Lookin' for adventure, and whatever comes our way...

I arrived safely in Hoi An this afternoon, having survived my 5 day journey by motorbike. What an amazing experience. Much less scary than I thought it might be, but not without its nervewracking moments; I was definitely glad I wasn't the one driving. I was accompanied by Vui aka "Happy" who fully lived up to his nickname. I don't think there was a moment when he wasn't smiling. We were also joined by a Swiss guy who rode a rented bike and tagged along. This wasn't part of the original agreement and I was initially pretty irritated by it, but he was friendly enough, lackluster personality not withstanding, and I decided I needed to just get over it. There are tons of new pictures up on Flickr, so you can get a glimpse of what I saw along the way.

As usual though, I find the pictures don't really capture it, and I think it's something I'll probably have to write more about later. There was so much to see. I had so many of those "I can't believe I'm doing this!" moments. Some highlights: drinking rice wine with a local family, having my palm and face?! read (FYI- my face is 90% OK; good eyes, good ears, good mouth, nose... not so much), visiting small minority villages, taking in some of the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen, hiking down to swim in an old volcano crater, and drinking and laughing hysterically with some of the other guides and the Canadian and Australian travelers they were carting around. My guide tried to convince me to marry him, but I politely declined. I will have lots of stories about this trip... you'll all get sick of hearing about it. :)

Hoi An is a beautiful little city; I can think of a number of you who would go nuts here... it seems that every other shop is a tailor's and you can get anything you'd like hand-sewn in about 24 hours, along with made-to-order shoes! I overheard an Australian girl telling her mom over the phone that she'd had 2 dresses, a suit, 3 skirts, a pair of leather boots and 3 pairs of high heels made today.

Hope you are all well. More soon!