You sure clean up good.

Well, I have realized how many entries I will have to write to get caught up to today's date, and with another trip planned in a week and a half, I will be getting even further behind. Thus, I am going to rush a bit more and give you the abbreviated Readers' Digest version. I left Halong Bay and hopped on a sleeper bus to Hue. I grabbed a room in a charming hotel with a French balcony overlooking a small courtyard and rested my weary self. Hue is the former capital of Vietnam with the ancient relics of a kingdom. I visited the citadel in Hue comprising the imperial city and forbidden city of ancient Vietnam and the tombs of the emperors. I walked around the old and ancient grounds under the overcast sky. It lightly rained with the small drops falling down on disturbed waters of lily ponds making subtle ripples of small circles, dot, dot, dot on calm ponds of decorative waters. After my days of wandering Hue, I hopped on another bus to Hoi An, a charming place with the old city built around the river. Vietnam was also once a French colony and the cities display colonial times in building and alleys. I like the architecture, the flowers draping down from houses in thick blossoming vines and bushes, the shutter windows and balconies. In many towns, the buildings remind me of the homes back in Huntington Beach, long, tall, and skinny homes with layers of balconies. I liked the reminder. I loved the paper lanterns that hung about shops and posts throughout the city, how they lit up at night in bundles and clusters, the lights across the bridge, the shops glowing and gleaming contrasted against the black sky. I loved the alleys and the crumbling buildings, the vines and flowers, the balconies, the plantation shutters, and the immense colors. One side of the river was faded and falling, the other newer and refreshed. It was that faded side I so loved to walk around, the stained black walls and decayed buildings that stood tall in authenticity. Hoi An is known for its tailors, and I had several things tailored for me to take back home, some things I have yet even to wear, but hope to someday, perhaps when and if I return to my own country and begin a real life there. Hoi An was a shopper's delight and it was tempting to have multiple wardrobes made up, though I resisted best I could. It was nice even trying on clothes, and the suit I made, looking in the mirror and seeing again what I could look like dressed in nice and clean clothes. I went to a local barber and had them give me hot shave with a straight blade, the first shave in a month, and then I stood in tailor shops dressed in a fine 3 piece suit with a fresh shave and a face I had not seen in a month, torn out of my backpackers' clothes and places in the soft fabrics of something wonderful. It was fun for me, those few moments of being clean and respectable, and I did love Hoi An. It was a great time, and as I neared to leave Hoi An I wrote this in my journal: "You know, traveling is great for me. These are my happy moments. Life is best when I am backpacking. I feel like I can believe in God again. I can have faith. I enjoy the ability to believe, the ability to have faith. I am still unsure about so much, but I can feel a closeness and a belief. I seem to only feel it when I am traveling."