We are leaving Tuesday morning at 6:00 a.m for Hue.  It is in the center of Vietnam and the old ancient capital.  We are taking a Vietnam Airline shuttle flight down.  They are actually fairly efficient.  A bus ride that far is a hair-raising experience in this country.  Few traffic laws are enforced and if there is a stop and go light it is usually just a suggestion. 

I have been emailing in the middle of the night as the young Europeans that travel through this hotel are usually standing on each other's heads to use the four, often slow, computers in the lobby. They travel in packs and sweep through a country in a couple days usually not remembering where they have been.  I am missing the point. They travel in herds and seem to want to be herded and entertained.  This Kum Ba Yah crowd rarely smiles. They bring meaning to the phrase, "never have so many that should be so happy, have striven to work so hard at being miserable every day."  Anyway, I think their travel style is just plain weird. 

If you haven't noticed, I don't do tours.  I rarely go where professor's and so-called experts tell me I must go.  I will not be visiting the infamous Hotel Hilton Hotel of Vietnam War fame.  Nor, will I take time to visit "Uncle" Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum.  I have read he did not want to be famous after his death and the government did it anyway. Hey, I am going to honor old "Uncle Ho's" wishes so to speak.  When I am 90 years old I can take the contrived cruise ship type tours in a bus with other 90 year olds. 

Heide found a place to have her nails done.  The Vietnamese are famous for salons. We found a morning coffee shop to watch the people from. We also found two nice out-of-the-way restaurants where I could get carmel pork in a clay pot and sit on a French style balcony and watch the people.  Later we found a bar that serves medicinal drinks i.e. herbs, snake, bark, etc.  I am getting a touch of the traveler's sniffles so what harm could be done now?  I came away believing I had a clear head anyway.

The breakfast egg-girl was back in business this morning and the toaster actually worked half the time this morning. It has rained here off and on since we have been here.  These poor people must be used to it but everything is soaked all the time.  They patiently dry out their store fronts every time the rain pauses. The temp. is still in the 80s and it is still very humid off course.  

The money here is called Dong.  I had to get some more.  I have been using some I had left over from last trip.  The big cities us American Dollars as well.  Many of the menus here are in English and show prices in U.S. Dollars also.  But, we are off to the country and I will need Dong.  I always bring a roll of U.S. Ones with me for the taxi and scooter drivers and other vendors.  One U.S. Dollar gets a guy a long way here if you are frugal. Foreigners often travel with U.S Dollars. You know, all the guys that supposedly hate us Americans like the French and other Europeans.  All I know is they sure throw our money around like long lost buds.  Of course, the hotel front desk is into banking as well as everything else.  The exchange rate is 16,000 Dong per Dollar.  They just recently started using coins here.  It makes it easier to make change but many people still us bills.  There is an annoying trick over here you see once in awhile.  The vendor asks you for a large amount over the purchase so they can make easier change by giving you a bigger bill.  But, by time you are done handing money back and forth you are lost.  Often a basket of miscellaneous bill come out and your bill are thrown in - beware of the basket - you better have a good memory.

We finally met one American.  A young woman from D.C. originally from Green Bay. We met her at the medicinal bar - go figure.

Observations:

There are limited street lights here if any and the scooter drivers often do not turn on their lights until late if at all.  Makes for an interesting street crossing. 

A team of four people came through daily to clean our rooms, clean towels etc. They are all so young.  Heide wants to leave them a tip.  Some of them live right here on site.  They work from 5:30 a.m. to very late, 9:00 p.m.ish.  Seems like I see the same crew all day.  I don't know how they can smile after a day like that?