In Hoi An Today

On day 8 of my Saigon to Hanoi cycling tour in Hoi An, we are enjoying "a day of rest" since we only cycled 30kms to the My Son ruins just east northeast of here. Once we arrived at the ruins, we caught a ride from the gate to the actual structures from a Vietnamese park official in a USMC jeep! He sang us the Ho Chi Minh national song all the way back down to the bikes -- very amusing.

Hoi An is a beautiful, yet very touristy city in Central Vietnam. Of course, that means that there are plenty of internet cafes to creating new blog postings. I have yet to take some photos of the architecture here, but Hoi An has the most authentic Vietnamese architecture in the whole country. Also in abundance here, lots of fantastic shopping. I'll be heading out soon to bargain for a painting.

Prior to Hoi An, we spent 2 days in Nha Trang, a beautiful beach resort with yummy seafood and 1 day each in some smaller towns along the way in what can only be described as sterile, communist style hotels run by the government. The photo here shows a fishing village just of the coast of Nha Trang where we went snorkling on what of our "days of rest" :)

We're heading out of Hoi An tomorrow to tackle the highest road pass that Vietnam has to offer ~1500 feet and 15 kms of it! Should be a fun day, I'll let you know if I survive it.

I haven't been able to access the actual posting portion of my blog, so if someone could send me an email to let me know if it looks alright, that would be great. Not sure if some government firewall is blocking my access to view the blog or not....