Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintence

All right, the story you all have been waiting for and the one I have been avoiding desperately to write is finally here. Not my best piece, by any means, but still gives you a very small slice of my truly amazing experience for which I cannot find words to capture. Enjoy....

My journey. 2 days prior to my departure from Saigon, my guesthouse decided to give me a surprise and have my ipod be "missing" from my room. Perfect timing for it to get snagged. There is something to be said about travelling lighter. Took the bus to Dalat, which is a nice town but much colder than Saigon. A welcome change. We also found the inhabitants of Dalat to have the best English of any Vietnamese towns we visited. The collective "we" I am using refers to Cindy and I. Cindy is a cool cat from D.C. and is formerly known as a pharmacist. Dalat is known for its night market. We took a day motorbike tour of the city and liked it so much that we decided to bag part of our bus ticket to Nha Trang and hop on the bikes with Thai and Tao. Enter music: "Born to be Wild". Have never felt so alive. The landscape along the Ho Chi Minh trail was absolutely stunning. It is so lush and green and reminded me so much of Costa Rica. I really wonder how they fought a war in that stuff. Talk about homefield advantage! We drove through countless hill tribe towns and everyone rushed out to say hello to us as though we were celebrities. I was amazed though,that nearly every bamboo house we drove by had a tv. According to Western standards these people have nothing, and the thought of having a tv over a car or running water was a little different for me at first. But yet they have everything they need and are so happy. The highlight of the trip was when we shared a meal with a hill tribe family. Again, they had nothing, but yet were so generous to us and happy. I was truly touched. Ahh, the meaning of life.
Our bike trip ended in Hoi An, and luckily we didn'tdo the bike trip in reverse order, meaning from Hoi An to Dalat. I had so many beautiful clothes made in HoiAn that I had to get another mongo backpack. Have already shipped some stuff home and plan on shipping some more tomorrow. Hoi An, by far, is my favorite town in Vietnam. Not only is it home to 200 tailors, but it is so charming and quaint and is the only town to still have that French flair. Somehow it got spared from all the bombs.
Have spent the last 2 weeks here in Hanoi. So much more livable and more pleasant here than in Saigon! There are loads of lakes and parks, it's cleaner, quieter, and the traffic is less hectic. Just got back from a trip to Ha Long Bay. That's up there with Hoi An as one of my fave places. So pristine and QUIET. Stayed one night on a "junk" boat, kayaked, hiked, and biked around the islands, and even karaoked the final night. So much fun.
Met some new friends on the Bay tour and am meeting them in Thailand for Christmas/New Years. Always an adventure. Have a great holiday one and all!