Vietnam

Vietnam as a shock. I had high expectations from what i've read and been told about Vietnam and i was very dissapointed at first. We had planned to spend 2 nights/3 days up on hanoi to see the city and maybe go out to the coast. We flew in, took a cab into the city to get a hotel and immediately booked flights out the next morning. We felt like a dollar sign and very uncomfortable the entire time there, all 12 hours.

Once we got to Hoi An it was more our style. It is a beach community and the people are much more friendly and much nicer to tourist. The past couple days we have just rode bikes around town, bought some suits/shirts...too many to be honest... and met up with a new zealander who moved here 2 years ago. He talked us into going on a scooter tour with him today, so we went out and rode around an island a short boat ride away. I honestly felt like someone important or maybe even a celebrity to them. People of all ages were stoping on the streets to wave to us and say hi, didnt matter if they were 2 or 82, they'd stop what they were doing and make sure to wave and say hi. They even let us harvest some rice with them, as you can see above matt got the hang of it pretty quick. We even got involved in some Vietnamese drinking games at lunch with the table next too us.

Overall i'd give both places very different reviews. I still feel like everyone is just seeing dollar signs when we walk by but at least they're not as aggressive in Hoi An as they were in Hanoi. Tomorrow we're onto our first overnight train expedition. Wish us luck.

-Alex