I also finished Moby Dick

So our three day motorbike tour turded into six days! We decided to skip Nha Trang and go directly to Hoi An and spend more time on the Ho Chi Minh Trai. The trip was pretty expensive but it was well worth the money as we were able to see so much, learn so much and eat amazing food.
We spent about half of our time learing about the local minority groups and the argicultural production from one of our guides (Quy) and about the Vietnam war and life under the communist governmet from our other guide (Dan). Vietnam seems to grow pretty much everything- we saw tons of coffee, tapioca (turns out its not just a pudding flavor), black pepper, rice, pineapple and more. Visiting the minority villages was also pretty interesting- mostly seeing cute kids and their houses which are all a little bit different. Since it is spring there were tons of little puppies, pigglets, and calves wondering around.
Dan had served in the South Vietnamese Army as a paratruper from 1968 until the end of the war in 1975 after which he was in a reeducation camp for two years and then had to check in with the goernment once a week for another year. Nine years of his life wasted he said. We visited many battle sites and saw many war memorials. Dan emphasized that all the sites only told one side of the story, the Norths and that the Southern soldiers were never spoken of. In America, too, the contribution and perspective of the South Vietnamese Army is rarely mentioned. When we vistited these sites Dan seemed very affected and though he would answer all of our questions thoughtfully and honestly he was not quick to go any further. He had served for a long time at Charlie Hill by the boarder with Laos and though he said he often has US veterans that want to revisit the battle sites he said he would never want to go back to Charlie Hill. It was a really amazing experience to get to know Dan and hear about his life. We learned a huge amount both about the war and the 15 years following the war when the embargo was in place but unfortunately the keyboard at this hotel sucks and there is a group of Portugese leaning of my shoulder so you will just have to imagine all the awesome things I learned and saw.
Rigt now we are in Hoi An which is just so pretty I could throw up. Having a suit made in the hopes that I will one day be employed!