The loudspeaker starting blaring propaganda messages at 8am followed by over an hour of music and singing. Now this is not something you choose to listen to; this is something you are forced to listen to. Various messages came on several times during the day. Our hostess said they were reminding people to pay their…

So feeling pretty confident in our moto scootering skills, we booked with a company to ride scooter from Hue (say wheigh) to Hoi Ann, a 140 kilometer (86 miles) trip over the Hai Van Pass. It was a terrifying, exhilarating, tedious, mind numbing experience. We stopped at a fishing village and Elephant Springs to swim,…