't have any sons.  He is a simple king and didn't like alot of fancy stuff so all is very simple, besides the golden coi fish feeding fenzy, there isn't much to say.  Overall, we are not too impressed by Hue, i would rather spend the extra day in hoian instead.  HoiAn was very nice, the old town is very quaint, lots of old old buildings (thousand years old) were still in-tact and well preserved. There were lots of Chineses influences in the area.  The eco farming tour was great, we bike thru the rice field, casting fishing nets and ride on a buffalo which was kinda fun.  The hoian beach was so nice also, the water was so warm. That night, I biked justin in the back to the town & that was an experience :).  The ride from hoian was long, but passing thru danang shore line and the hai van passage, ocean cloud passage, was very beautiful too.  Though he moutain roads cabe very dangerous to drive on whhen its wet as it has lots of tight turns through the mountain side.  Danang is becoming a very comercialize place, lots of hotels building up along the beaches.  Currently theres a big giant crown plaza casino resort already, we were told that 90  percent ppl going there are the chinese from mainland.  Crazy n hopr they can keep the place clean.

Sad to see we are more than half way into our trip already.  We loved sapa, halong bay, hoian, these three are defintely the top three to see.  We will be off to nhatrang via the night train tonight. Hope the ride wont be as loud as the sapaly train from sapa.  Will see....

About halong bay, im so glad we do the three day trip instead of the two days one.  The extra day took us hyack thru the other island and caves.  The scenaries were just so beautiful, seeing all those trash floating along those bays just make me cry and feel that we need to do something abt it, even brandon felt it and is planning to talk to a teacher in school to see what he could do.  Everyone we talk to about it saids it will not be easy due to the gov control but will see.  We met some nice ppl on the trip who we hope to stay contact, hope we will get some lead from a family who codoes alot of med volunteer work.  Hope good thing will come out from this trip.

Anyways got to get ready to che ck out, will write more....  Miss every one back home, i think justin is abt ready to go home too.  Its hotter in the central than the north. Hope saigon wont be too hot.
Ciao for now...

VNvac: VNprep

VNvac: VNprep: 8/3/13: Well, getting anxious as the big trip is coming up fast. This is just to kick things off - can't wait.  Happy travel!!

8/10/2013:  Thanks everyone for sending me my blog link :))).  We did two seperate hikes today & saw some more fantastic views of Sapa hills.  We were free this morning so we went up to a park up on a "hill" called "HemRong peak", we didn't expect to hike up good >1000+ steps to the peak, it was surprisingly pretty, they made a small garden & along the way, there were lime stone narrow passage to go thru & the view from the top was worth the hike. The kids are enjoying the trip very much, have seen & done a whole lot (will have them post some of their journal later).   In the last two days in Sapa, we saw Red Dao, Black Hmong, HMong and their lives in the villages.  They are hard working people and live really really simply; they funny thing is they all look very happy & "healthy", we can't believe how/what those OLD old elder man/woman can do.  Kinda sad to see what all the buses & motor bikes are doing to the environment here though.  While we are here, I can't help to keep thinking Eric's Mom on what would be like if she never leave the village she once lived :).
anyway, Justin is trying out the squatter and i have to go help him. he needs help wipping! Got to go!

VNprep

8/3/13: Well, getting anxious as the big trip is coming up fast. This is just to kick things off - can't wait.  Happy travel!!