Since Halong Bay

It has been a few days since I last wrote, and only now have I had the change to find a computer and some time to get something down. We are in Hue now, and plan to catch the early bus to Hoi An for a few days of rest and shopping. Ha Long Bay was incredible, the boat was really cool and we had some interesting things for dinner served to us- one including some sort of praying mantis that lives in the ocean. The trip was a nice time to relax, but after seeing the caves and the rocks for two days, I was ready to move on and see more of Hanoi. We stayed only one more day in the capital, then made our way via bus to Ninh Binh in the evening. In the morning we decided to do a day trip around the area, as Ilona had read about it in the Lonely Planet and suggested it was a quiet, but nice place to go see. She wasnt wrong, the countryside is gorgeous and we saw several temples and pagodas as well as climb a hill and cruise a river all punctuated by the guides wisking us around on their motorbikes. It was alot of fun- we only got back to our hotel in the evening and had nothing else to do but wait for our bus and 10 hour bus trip to Hue. The bus ride wasnt too bad, I managed to get 3 seats at the very back and could sorta lie down in a contorted postition. We arrived in Hue at 6 30 am this morning, and since then we have seen the temples and palaces of the city. It is a wonderful sleepy little place compared to the cities we have been to, and tomorrow morning we leave again for somewhere with a little more to see. I think we both are a little templed- out, after having seen about 10 of them this trip so far. Sorry for the brevity of this post, there is too much to put into these last few days, you will have to wait until I get back to hear the entire stories.