January 15, 2003 - page 2

The rest of today was spent traveling up toward the city of Hue by bus. My Dad still isn’t feeling too well, but he’s a trooper. We stopped along the way at several sites of interest.

The first of these stops was Marble Mountain. It’s exactly what one would think from its name, a mountain (five, really) of marble. The climbs here were not nearly as challenging as in Cat Ba, but they were enough for our tired group of explorers. The reward for our hard work was coming down off of the mountain into a crowd of shop owners anxiously waiting to sell us their wares. Not having the patience to deal

with the selling tactics, I waded my way through the ocean of people to wait for victorious customers to emerge. My favorite part was the comedic effect of large American men being led around by five extremely petite Vietnamese women each.

Our next stop was China Beach, a former R&R destination of the American military during the war. Although the weather was on the chilly side and the water rough, several members of our group braved the South China Sea (or East Sea as it is called in Vietnam). I did the obligatory surf wading, but was not inclined to completely enter the water.