ASIAJANT...: lazy and rainy days in Central Vietnam...

So these last days I've been exploring the Central Coast of Vietnam, but it seems that in November is not the best season to visit it, so the clouds and the rain are still here every day.

Hoi An was wonderful, walking in the street is like being inside a museum. Hoi An was a very important international trading city during the seventeenth century. This left a lot of different Chinese and Western influences in the architecture. It's the perfect town to just get lost walking on his narrow streets and keep taking pictures of all the houses. I really enjoyed the two days I was there, half of the town in the river side was flooded, but at least the days I was there, it was not raining too much.

Then, I came to Hue that is located 3 hours in the north of Hoi An. Hue was the political capital during the 19th Century. Here there was the imperial city (Citadel) were the Nguyen emperors dynasty were living.

Yesterday I took a very interesting cultural trip to see different places related to the War arround the Ben Hai River that was the natural border between North Vietnam and South Vietnam until 1975. We could visit war bases, museums, cemeteries of soldiers, tunnels that the people were using to hide from the war... It was a very interesting trip, a nice class of history by our guide!

During the evenings, here in Hue are very quiet, but I met very nice people in the Guest House where I am staying to share the dinner and some beers. Every nigh we are all saying that we are leaving the next day, but the next day we are still there. I am not sure if it's the rain or it is Hue itself, but here a feel very lazy!

Anyway, I am waiting now for the bus to Hanoi. I think I am running out of days in Vietnam. I really wanted to go to the northern mountains of Sapa, but I think I have not enough days left. Next Sunday expires my visa in Vietnam and I've a flight already booked to Thailand... :-( We will have to leave Sapa for the next time I visit Vietnam, so like I read somewhere "the trail is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel too fast and you miss all you are traveling for..."

Oh.. by the way... last night you almost make me cry (a happy cry, though). I was going to sleep and I just checked my email (it's free here in Vietnam but very slow) and I saw the comments of the blog... You are the best! Thank you... sometimes I think a lot with you and Cork. I miss the weekend lunches (or lunches that become a diner or even breakfast...), the Sunday Jazz evenings in Crane Lane... The saucy chicken wraps... 'El Zulo'... and aren't the waitress of Tom Barry's asking for me? :-D

A corner in Hoi An