hoi an to ho chi min

Hello everyone, dec 26th my birthday and we are off westward to the hochi min trail after spending a relaxing somewhat overcast two days in the lovley town of Hoi An..somewhat touristy but a pretty spot..christmas day was spent drinking a bottle of white wine watching the crashing waves on the south china sea ..sounds romantic , the one spot we can go to get away from people. We are all caught up on our HBO movies after guesthousing yet again due to unsuitable camping options.

Our ride here was less than relaxing.  We have hit the monsoon season and we are trying to get out of the monsoon rains by riding south.   From Hue we spent the whole day, pretty much in a monsoon.  Riding in a  monsoon is one thing but riding through Vietnams 3rd largest city on  a bicycle, in a monsoon, over Christmas is pretty well crazy.  Honking horns of buses and trucks, beeping of mopheads, floating bicyle riders weavign all over the place and the whole mass of commuters obeying no particular traffic rules.  Needless to say it was stressful and a releif to get through the city intact and make it to my 51st birthday..as already mentioned today.

Chirstmas dinner was the ususal: snails, panckakes, some kind of asian salad with cold noodles and peanuts, and cheap beer all to keep the bugs at bay.  We  have yet to get sick..  We tried last night to get some pictures posted but none of the computers would recognize the camera so you will have to wait, again, for pics.  The guesthouse /  hotel here gives us free computer/internet access but no recognition of the camera.  The weather forecast from "Weatherunderground.com" is for warmer, mid 20's, and partly cloudy skies for just about the next week all along the trail.  It is not raining yet this morning at 8:20 so hopefull we'll have luck on our side for the ride and for Sal's B-day.

Peace and love to all,   Stan & Sally