Finding faith in Vietnam

The last two and a half weeks in Vietnam have been interesting and filled with ups and downs. After arriving in Ho Chi Min and catching flu and a chest infection in the delta, things went from bad to worse after my antibiotics were not touching sides with my stomach bug and I landed up in hospital for the night. The next week was spent in my hotel room and thank goodness I was staying somewhere nice and I had a sweet Vietnamese lady who ran the hotel looking after me. After debating whether I should catch the next flight home I decided to just take things easy and have been traveling slowly up the coast with my case of the black lung!

My first stop after Ho Chi Min was the beautiful mountainous town of De Lat, where it was cold enough to sleep without aircon and a fan and I even wore a jersey one evening. When the average temperature is between 35 - 40 degrees this is something you get excited about. In De Lat I met up with Alice and Christina, who are Japanese, but grew up in Brazil and we have been traveling together for the last 10 days after we bonded riding in a tiny cable car high about the hills of town. After riding an elephant with 2 very sweet little Vietnamese girls, exploring the surrounding temples and the orchid gardens we left De Lat and headed over the mountains to Nha Trang on the coast were the order of the day was some sun, sea and sand and it we ended up going on a crazy snorkeling trip with a floating bar in the sea, and after the boat crew cooked us a delicious lunch they formed a boy band and sang us songs in the middle of the sea from the 60's!
The next stop along the way, after a grueling 14 hour bus trip where a strange Vietnamese lady decided to sleep on top of me at 3am and a numb bum, found us in the really quaint town of Hoi An. The small streets are lines with amazing Chinese and French colonial buildings which house cafes, art galleries and tailors who can whip you up anything from a pair of shoes to a suit in a few hours! To explore Hoi An we hoped on the most decrepit bicycles you have ever seen and after mastering driving on the wrong side of the road we set off hoping that it was safer than the millions of motorbikes that drive around Vietnam. Red lights are ignored, pedestrian crossings, even when they are green are invisible and to cross the road you have to have blind faith in a higher power and step into the traffic - hopefully behind someone larger than you.
Some more Cham temples later (unfortunately very badly damaged by bombing in the Vietnam war) and after picking up our silk tops we hopped on the bus again to Hue were we will spend the next few days before the final stretch north to Hoian. As much as I am loving traveling and meeting new people along the way, I can't wait to be home in 6 weeks time and to having a good home cooked meal!