hue part 2

more biking, more fobidden palaces, temples, and pagodas, and lots lots more wet. the days are becoming blurs of mist and mud, clay and clouds. but it's still invigorating! i will look forward to the next DRY day, though!

we rode along six-foot wide roads through paddies, jungles, and towns today. on this road, the villages feel like wild west towns- all the buildings alongside each other facing 'main street,' and instead of horses, ... hondas. the motorbike is definitely the pack mule here, and the flip flop is the cowboy boot.

i cut my ride a few kilometers early when my pal tony (he's a music lawyer) capsized in a fairly large pool of mud and sliced his hands open on the gravel. we've actually had quite a few spills on this trip- biking is a dangerous business!

lunch today was on a riverboat which was pretty fun- it was bright red with giant dragons adorning the front. as i dipped my shrimp rolls in the dish of fish sauce on the white tablecloth and surveyed the jungly riverbanks, i realized i was puttering down the river under wildly different circumstances than my countrymen who visited here all those 30 or 40 years ago.

the vietnamese, for their part, have no problem discussing that ancient history, but it's certainly not their first association when they see americans. they've had more wars in the past hundred years than i can count, and our conflict here is just one chapter.

time to head out into the rain again for more cocktails and food.