Day Eighteen

More of the same for today.

I woke up a little before Jade and ran down to secure two lounge seats on the beach - setting a towel and a book on each it all you need to call dibs. Then I stopped at the hotel computers to blog for an hour and check email, and picked up our breakfast coupons at the front desk. I went up to the room knowing Jade would just be rolling out of bed, and no surprises - she was just rolling out of bed. I put a little hustle in her, and we headed to breakfast. If only we could conjure an appetite for Vietnamese food in the mornings - the fish dumplings and noodle dishes looked pretty good (had we been eating lunch or dinner).

Suits on and down to the beach. Really nothing to describe other than reading for most of the day (this can only happen if I absolutely have nothing to do). We laid on loungers - beneath thatched coconut palm umbrellas - listening to the rolling waves and the Russian's talking while we read. We only had to say no thank you once to the kid renting his jet ski for the day. After a few hours, I was a bit hot and antsy (story of my life) - so I relocated us to the pool side. We applied copious amounts of sun screen and got milkshakes - 1 coconut - 1 chocolate. We needed something to do while we followed the 15 minute dry time of the sun screen.

We read some more - and we floated in the pool. We ended up spending most of the time in the kiddie pool as it was shallower and thus warmer. I was nervous for the newest arrival to our resort - a 12 year old boy - gleaming with energy and no attention span. He was jumping in all over the pool - diving - cannon balls - belly flops intended as dives. I jokingly said - where is his mother - someone needs to tell him to be careful, it makes me nervous when he dives in like that. And then I started to really be nervous for him. Someone should tell him - no diving.

After a full day in the sun, we cleaned up and went out for dinner - nothing much to write about - it was ok. I think I got a bottle of old beer - it tasted a little skunky and warm.

And then - once again - a little tv and bed.

Day Seventeen

Our first full day of relaxing by the pool.

The day started off with a decent buffet spread for breakfast. And then I headed down early to snatch a few loungers next to the pool (we noticed that they go fast).

A quick back story - Thomas our neighbor (who spent a lot of time working in SE Asia) told me about his time in Nha Trang. He talked about there being a lot of Russians. He said it in a whispered tone - almost like he was ashamed to say such thing. I took it just matter of fact and continued on with the conversation. He brought up the Russians once again - and said something to the effect of - yeah, the Russians...  I don't know if you have much experience with them...  But they're interesting. I talked to Jade later that day asking her if she knew about the Russians. She wasn't sure either.

So here we are at our MuiNe resort, and the guests are 95% Russian - of which we could care less, just interesting to be in a place that is so homogeneously not Vietnamese. Within minutes of sitting by the pool, and seemingly surrounded by the Russians, we found ourselves preoccupied with listening to their language. At the end of a sentence, one of them said something that sounded like Red Bull. Only he rolled the first R, and bull was pronounced Bwool (with an emphasis on the oo sound - deep in his mouth). Jade and I start laughing right away. And this would be something we repeated for the remainder of our stay here - Rred Bwool!

The Russian men are all huge, but don't necessarily look it. They're like 6'-3"ish weighing 250ish and they're not really defined and muscular, just big. The women range from huge and tank-like like the men, down to stick thin.   

I've heard Russian before, but not in this magnitude - so that's why I think it's so funny sounding. It's a pretty ugly sounding language. It sounds more like a string of swear words to me more than anything.

They don't seem completely rude, but maybe a little. They seem very direct, and seem like they'd steel a pool side lounger from you, and not really care (they didn't actually do this, but there were times I thought they might). Some of the women's swim suits were very skimpy, and the men all wore speedos - no matter the size of their hardened guts (I know I know - shrewd American). Jade wore a cute 1 piece suit and I think they were all puzzled by the styling, perhaps they'd never seen one - especially the woman who wore what looked more like thong underwear and bra than suit.

Jade and I enjoyed our time, muttering Red Bull in a severe Russian accent, and relaxing in the sun, and floating in the pool. We ate dinner out at an Italian place down the way which was decent. We stoled down the road after poking our heads in little shops and stands of trinkets etc. Then we headed back for the night. My cold lingered on - and seemed to flair up in the evenings telling me it was time to catch a little Nat Geo and get some sleep.

Day Sixteen

We set out for MuiNe this morning. We set a redundant alarm on our travel clock knowing full well that we'd be up earlier than our alarm compliments the roosters below. And sure enough - 5am. Boom we're up. Roosters going wild - this time less annoyed because we knew it was coming - and somewhat amazed. How do they know to do that at precisely 5am?! We headed to our severely mediocre breakfast, and then down to check out. In a hurry - we rushed thru the check out and headed down the block to catch our bus to MuiNe. Expectant of a big awkward and strangely comfortable bus (like we'd taken before), we were concerned when our bus pulled up into queue. Perhaps a little larger than a conversion van, 20 some odd seats we crammed into this thing. We ended up being a little early and got to pick our seats, which were close to the front (for Jaydee - so she doesn't get car sick). After the van thing was full we sat waiting. All seats were occupied, and the four seats in the back held all of our luggage piling to the ceiling. Jade and I wondered why the wait. Now 20 minutes later as we impatiently waited, another 5 people walked up. They were to ride with us, but I didn't see how. They piled luggage in any available cranny and then folded out our awkward arm-rests. Whoa, those are seats? Very small, very uncomfortable seats at that, covered tightly with textured fake leather sure to produce a sweaty butt in the 4 hour trip down the mountain. The late arrivers from the Czech Republic were stuck with the worst seats on the bus... By far. Jade leaned over - that's why I was so worried to get here early - I quickly agreed.

We got moving and it was smooth sailing for a good 20-30 minutes. After that, we could feel the road beneath us in steady decay. It wouldn't be long before we slowed to a 10 mile per hour creep dodging van size pot holes, and curious piles of large stones piled 6 feet high and taking up half of the corroded street. We were headed down the mountain, gradually, switching back and forth. This in combination with the dodging of pot holes started making me a little nauseous! Jade, strangely, took it like a champ. We made a pit stop about an hour in, and not again until we arrived in MuiNe. The ride was not my favorite 4 hours in Vietnam.

We arrived in a central location in MuiNe. MuiNe is one long beach, that is adjacent another long beach on each side. Dubbed to be less touristy than Nha Trang, we thought we'd try our luck here. We cabbed it down the several mile long beach to our resort - the Canary. A large resorty place with a huge pool - swim up bar, and beach front property. After our time in Phu Quoc, we knew we liked to sit and read on the beach, but much rather swim in a chlorine-y fresh pool sans jellyfish and icky toes. Due to space limitations we were upgraded to the next level rooms - deluxe, or supreme, or whatever their tacky rating scale is. Two (smallish) queen beds on the second level overlooking the palm tree courtyard leading to the pool - leading to the pleasant windy beach, and finished off by the somewhat choppy sea. Our room was very nice and we were anxious to climb into our swimsuits and sit pool side soaking up the sun (this time with plenty of sun screen). 

We did just that - and it was quite nice. 

I would later find out that I had become sick with something. First it felt like a cold - then a fever - headache - coughing... I always give Jade crap for being dramatic when she doesn't feel well - and here I lay, entirely convinced that I had malaria, or at the very least dengue fever. The two beds in our room which seemed at first to be absurdly lavish turned out to be entirely necessary as I sat sweating and shivering, moaning and coughing - dieing for all I knew. I had that weird sensation when you move your eyes and your whole body feels a tickle or a buzz. I was a mess, and Jaydee took good care of me. She went down to the computers and read up on my malaria diagnosis, and returned with a game plan. If it persisted we would head to a doctors for a test. Until then, she was to break my fever. She rotated cold clothes on my stomach and back and had me take a cold shower. After a while, my fever did break and I fell asleep early leaving Jade to channel surf between Nat Geo, Discovery Channel, HBO (circa 5 years ago), and 20 odd terribly cheesy Vietnamese soaps. I woke up a lot and so did Jade. 

We made it thru the night - and in the morning I would feel about 50% better.              

Day Fifteen

5am, what the heck just happened... Why am I up?! I slowly slip back into a sleep.  Exactly 5 minutes later, I'm up again, this time I catch the end of a very loud rooster wake-up-call. Jade and I both look at each other in shock. You have to be kidding me I grumble, and roll over hoping that the bird alarm only goes off twice. Nope! Someone down there is pressing snooze, and the snooze timer is getting shorter and shorter. After about 10 rooster noises within 5 minutes, another rooster goes off opposite the other. There would simply be no way to sleep thru that racket. Looks like we'll be up bright and early. We peered out of our only hotel window to discover that the damn roosters were basically right below us. That's the last time I book a hotel I told Jade. When I booked the hotel, I considered two variables - price - and proximity to the central market. This one was the cheapest and closest to the market - what else could you ask for...  Apparently you could ask for a room with no rooster directly below it. Jade on the other hand, considered my two variables, but several more like - guidebook recommendations - online reviews etc.

We got up and got ready to the incessant rooster calls, and we headed out for a day of exploring.

First we went up for breakfast in the rooftop restaurant. Our coffee was terrible, our eggs were terrible, our bread and jam, was decent.

We walked down to a lake surrounded by the mountains. The air was refreshing, and I wasn't sweating - a strange feeling after sweating literally every day for the past 2 weeks. We stopped at a cute restaurant on the lake. We picked a table on a little boardwalk right on the lake and had much better coffee and some decent Vietnamese food for a better go at breakfast. We ended up sitting there for quite a while having a great discussion about life, and several interesting details. I don't quite remember what we discussed, but it was surly profound at that moment. After said discussion, we made our way up to the Crazy House.

The Crazy House is a house designed by a local architect that has been opened to general admission. A cross between Gaudi and the Berestain Bear's tree house this bizarre house was... Bizarre. Convinced that this house not only refrained from meeting any safety standards, it also deliberately broke more than a few dozen - we walked gingerly around - literally warning each other - watch your head - don't trip here - don't go up on there, I'm not sure it'll hold a full human's weight. It was interesting - but lost its charm quickly, just another tourist trap. Jade and I talked in archibabble, unlike any of the other visitor - you know, if she stuck to her Gaudi references, I think she would have been much more successful overall, and - Oh come look here, this is a nice detail, I like how the tile transitions here. God we're nerds.

We walked back down to the central market area just as it started pouring rain. We ducked under a cute little gazebo like shelter of which reduced the rain from hitting us a little - as there were holes in the clay tile roof. The rain let up just enough for us to venture out a little ways from the gazebo and then started coming down again. Jade led us to a short cut - thru the town dump. We didn't realize it to be the town dump until we were walking thru it, and let me tell you, it was disgusting! But a shortcut it was.

We headed to our room with bad juju for the rest of the rain lasting a few hours. We watched TV - Nat Geo - of which I call out randomly now. Nat Geo! I exclaim every time we turn on a tv, Nat Geo! Turn it to Nat Geo! Nat Geo is a shortening of National Geographic I think in efforts to be hip and cool. I think it's really nerdy, so I use it facetiously, and not sparingly. Jade doesn't think it's as funny as I do, but I'm ok with that.

We headed to the V Cafe for dinner. Reviewed in our book as decent western food, we welcomed a break in the Vietnamese cuisine. Pizza and fish and chips was our order and it went down good. Not the best we've ever had - but it was just the break we craved.

That was basically the extent of our day. We've been reminiscing about our time in Ho Chi Minh City, and it seems forever ago that we were there! Man-o-man we've been gone a long time!        

Day Fourteen

Hoi An proved to be a bit hotter than we thought. It was in the eighties and quite humid. We headed to DeLat for an escape from the heat.

Stepping off of the prop plane that we have gotten used to, we were instantly cooled by the 70s temps and the less humid breeze. A two night get away from the heat was just what we needed. I booked the hotel room online at our Hoi An hotel, which proved to be interesting. At 25 a night including breakfast, and right off the central market, I thought - how could we go wrong. I'll tell you how... Bad juju.

We hopped out of the plane and into a taxi within minutes. 20 bucks later upon our arival to our hotel (a little further from the air port than we expected), we walked up to our clean fairly large hotel. A five level building set back from the street crested with a rooftop restaurant. We walked up to the front desk and checked in, with a little confusion as the woman behind the desk knew very little english. The main level was filled with tables and chairs, that I would later find out were not for any apparent use - as breakfast was served at the rooftop restaurant. The lights were half on, giving kind of an eerie vibe. Or as Jade said, bad juju. We went to our room on the second floor. It was clean and fairly modern, but again the hallways were half lit, and the cleaner seemed to be camping out in the laundry room, just waiting for someone to leave so she could clean something. We cleaned up, and headed out to the central market - I was hoping to score some street food.

We walked down a windy street to the central market about 6 blocks down - a nice walk of which I did not sweat due to the lovely temps of the mountains. Jade spotted a doner kebab stand - our first doner in Vietnam. We made our way across the street and quickly bought two of them. Cheap and delicious - a Vietnamese twist on the doner kebab - basically a Vietnamese sandwich with lamb meat. Invigorated by our first snack we arrived at the central market, and began purchasing street food. We got 2 BBQ chicken skewers that were delish, and then a rice paper roll up thing seasoned with cheese and herbs and green onions - pretty good. Then some more skewers - pork wrapped in grape leaves with hot sauce. Our frequent snacks were sprinkled about as we browsed the market - looking at fresh veggies - fish - meat - candy - hardware - dishes - basically anything you might want to buy - along with anything you might not want to buy. I felt pretty confident, as we had experience now. We knew how to say no to the insistent stand owners insisting we buy some of their sub par coffee or tea. We got 2 sweets, one was much like peanut brittle, but on rice paper with ginger and spices, and the other had coconut and some ginger, with some sort of sweet substance holding it all together. They were great, asside from the occational ultra-gingery bite which was not far off from taking a pull from a bottle of whiskey. We ended the street food night with some soup that the locals seemed to be swooning over. The woman selling it, had a huge kettle with floating stewing tomatoes. Some sort of noodle soup no doubt, and I was eager to try. I ordered one up, and took a seat next to the locals on the small children's plastic stools - half worried it would not hold my weight. Jade didn't order one, and would have a bite of mine if it was good. I received my noodle soup with tomatoes and varrious meat along with a side of veggies to put in the soup. I prepped the soup for a minute, and then took my first anticipated bite. Hmm... I tried another. Jade looked at my puzzled face and laughed, she said she was glad we only ordered one. This crap was awful! Strangly fishy with a weird dark gelatinous cube - perhaps liver - it tasted like a mirky bowl of Mississippi River. I looked around to see if the locals were truly enjoying this crap - and they were... I gagged down a few more bites to make sure I wasn't missing anything - perhaps something at the bottom of the bowl would give it a better flavor. Nope - terrible. We got up, and I felt bad leaving an almost completely full bowl of this woman's soup behind, but I couldn't eat it. As we walked back, I thought for sure I'd get disintary from this unclean soup.

We got to the front desk of our hotel and asked about the steam bath and Jacuzzi that was on the sign on the front of our building. The woman was a bit confused, and almost seemed like she was playing dumb. Jade went out and pointed at the sign - Steam Bath? Jacuzzi? It also said massages and spa. The woman replied in broken english and it sounded like she was saying that she didn't think it was a good idea... We were puzzled and walked down to the 'Massage Room'. It was below our building. We walked up to the counter, and a guy walked out of the 'massage room' and thru the crack of the door we could see a handful of half dressed Vietnamese woman, perhaps ready to give massages? Jade and I started laughing understanding why the front desk woman was telling us that it wasn't a good idea. We both agreed that we didn't want to participate in the underground Vietnamese sex industry and headed back to our room. We watched a little tv and then worked hard to fall asleep - as our mattress was about as hard as the tile flooring. I double checked the matress thinking that it was just the box spring - but it wasn't. Just the hardest bed ever above a scandelous massage parlour in a hotel with bad juju.       

Day Thirteen

Today we went to our cooking class. We started class by walking to the local market to pick out fruits - vegetables - herbs. Our woman instructor taught us what each of the fruits, veggies, herbs were (there were several that we didn't know) and which ones to pick. For instance if you're picking mangoes, for a salad you want it light green and yellowish - but mostly green. And for dessert, you want it yellow. Also, alway pick the ugly mango - brown speckles everywhere. This means it grew in the sun, and the inside of it will be good for eating - not stringy. Also, it will make the Vietnamese women upset if you smell the mango and then don't buy it. So never buy it for the smell always by sight. We learned lots of different things like this for picking out the other items as well. Even that part of the class was invaluable! Now I know that those aren't artichokes...  They're sugar apples...

We headed back to the restaurant (Morning Glory) for our cooking part of the class. We walked into a room with 2 rows of tables. Each table had 2 burners, prepping utensils, and some pre-prepped foods and spices. There was a main table up front with a mirror above so we could see what our instructor was doing. We watched her make the food, and then we made ours, and then we ate ours. Everything was Really Good! We made a cabbage soup with shrimp paste dumplings, shrimp and pork fresh spring rolls, traditional Hoi An fried pancakes, and BBQ chicken skewers with mango salad. They gave us all the recipes and a few additional ones to try and a cutting thing that they use to slice their fruits and veggies (looks like a garden spade with a thin slit down the middle of it), not to mention we ate a lot of great food for lunch. Over all this was one of the highlights of our trip! It was really fun to learn about all their foods, ask questions about their culture and of course learn how to make some of their meals at home (of which we fully plan on doing).

After class we stopped in at the neighboring restaurant (of which is owned by Morning Glory). Our instructor mentioned that they make a specialty lemon grass ice cream that is delicious, and we had to try it. We stopped over and each got a scoop and a cone. I will say that this was one of the best ice creams I have ever had! In my life! Incredible! This was another highlight of our trip. We stopped back after dinner and got another cone!

Before dinner we stopped back at the local market for some additional cooking utensils that we would need to make the food we learned.  A cute little grater-stringer thing - 2 cute little pans for the pancakes - 2 clay lids - and 2 sets of long chop sticks for cooking with. First we scouted around for the pans. We asked the women of the market where we could buy the pans. Not fully understanding they took us stand to stand pointing at cookies, pastries and candy. Jade said no, we need pans to cook the pancakes. The women determined for us to buy from them or their sister's or their friend's stand brought us to another woman, who in tern brought us to another woman, who finally understood what we were looking for. Oh, you want pan to cooking the pancake she said. She sent her friend off into the market, and said you wait, I get you pan to cooking the pancake. The woman scurried back quickly with a dozen or so pans. She asked how many we needed, we ordered 2. The cute and cheap little pans were what we used in class and we thought they'd be fun to bring home and use - and the cute little ladies assured us that they were good high quality pans! We asked for clay lids, and the same happened, the one lady said something to the other lady, and she dashed off into the market and fetched us clay lids. All the shops seemed to work together, bound and determined to make a sale and make us happy. They were like personal shoppers. We purchased all of the items and the women all wrapped up our pots and lids etc in news paper, and put them into a bag for us. I thought about bargaining with them over the price (ended up being 15 bucks or so), but I thought, nah, this can be their tip, and just paid. We were happy with the pans and with the experience of having them help us.

For dinner we went exploring to the other side of the river (less touristy) and found a cute little 3 story restaurant on the river called The Lighthouse. We sat over looking the river on the second floor. Open air, as every building in Vietnam seems to be, we felt the cool breeze off of the river which was lovely. Turns out it is beetle season, as we ducked a huge beetle buzzing thru the air bouncing off of the lights, walls, bookcase etc. We're not talking little box elder bug here, we're talking 3 inch long 1 inch wide monster beetle! We saw about 10 or 15 of them before our waitress asked if we were scared of them. Jade's face answered the question - and the waitress took a moment to goal tend the beetles back outside. Another young couple came for dinner and sat outside on the balcony (we were sitting just inside). They ordered drinks - a beer for him, and a fruity one for her. They sat talking wait for their food when we heard her scream and flop around in her chair. A giant beetle  had dunked into her little fruity drink. The bug took up most of the room in her drink and it buzzed its wings for the escape. Covered in pineapple and alcohol, it couldn't get out, but successfully flapped drink all over the screaming woman. Jade and I watched laughing at the dinner time entertainment. They got the bug out, and the woman was bummed that she wouldn't be able to drink her drink, and the man said it's ok, I'm sure it'll taste just fine. After a few minutes, the woman continued drinking what was left of her cocktail. We ate a papaya salad and fish cooked in a clay pot with steamed rice. Our meal was excellent.

We strolled back for a movie in our room, and then to bed.

Day Twelve

Another full day of meandering thru the Old Town, shopping - picking up our finished garments and glasses, and of course snacking along the way. We went to our first fittings for our clothes (a couple new shorts and capris for Jade). Everything fit me very well, they just needed to put buttons for the finishing touches. Jade needed a few adjustments done, nothing major, on hers. After that we walked up to pick up my new glasses. They fit great and the prescription is perfect. They're a little different in style, kind of a throw back to the eighties - but hey for 50 bucks including frames - lenses - and exam... Why not. We also stopped up at another glasses shop. I ended up finding a second pair that I loved, and that we ended up springing for. Jade said in her parental tone - ok now, that's it for a few more years. I happily agreed. The second pair is a black plastic boxy-modern pair. Jade impulsed a cute little 6 buck cover up robe thing (of which I'm not fully sure if it's to lounge around the house in - or sleep in... But I'm a guy - she assured me, Girls have these things...). Jade also got a little loungy pair of pants - which will be ready tomorrow.

Jade went to her 5pm scheduled facial - and I took a nap and watched the Discovery channel. We cleaned up, and then went out to dinner.

Dinner was another amazing dish - of local favorites. Again - everything extremely fresh - vibrant - and cleverly flavored. They pair salty with sweet - crunchy with slippery - which proves time and time again an exciting eating experience.

The day felt like a hard day's work with all of the shopping etc. We're in for a relaxing next few days though - of which we look forward to, to wrap up our adventure.

The dogs here are very interesting. They all go unleashed and roam around, but they all seem to have a home. They're all very mixed - we've seen short legged German Sheppard like dogs - big chihuahua like dogs with spots - fluffy flopsy mixes of who knows what - and they pay little attention to humans. They lay around mostly but we've seen a few playing together - and scavenging the nearby trashes for snacks.  

Day Eleven

Hello you please liking to buy something from me please?! Hello you coming to my shop and buying please I make very good deal to you.

So the Vietnamese in Hoi An are wicked gorilla sales people! Bound and determined to make a buyer out of literally every single person walking by, we had to toughen up a bit. We went into the first handful of shops that coerced us - and looked around. The next handful we politely said no thank you, gave perhaps a compliment on the so and so's in the window and walked on saying thanks. The next handful, just a no thanks. And finally a stone cold smile turning our heads away to cut the transaction off completely.

There are hundreds of tailor shops here, literally hundreds. We ended up stopping into the guidebook and hotel recommended A Dong Silk. A good size shop with plenty of samples to see, they are capable of producing pretty much anything you can think of. And there in lies the difficulty. In a store it's easy to shop, because the items are sitting there right in front of you to pick from. Here, you basically tell them, or show them from photos what you want, or if you're lucky find something you like from the samples. Once decided on an item - shirt - pants - shorts - dress - suit - etc you are tasked with picking out the fabric. Again, with tons of fabric bats to choose from, it can be difficult. We ended up having a few pairs of shorts and capris made, and we go tomorrow to have our first fittings. We both gave them a pair that we brought along - hoping it'd be easier to have them duplicated rather than trying to describe something from scratch. The process was a little confusing - but over all pretty smooth. I guess we'll see how things went after our first fitting.

We ducked in lots of different kinds of shops, a few jewelry, a few tailors, a few shoe makers, a few trinket makers - it'd be easy to spend a paycheck here. We've stayed pretty conservative only buying what we had set out to - thwarting the impulse buying they try to enable. I ended up stopping in a glasses shop, just curious to see what they had to offer - and how much something like that might be. I found a few that were decent, and asked how much for frames and lenses. Between 40-50 dollars for everything! Tickled by these prices - it was my goal to stop at every glasses shop in town. At fourth or fifth one - I found a pair that were pretty cool. Something different - thin shinny silver metal frames - made of titanium which makes them extremely durable. After pricing out everything - 51 dollars, I bought them. They'll be ready tomorrow afternoon and I'm  really excited. I was telling Jade, when you wear glasses 24/7, they're a representation of you - or who you'd like to be. It's the first thing someone would notice about you. Perhaps others don't really care much, but I do.

After shopping the day away - we cleaned up and rested a bit before dinner - Jade had a massage at the hotel salon - and then we went to dinner at the restaurant where we'll take a cooking class on Saturday. Amazing once again. The restaurant was quite large with a full main level and a full upstairs, every table taken - thankfully Jade made a reservation. Highlights would be a beef salad with Vietnamese herbs and lime squeezed over the top. It will definitely be something we try and make at home.

Day Eleven - wow, starting to feel like a long time!  

Day Ten

35 dentist-chairs lofted 2 chairs high. 1 row along the driver's side windows, 1 eighteen inch aisle, 1 center row of lofted chairs, another eighteen inch aisle and finally 1 row of lofted dentist chairs pressed against the passenger side windows. This was our bus configuration that bounced us along to Hoi An. Over all a confusing trip, not sure we're on the right bus, not sure if we're supposed to get off now, not sure how much longer it will take, not sure if we're on the right bus again, we made it to Hoi An, but don't know where we got dropped off... The ride itself was awkward but quite comfortable in terms of a bus - each person on their own lofted leather recliner with  air conditioning vent above. And for the whopping ticket price of 6 dollars each, this four and a half hour bus ride is not a bad deal. On entrance we were each handed a plastic bag and the bus driver pointed at our feet. Assuming we were to put our shoes in the bag and walk around the bus stocking footed, we complied. The first stint was the hardest, as I had to pee about a half our into the ride, and I had no idea when we'd be stopping (turns out we stopped about 2 hours in). We wound our way up and down mountain side roads, and Jade was struggling. On the verge of car sick Jade held it together, barely.

Our hotel here is the most expensive one by far - 60 bucks a night. We thought we'd treat ourselves to luxury after the other smaller bargain - 3 star'ish hotels at 25 a night. And wow that extra money bumps you up pretty high here. Not that I've ever stayed in one, but I think we must be at a 5 star rating now. Our hotel is a French style two level palace in a very large 'U' shape with front balconies facing the center courtyard. Every nook and cranny if flanked with luscious bamboo trees, orange trees, coconut palms, perfectly manicured and green grass and fresh cut flowers everywhere you turn. Our room for instance had flower pedals neatly arranged in several groupings on the floor, bed, bathtub and tables - not to mention the fresh cut dozen yellow roses on the table. The most comfortable king bed we've slept on takes up a good part of our room, but we're not complaining. A large flat panel tv on the wall doubles as a huge computer monitor for our internet and computer use. And the best part of it all, as we just found out, is breakfast (included in the price of the room). An amazing spread of truly gourmet French pastries and traditional Vietnamese cuisine is a start for this buffet. Cereal, yogurt, tons of fresh fruit, breads, meats, cheeses, crepes, made to order eggs, juices, coffee (real coffee I might add), and tons of Vietnamese dishes. Jade and I walked thru the breakfast door (of which was opened and held by staff) and smiled for the feast. 

Last night we wondered the streets in the Old Town which were lovely. Much quieter than the streets in the cities prior, it was really worthy of a relaxing stroll. Cute little paper lanterns criss-crossed over head, and lined up on each side are endless tailors - shoe makers - leather workers - wood carvers - you name it. With just a glimpse of Hoi An's offerings we were terribly excited to get shopping. We walked to a recommended Vietnamese family restaurant, known for its traditional fair. We ordered 6 of their specialties that were appetizer size to share. We were both energized to take the local cooking class that we signed up for, because everything was worthy of a showcase spot on a foodie tv show.

We're happy to be here - and slept wonderfully.  

Day Nine

I took a leak in the bushes behind the pool in the Forbidden City today. Perhaps not a great way to represent, but I really had to go, and apparently no one in the Forbidden City ever had to go, because I didn't spot a single WC when I needed it. And actually urinating in public is widely acceptable - we've witnessed many incidents - on trees at a crowded intersection, into the river while tour boats tour by, onto the sidewalk as we walked by. I'm not saying I condone the behavior, just that I have a certain sympathy for the exhibitionists now, because I was hurtin' in the Forbidden City. A disclaimer (and/or justification), there was no one around within several hundred yards, I was very discreet, and when I actually did find a bathroom (like a mile away) I was glad I chose the bush.

We walked from our hotel to the Citadel - about 20 minutes meander. And then to the citadel within the citadel. And then, no lie, to the citadel within the citadel within the citadel (Forbidden City)...  A bit extreme in my opinion, but the building practices were a little different back in the early 1800's. On our walk there, we were almost constantly accosted by bike taxi drivers - boat drivers - and people trying to give unprompted tours. We kept saying a polite no thank you, we'd like to walk. At one point Jade said, no thank you, we need the exercise, and the man smiled and said Oh No, you very small and motioned with his parallel hands moving them close together. We laughed but kept walking. It is very touristy here of which we don't prefer. The citadel was really interesting when we arrived - historical buildings - interesting building methods - colorful stories of the emperor. By the third hour, walking - reading - exploring, I felt more like a kid on a class field trip, when do we get to eat our lunches and go home...?

In the heat of the day we headed out of the citadels and up the way a bit to see the Pagoda recommended in our guidebook. Not seeing an entrance we turned to walk away, before a very small old man came up to us and started pantomiming and pointing to the Pagoda. Assuming he wanted to show us around, we followed. He took us around and into the hidden entrance that we missed. He signaled for us to take off our shoes when we went in, and to take lots of pictures...  It was odd. Once inside I was more worried that this guy was going to run off with our sneakers than I was paying attention to the building - it would have been a long stocking footed walk back. He took us thru the grounds performing elementary level charades and we were getting them right every time. He pointed at a pile of wood and made a chopping motion with his hands and looked back at us enthusiastically, returning the energy - we quickly said in unison - Chopping Wood! He made some sort of a laughing affirmation that we were right. He walked us by a little room where the young monks were cooking, he pretended to hold a bowl and put something in he mouth, we called out - Eating Food! Damn we're on fire! Our bizarre little 10 minute tour came to an end and we offered the little man a small amount of Dong for his tour. We didn't know Vietnamese - he didn't know English - how much more than a nickel tour could he have given us? He had one final charade as I handed him a few bills. And he stepped it up a notch! He waved off the money, and then touched his stomach with both hands making a sick face? I almost blurted out Traveler's Diarrhea but refrained. I wanted to see where he was taking this. Then he started writing something on his hand with his finger. A one, a five, the letter 'U', and the letter 'T'...? Sensing confusion, he did it again, sick to his stomach and then one - five - U - T... I had stopped paying attention to his charade and focussed in on his missing ring finger. He did the same thing a few more times, and we started walking away saying goodbye, thank you, and sorry we don't understand you. He said a few things in Vietnamese and held his hand out. Still confused I walked back to him and handed him the money - he accepted it this time. Jade and I both agreed that that was quite an experience and worth the nickel.

After our day we rested a bit in the hotel - cleaned up and went to Indian for dinner - which was quite good, and then to bed.     

Day Eight

Ready for the transition.

We're headed to Hue today. After 4 days of beach - even though heavenly, we were ready for the change in scenery and climate. There is a certain camp like feel to staying at a beach side bungalow with open air windows, a bug net canopied bed, and a combination shower toilet room (the bathroom was like a large shower, but with a toilet in it). Sand finds its way into everything, and our skin was tired of the sweaty radiant sun mixed with the slippery sun screen. We were ecstatic when we arrived but we're ready to say goodbye. We ate quite a bit of food right at the resort, and it was all very good. They just tacked it onto our hotel bill of which we'd settle up when we left. It made ordering that beer or that appetizer all the more quick and easy and thoughtless. A little worried of what our 4 night's stay here might be, we stopped at an ATM booth in town. (On our hot walk yesterday we noticed an ATM booth, a stand alone structure about 3 times the size and similar in construction to a phone booth, room enough for the both of us, but no one else. We hopped in thinking here goes as the structure was out in the middle of the sun and surely could double as a sauna. Not this delightful little booth. Equipped with a split air style wall-mount A/C this little booth was a sanctuary for sweaty travelers. We pondered over every amount possible to withdraw, even entered in our own amount of which was too high of a number for the machine to withdraw. We were in our own little cooled off world until a local knocked on the door and pointed to the machine.  Apparently he wanted money too. We scurried out, refreshed for a bit.)
Anyways, we took 4,000,000 out and had a total of 4,900,000. Unsure of our damage here at the resort we readied our US dollars as well, surely we'd have enough Jade told me. The bill came - $168 USD. Oh, we're fine! Wow that was cheap, like really cheap!

A quick taxi to the airport and a quick jump back to Ho Chi Minh City (via our tiny propped plane) we had a few hours to kill before we flew to Hue. It went quickly and we hopped on an Airbus to Hue. I will mention that their domestic flights come standard with a complimentary bottle of water, but first and foremost, a refreshing tissue (as stated on the individually wrapped wet-wipe). When I first received one on our way to Phu Quoc, I took it and then tried to take cues from the other passengers - do I use it now, do I wipe my hands, do I wipe my face and forearms basically bathe with the thing? There were others looking around too taking cues, so I decided hands and face were acceptable and went to work. Jade, organizer, planner, strategist, saved hers. She said with a smile 'you never know when we'll really need these'. I felt like I did when I was a kid, bummed that I didn't save any of my candy for later like the wiser-older kids when they abstained from finishing off every little bit.

We arrived in Hue without any trouble - a scene similar to Ho Chi Minh City, but smaller, less busy, and most notably 20 degrees cooler. Although still humid, I can deal with the 70's. We were chaffered up the steps, one man welcoming us, another taking our bags, yet another to open the door for us at the top of the steps, and a woman to greet us. The young woman had very good English even cracking a few tongue in cheek jokes. As we walked inside, they escorted us straight to the cute little eating area for a welcome drink (orange pineapple juice), some fruit, a cookie and another baby powder/coconut scented refreshing tissue. The young woman gave us a very detailed run down of everything from laundry service to little maps of the area to where to go for dinner. She walked us up to our room - one of 3 rooms on the 6th floor a small but very modern room overlooking the street scape. She went over every detail and left. Very impressed with the room we had the feeling of, is it bad that we just want to spend the night in our room and not go out in the city'.  After settling in we decided to go out for dinner, and then back to our room where I could blog away at the computer in our room and watch a little TV, and Jade could rest - she had a bit of a headache.

I'm sitting here next to Jade waiting for her to wake up so we can go and explore the citadel.

Also, just a side note, Vietnam has blocked Facebook, so we don't have access to the site at all. Kind of weird huh.

And nescafe smells much worse than it tastes...

Day Seven

I'll start off with a few more random facts that we've learned/noticed.

1. Nose picking is widely accepted and I've even witnessed someone on the street performing an advaced double-nose-pick using both the index and the middle finger in perfect tandum.  I feel like I could openly pick and fit right in - Jaydee wrote this when I stepped away from the computer.

2. Vietnam was wise enough to remove the primitive coin money form. Only paper - how refreshing! Oh to be rid of the eight pounds of jangle in my pocket bottoms totaling a dollar seventeen - what a delight.

Our day started at the massage huts (where Jade received a facial yesterday). Jade briskly signed us up for a Thai massage after her facial - as she was quite impressed after her services. Welcomed graciously by the well manicured young man, we were escorted thru the garden and into a private hut where Jade and I removed our close except underwear (we were told) behind an assisted hand-held towel via the massager's helpers. We laid face-down on low strung and wide massage tables, cut outs for our faces and plenty of room for our body and our masseuse's. The entrance was draped off making our little hut rather dark and cool with the smell of humidity still lingering. Reminded me a lot of my childhood viewings of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - of course in the most pleasant way possible. This being my first 'real massage', I looked over at Jade a time or two to make sure we were receiving the intended service. Jade remained face down, seemingly enjoying, so I assumed we were good. Smashing the backsides of our feet and moving row by row up our legs pressing deeply into our meaty thighs - I was torn whether this was good for my muscles or going to leave bruises (or potentially both). Moving into some stretching of our legs, I was strangely reminded of an old football stretch our football coaches called the 'Sir Walter Raleighs'. Our legs were compressed and pulled and wiggled and waved around. At one point I was convinced the masseuse would only stop after my leg had been pulled completely off. Up our backs - down each arm - poking deeply into our bodies working up and down as if they were working a pimple from our foot up our body and out our heads. The masseuse was standing next to me, then on the table next to me, then straddling over me, then I think standing on me...? Next the masseuse worked on my one shoulder, tapping, waiting, tapping some more... I thought, this is an odd section of the massage. I looked up and the masseuse was smiling and signaling for me to lie on my back. A little embarrassed I complied quickly. More of the same for the front of my body and all of the sudden Jade and I, in unison, were gently rocked forward into a cross-legged sitting position. We both opened our eye for the first time in 60 or so minutes feeling ready to take on the world...  Or.. ready to run a marathon...  Or... ready to walk to the next pho street cart we see. Walking to the central hut to pay, my body felt weird. Almost invisible. Like my head was taking a ride on a vehicle other than my body. I did feel good afterward - and Jade confirmed with me that that was indeed a good massage. We tipped our masseuses with a $2.00 bill (US dollar) as we had heard the Vietnamese like them. This was our first test to see if they did, and they did! Very gratefully they accepted and the well manicured guy at the register asked if we had any more that we could exchange for VN Dong. He wanted one too. Since we only had one left - we said no and went on our way.

We trekked the long way around town to get to the local town market. It took longer than expected but we got a great workout. In the heat of the day we stopped numerous times reapplying sun screen. During a long unshaded straightaway, Jade ducked us into a little courtyard toting street food and cold beverages. We shared some of the best pho we've had on the trip to date, and a cold Saigon Green hit the spot entirely.

We made it to the town's market and have photos to prove it. Yet another lively - bustling - colorful commerce center - freshly stocked flopping fish, squawking chickens, quiet vegetables, flip-flops, t-shirts, chopsticks you name it. Walmart couldn't beat the selection that's for sure. Being the big spenders that we are, we splurged on a 50 cent set of 16 wooden chopsticks.

Our bodies were still working desperately to keep us cool by sweating and sweating some more, and when the intermittent breeze whispered by it worked. Ready to head back for the night we hopped in a taxi, and let me tell you how happy we were to feel the air conditioning of that taxi! Easily one of the most pleasant taxi rides we've had.

The night was topped off drinking an ice cold (well close to it) Saigon Green and watching the sun drop below the perfectly flat line of the sea.

Day Seven - still in tact - still having a great time.

Day Six

Today has been a day of exploring.  It's only partly sunny - which is a treat considering our hot little sun burns.  Not to worry - we're thuroughly lathered in Neutrogena's best today.

Why mess with a good thing was our thought this morning as we headed to the center for another great breakfast.  Omlets - ice milk coffees - fresh baguettes and we're off to explore the pearl farm about 3 minutes taxi ride south. As I went to pay the taxi driver he said that he'd stay and wait for us and he'd turn the meter off while he waited.  Ok - sounds good. We hopped out and he followed our lead by about 40 feet around the pearl farm.  Right as we walked up to the small compound of plaster buildings off of the sea, we were greated by a 20 something vietnamese woman at a table of freshly caught oysters.  She waved us over and began a little speach and demo of how exactly pearls are made and farmed.  Her small table was surrounded by a dozen or so other vietnamese women and children, but she spoke directly to us in very good english, almost completely ignoring the others.  She openned one of the oysters up and pulled out a pearl that was very shiny and very round and with a little excitement in her voice - a perfect pearl she called it, of which we learned only happens 10% of the time. Our demonstration came to an end and we were pointed into a large open building with a 60 foot long oval display case - workers inside the oval, shoppers racing around it.  Thousands of pearl necklaces, bracelets, rings, penants, earings, you name it were the center of attention for the women and children - while the men walked along the outer-most of the circle paying little attention to the potential investment. We walked down about 15 feet's length of the display case before we realized that the woman that gave us the demo was now to be our personal helper.  Jade looked closely at a necklace, the young woman smiled and took it out with compliments.  We continued down the line and so did she.  It didn't take long before she was, without prompt - putting huge strands of black pearls on Jade.  Jade of course looked at me with a twinkle in her eye and I was quick to ask 'how much' with a smile.  The young helper spouted out a number into the two digit millions, we looked puzelled as we hadn't delt with totals that high.  She smiled and gave us the US dollar translation of $6000.00.  Could have been a steal, for someone who frequents shops at Saks Fifth Avenue - of which we don't.  Jade handed it back about as quickly as the woman put it on.  The young woman figured out at that point that we wouldn't be her dream commition. Jade widdled her selections down to a necklace and a ring, and then to just a ring - we have plenty of shopping to do yet in Hoi An she said to me with a smile. I was agreable to the terms and we made our purchase and headed out. There wasn't really much else to see on the grounds - so we reconveined with our driver and headed to Duong Dong (the spot of the night market from last night).

Jade and I stopped at the cute little ice cream shop and cafe.  This is the same place we stopped last night to have a scoop of ice cream and to use their computer to post our day's adventure (cleverly titled Day Four and Day Five).  I typed and sipped an ice coffee - Jade read and sipped, and when I finished, Jade proofed for accuracy. Although a bit gunky, it was refreshing for my eyes to focus on a nice clean web page with sharp little text.  Phuong Bia Ngoc Phu Cong Cau Cuar everywhere in big block letters gets old - although I'm sure I'll look back at photos of the signage fondly. 

The local kids are very cute and outwardly friendly, shouting across the street in their little voices HELLO! Their little sibbling mimic with a slightly smaller Hello! Jade and I smile and shout HELLO! back to them and they giggle, and repeat Hello!  One of the older boys - maybe 6 years old shouted WHAT YOUR NAME?! I turned and told him Adam, and asked him what his was. He mumbled something in a quieter fashion looking all of the sudden a little bashful.  They all giggled some more.

Jade has come up with a new career path for me.  She says that I should write travel memoires so we'll need to travel a lot, and she'll write relationship madlibs (like the do you know your spouse one from my parents).  She says that I'm a good writer and that she's a good question maker.  (She said she'd put great questions in her do you know your husband book like 'does he like to turn the floor fan on oscilate or stationary.  I might have a hard time breaking the bad news to her that she may not be cut out for authoring relationship madlibs.) 

We stopped for lunch at a pizza spot with good reviews - not to mention their self proclaiming best pizza in town sign out front.  Turns out not to be an effecting marketing campain as the signs all down the street read 'Best burger in town, best cold beer in town, best tours in town, best massages in town, best laundry in town...'  But we gave 'em a try. The pizza crust was delicious and perfectly done - about the size and style of a Punch Pizza crust.  The red sauce might have been a mixture of ketchup and hot sauce, the cheese white Velveeta, and the authentic hand made sausage was awfully close to slices of bologne.  It actually wasn't terrible, perhaps a welcomed break from seafood soups. Reminded me of what a college dorm student might be compitent of whipping up in his dorm room with an illegitimate hot plate.

We walked down the road a ways and hit a recommended spa.
 -Earlier in the morning we bumped into the woman who owns the resort next to us called Paris Beach Club.  The owners are marketing professors from Vietnam but live in France.  They are back checking in on their resort.  She was very welcoming and asked us to come in and have a look around.  She asked us if we spoke French, I decided not to dazzel her with my romantic tongue with butchered declarations of what my name is, and that I like drum. The woman's english was very good but with a few gaps that weren't a big deal.  Jade enquired about a spa to get a facial - and the woman said 'oh yes - My spa, you go to my spa'. Jade responded with 'oh wow, you have a spa! Where is your spa? Is it here? Or in town?'  The woman said with confusion 'No... My spa.  You go to my spa.'  They repeat this line of who's on first a few more times before Jade gave up and smiled and nodded in agreement.
So back to walking down the road after pizza, we walked up to Mai Spa, pronouced My Spa...  We both chuckled.

Jade walked in for an extensive facial with wraps and honey and other magical potions of which I didn't pay attention to.  She also got a free 20 minute massage and manicure with the price of the facial.  The well manicured and pedicured gentilman working asked me if I would be getting anything done today.  I politely declined and he pointed me to their computer and free interenet, now we're talking I thought!

So here I am finishing up my report for the day and waiting for Jade to finish her services.  Looks like the sun is peaking out - so I'm guessing we'll head back and read under an umbrella on the beach and have a low key night tonight.

Day Five

Ice milk coffee, ice milk coffee. We're saying that a lot here. They repeat after us with 'ie mew cohay' - close enough to validate our order.

Today was our day in the sun. We woke up and meandered our way to the breakfast table overlooking the rolling sea and almost cliche sounds that are sampled on those Sharper Image sleep machines. Pancakes (which were very similar to crepes or Jaydee mentioned roti) - a fresh baguette with cherry jam - a fresh fruit platter of a delightful tropical variety (with an unidentified white fruit with lots of seeds and a very watery, sweet and almost salty flavor - kind of weird tasting) - and of course 2 ie mew cohays. (The coffees had just a subtle hint of coconut flavor to it - very delicious!)

After a lovely little breakfast we trotted a good 15 feet over to our spot for the day, 2 loungers under a thatched umbrella with little built in table. We took a big bottle of water with, and unfortunately no big bottles of sun screen. 'Ah heck, it's only 8:30am - we should be fine for a while.' We sat reading - chatting - dozing off - relaxing to say the least.  It wasn't long before our two cute little smiling Vietnamese women found us.  Jade did the talking and ordered me a pedicure - pumice and sand scrub for my scratchy foot bottoms, and an impulse back hair removal. She took out a thread and strung it thru a few fingers on each and and one end of the loop held in her mouth.  She proceeded to gently remove the hair from my back - all the while saying 'yo huban loo beautifoo' to Jade.  Jade smiled and giggled and took photos. It stung a little but hey, a small price to pay to loo beautifoo.  I laid there reading my book - wow did I feel like a snob from the west!  After they finished, we worked on our 'do you know your spouse' booklets compliments my mom as a little honeymoon gift for the beach.  It had questions like 'if you'd like to make her unhappy, you'd bring this home for dinner - and then fill in the blank.  I nailed that question - Little Caesar's Pizza - boom, I'm good!  You keep score to see who knew who the best, and Jade knew me a little better than I knew her...  I probably owe it to the recently learned 'most annoying trait of mine'.  Zoning out when she's telling me something.  The booklets ended up lasting us thru lunch.  By about 10 we positioned our loungers completely out of the sun, but by then the damage was done - but hey - we needed to give the locals something else to stare and giggle at - two red skinned little Americans.  Our burns aren't terribly bad, we're fairly red though.  Jade whipped out the after-sun and saved the day.

We dipped in the sea several times throughout the day to cool off.  It was a foreign but memorable feeling being refreshed by the water and getting a little salty taste here and there.  Jade screamed out during one of our dips - she stepped on something sharp - in her mind a sting ray - a moray eel - a snarly bottom feeder. I hushed her and said chill out, it was probably just a little rock - and then almost instantaneously I stepped on something really sharp and happily agreed to head out of the water.  Karma...

After we headed in for the day and cleaned up - we would head to the night market for a peak - a snack - dinner perhaps - we had no idea what to expect.  A short 2 minute taxi ride up the coast and we arrived at the 4 block long night market with tons of little vendors toting anything from corn to pho to sandwiches to fresh sea food of every variety.  Earlier in the day I realized a need for sunglasses to read in the bright mid-day sun, so that was our first item to scout. There were dozens of little stands selling sunglasses - so it wasn't hard.  We stopped at the first, I tried a few on, and settled on a black pair of plastic Ray Bands (or a knock off no doubt).  I asked how much and was disappointed by the 900,000 Dong price tag. She asked me to type in how much I'd like to pay on her calculator, I said 200,000 and she said no. She typed in 600,000 and we parted ways with thank yous.  About 30 feet down the way, another stand with the identical Ray Bands so we stopped.  The young woman welcomed us and began handing me glasses to try. Huge aviators and I mean huge.  I wouldn't have needed sun screen on my face with these puppies.  I said no to a few more suggestions and then I tried the black plastic knock offs on again.  Pretty good - and if the price was right - perfect for my rather limited need for them.  I asked how much, and she tried to communicate that she wasn't sure of the price - I said 100,000 Dong - she countered with a mean 120,000 Dong - I said deal and paid promptly.  On the walk away from her stand I realized how ridiculous our little bargain was, I said four dollars and fifty cents - and she countered with five dollars and fifty cents - made me feel far from home, a perspective of which I have been enjoying.

We headed up the way a bit and settled on a little sit down place with a larger stand and about 6 tables next to it - for kind of a fast casual style dinning ala Chipotle or Noodles. I ordered us a seafood Hot Pot (whatever the hell that is) and Jade contributed an order of 2 corns (looked like corn at the State Fair - roasted smothered in butter).  I also ordered a Saigon Green - local beer that was similar to the pilsners in Prague - but they called it a Lager.  At a little over 50 cents for a 24 oz bottle - it's a steal (just like everything else in this country accept for wine apparently).  The corn came over first and looked delicious, and we should have done just that, looked at it.  It tasted awful.  Almost gelatinous in texture - I jokingly said after my first unfortunate bite 'Mme this corn has gone bad!' Jade shushed me but agreed whole heartedly.  And then for the finale of the night, a seafood Hot Pot.  They gave us a huge plate of fresh seafood - squid - shrimp - several different fillets of fish. It was accompanied by a plate of rice noodles - a plate of greens - two small bowls of seasonings and two bowls to use for eating.  Then they came out with a large bowl of soup with fresh herbs and vegetables sitting on a little burner to keep it at a boil.  I was about to dip in my first raw fish fondue style and noticed a local family next to us dumping the whole plate of meat in the center bowl at once. It was a bit concerning that Jade and I were tackling a meal that an entire family might normally eat for dinner (there was a father - a wife - and older woman and 3 kids in total).  But we took their cues one by one of how to do the Hot Pot.  Everything in for about 2 minutes then scoop it back into our little bowls for an endless little seafood soup buffet.  It was remarkable in taste - the seafood being perhaps caught that day on the island. After several bowls and picking out all of the good stuff from the center boiling pot, we were ready to head out.

We walked down the street - outside of the market and did a little shopping - but we were tired and full and not in the mood to buy - so we called it a night - headed back to our cute little sea-side room and slept like wild Vietnamese dogs.  (On Phu Quoc, there are thousands of wild dogs roaming around, eating whatever people will give them - very nice dogs - they are happy to get a pat on the head - but they spend most of their time sleeping in the shade where ever they can find it. I peaked out of our window after dark and saw one of them had hopped up on a padded lounger for a comfy night's rest.)         

Day Four

Today we headed for the beach resorty island of Phu Quoc (of which is definitely not pronounced phonetically from the puzzled look of the taxi driver taking us to the air port).

We made it to the airport just in the nick of time - well actually a full two and a half hours early (I think I get it from you mom and dad).  They only let in the next flight and flight on deck - so we had to sit and wait outside of the gates for about an hour.  We got thru and to the gate smoothly and waited with anticipation to get to our beachy paradise. We got a few looks from the air port personnel at our luggage as it just barely met the maximum size requirements. We were happy that we didn't need to check anything.  The crew escorted us down some stairs onto a bus (wait that 757 jet right there isn't the plane we're flying?).  We stood next to three of the most stereotypical backpackers surely making their way around the world on 200 bucks or less.  I repositioned my wallet from my butt pocket to my shirt pocket.  I'm sure they were nice - but I didn't want to pay for any added bonuses to their journey. The bus went past a smaller jet, and then past a smaller turbo-prop plane.  Everyone from the bus seemed to be thinking the same thing, and I think the crusty backpacker said it best - 'Holy shit mate, that's the smallest plane I've ever flown on.  A 30 or so seat prop plane would be taking us on a quick one hour jump down to Phu Quoc (or as the locals call it Poo Cook).  The plane ended up doing a fine job and we arrived ahead of schedule.  When our wheels touched down, we passed a small building - perhaps a little mechanic shop.  Then when we reached the buildingless end of the runway and came to a complete stop, it became apparent that we were turning a full 180 and heading back to the mechanic shop - as it was the air port.

Almost immediately after we hopped off the plane our taxi driver grabbed us and popped us in he taxi and off we went.  (He was just the first one that approached us, and he did so very quickly.)  We drove down a subtle curving street reminding us much of Costa Rica - utilitarian architecture of logs - corrugated sheet metal - thatched roofs - brick - plaster - really anything people could use for construction materials.  The stretch varied from little one room huts circa 1920 to larger 20 room multi-level resorts circa yesterday.   We arrived to our little resort called cleverly named Beach Club after a 3 dollar fair.  Down the narrowest and most treacherous drive I've ever driven on.  Jade and I looked at each other thinking oh my, I wonder if this place is decent.

We walked beyond the shabby concrete wall into the Beach Club grounds and I was floored.  A central thatched roof and brick building with a front seating area for about 12 people directly overlooking the rolling ocean with coconut palms framing the view.  This central building for eating was flanked by 4 individual bungalows and a row 4 of conjoined rooms.  The bungalows were all taken so we got stuck in one of the conjoined rooms.  We are but 25 feet off of the beach, so we're not terribly unhappy - ha.  When we arrived we were happily greeted by many of the staff, and the other guests were sitting under thatched umbrellas on loungers reading books, sipping fruit smoothies and getting massages.  A needed getaway from 3 bustling city days, we are happy campers!

Our first move, swim suits - and a walk down the beach for some sun.  Hand in hand we talked about our last Minnesotan walk, an unseasonably warm 38 degrees and melting snow!  After our beach walk + sand sitting we headed back for a late lunch.  Jade had sweet and sour chick and rice, and pho for me.  Turned out to be the best pho I've had, to date.  The temperature hot and spicy soup got me sweating just enough for the ocean breeze to chill me off.  After we sat for a bit on the loungers, Jade flagged the 2 small-smiling Vietnamese woman over for massages.  They flipped us over and got to work rubbing - kneading - chopping at our backs then left arm - foot - right foot - right leg - right arm - and so on.  45 minutes later we sat up and asked how much the bill would be.  80,000 Dong each (a little over $3.50).  We gave them each an even 100,000 Dong and they graciously thanked us and said smiling - masa tomao?  Assuming they meant 'massage tomorrow' we agreed.

And what could top off our delicious lunch - stroll down the beach - dip in the ocean - $3.50 massage at our lounger on the beach...?  Oh yes of course, lets watch the most beautiful sun set directly in front of us over the ocean while drinking a beer (and fruit smoothie for Jade).  Life is good.

We went in our cute room for a quick rinse off and clean up for dinner.  We laid in our bed for a quick rest (it was easily 7:45pm by then), and then we decided on skipping dinner and just calling it a night.  We have 3 more days of this torture ahead of us! 

Day Three

Our third day - where do I start.  We truly are experts here now...  Well, sort of.

First, some extraneous details.

1.  The toilet paper here feels like extremely thin - 2 layer - textured - rice paper.  It flakes all over the place when in use.  Also noteworthy, you're not supposed to flush your TP - just put it in the small garbage next to the toilet.  Their septic system can't handle TP - not even thin rice papery TP.

2.  The shower in our hotel must use an instantaneous water heater.  It swings from very cold to very hot every 20 seconds or so.  Much of the time showering is spent attempting to tame the water temp.

3.  We get a lot of stares, and we're assuming it's because we're white - over weight - or blonde haired.  We're not sure which yet though.

4.  The street air smells like humid - sour - fish saucy - moth balls mixed with delicious smells of grilled meat.

We went to the war museum today.  It was moving.  Very interesting to see it from their point of view.  They view the war as America's war, and they view America (or at least did) as a country flexing their imperialism on the world.  There were a lot of statements like 'we don't know why America is here fighting us'.  They showed the atrocities of the war, and painted American's as criminals.  I agreed with a lot of it.  Shame on our government for using Agent Orange (and several other dioxines) causing horrifying birth defects in several generations of people.  Shame on our government for putting America's youth in such a horrible position in a war they couldn't win (and shouldn't have been fighting).

I was approached outside the war museum amongst the helicopters and tanks from the war by a man who was born without arms and only one eye.  He was very sincere and asked me for help.  He extended his arm for a handshake gesture. His arm extended just below his elbow and then stopped - rounding off with no hands.  He told me how he was effected by the war and asked me to buy a book from him.  He pushed two books on my and demanded 300,000 Dong - about 13 bucks.  I was moved by him and his story, and intimidated when he pushed me on the sale.  I just went with it and walked away.  I felt ripped off immediately after, but looking back on it - I hope that helped him and his life or even just his day a little.

Our travel book says that a lot of people's income here is around 100 dollars a month.  I feel a bit awkward walking around in 100 dollar nikes that we bought for the trip.

We found another woman making sandwiches on the street.  They are amazing!  This one had 3 different kinds of meat - loaf like stuff on it, with fresh herbs - sauces - and vegies.  One woman made the sandwich and then handed it off to an older lady next to her to bag it up for us.  Jade snapped a quick photo while she was making the sandwich, and the old women started giggling to each other.

I forgot to mention, while we were in the war museum, a group of 6 or so young Vietnamese girls and a few boys approached Jade with huge smiles and giggling.  They wanted their photos taken with her.  They stood, one by one - taking photos with her with their respective camera phones, and then group shots, all the while smiling and giggling.  The peace sign was the preferred gesture and Jade followed suit.  They approached me after and took photos with me in the same fashion.  Jade and I were pleasantly taken back by the transaction. A little confused - was it that we were white - or blonde - or...  I think Jade's curly blonde hair is a focus of a lot of the stares that we get.  Whatever the case - it's delightful to be the center of attention, even if we don't know what it's from.  It has given us a real escape from the reality back home.

We went to two restaurants for dinner - one for appetizers - one for dinner.  The dinner was traditional Vietnamese cuisine.  Very fresh - very tasty.  The soup that we got was purple and simply amazing.  Kind of a  salty eggdrop soup kind of taste.  We were stuff and walked home sweaty from the heat.  Another great day and happy to retreat to our air conditioned room once again for the night.

Day Two

Another great day!

We both got up at the same time once again - 5am!  We had breakfast at the hotel, eggs and toast - we've wizened up since the ramen.  They give us two slices of watermelon and two very green bananas.  Almost asked for ripe ones - but we pealed them to try, and they were perfectly ripe.  Maybe the best banana I've ever had.  Two iced coffees with milk and we're out the door.  Off to the Reunification Palace. The walk is great - more of the same street scene - everyone huddled around a lone woman and a huge kettle of pho - waiting, or eating their breakfast.

The Reunification Palace was pretty cool. Entrance fees were 30,000 Dong each (about a dollar fifty) - not bad. We arrived at open - 7:30am.  We were accompanied by just a few other museum goers - some asian - some white. The Palace has an important historical past of which we learned plenty about via 30 minute movie from the bomb shelter in the basement.  The architecture is sixties modern -  reminded us of Frank Lloyd Wright's church in Chicago.  Everything was pretty stark - mainly a white color pallet with accents of bright-light blues, blood-reds, and vibrant-mossy-greens.  As I mentioned before, narrow halled solid concrete bomb shelter below along with rooms full  of sixties telecommunication devices and a bunk room for the president.  Main floor had colorful and formal conference rooms.  Second floor had formal presidential meeting rooms.  Third had a casino decked out with funky-sixties modern furniture, a movie theatre, and the president's living quarters with a beautiful courtyard. Forth floor was a look out - just a big glass room, and you could walk out onto the roof and see the surrounding lush grounds and bustling city beyond. The air was heating up - so we moved on to see Notre Dame cathedral (just about what you'd expect).

Our walk was completed by a street food lunch.  We walked down an alley filled with starring Vietnamese people.  Walked up to the woman with the food cart.  It had upwards of ten different meats, rice, noodles, soups, etc.  I was nervously standing back from her cart - not knowing what the heck to attempt to order, and Jade prompted me to hold up one finger with a smile.  They pointed to sit down at a table (two ten inch high plastic children's stools and a make-shift table).  So we squatted and waited to see what would be brought to us.  In the mean time an 80 or so year old lady who looked like she had really lived life tried to sell us tickets to something.  She stood, uncomfortably long, waiting for us to buy tickets - or give her money - or something.  She eventually moved on to the next person eating.  A woman with a small child also walked up to us asking for money.  And then our food came.  A fried chicken drummy - rice - some veggies - a little bowl of sauce and cabbage soup.  The chicken was really great - the rest a little bland, but for 20,000 Dong (less than a dollar) who cares.  Fun to pay just a little and get to try lots of different things.

Pho 2000 - a pho chain was next.  A tiny little restaurant serving fresh and really cheap pho.  Another delicious meal for about 2 bucks.  After this, we were stuffed, and waddled back to our room for our afternoon nap/heat-retreat.

Up after an hour or so - we headed to the botanical gardens and zoo.  It was great to get away from the city noise, but the afternoon heat was wicked.  Jade's cheeks were fire-red, so we sat and watched elephants - tigers - monkeys - cakateals - and a peacock doing its mating dance.  Jade seems to know all of the great eating spots in Ho Chi Minh City, so we headed to a well reviewed sushi bar.  The AC was great, and the window view of the insane motorbike traffic was entertaining to say the least.  We had tons of sushi and drinks - everything very good.  We got the check and paid it, and then they came and corrected it, as they had over charged us by 8 bucks or so.  We would have never noticed and were charmed by the honesty that everyone had.  13 dollars later, we were stuffed with amazing sushi, and we were quite tired from the day.

6pm - we headed back to our hotel, on the way stopping at our favorite little local general store guy in the back alley of our hotel for some water.

Hit the sack and woke up at midnight.  Unsure whether we should get up and go clubbing (yeah right) or continue sleeping for our first sleep longer than 6 hours - we chose the later. We've proven that if you take naps during the day, you can only sleep for about 5 or 6 hours - wink wink - Dad.

So here we are 6:30 am just about to eat breakfast and then heading for our third full day of HCMC.
Loving our time here!

Day One Continued

Heading out about 1:30, we headed to a restaurant that specialized in street food go figure. We sat at the outdoor tables under palm trees.  We started with strawberry smoothies, fresh spring rolls, followed by a mixed chicken salad with little rice disks, and finished it off with a boiled banana and tapioca dessert, and a water chestnut pearl with coconut milk and other gelatinous cubes.  Everything was terrific.

We walked to a nearby shopping centre (VinaCom Centre, dad I know you'll look it up and say 'oh yeah, they have nice retail centres over there'.) which was recommended by our taxi driver.  Along the way we find ourselves hitching confidence from locals crossing the streets.  Just align your body with theirs and keep your eyes on them and not the on coming motorbikes - cars - bikes and the likes.  20 vehicles wide, they don't stop for you when you walk across, they ever-so-slightly veer around you as you cross. Very few street light to be seen, even fewer to be obeyed.

After shopping around, it was back to the hotel for yet another refreshing nap, shower, poop.

We slept until 8:30pm and then went to a tapas restaurant for dinner.  Tapas was great, with a noteworthy sangria.

Day one officially felt like 3 days.  We loved every second of it.

Day One

It didn't take long for the anxious travel bug to wake us up this morning.  Arriving late last night, we were a bit disoriented, which made our first journey out today a pleasant surprise.  First off, right out of our room, we were greeted by the Vietnamese humidity.  We walked down to the included breakfast compliments the King Star Hotel.  Six to choose from, 4 of them Vietnamese.  Of course I was excited to eat pho for breakfast and possibly every meal going forward.  I ordered coffee (a small espresso-like shot of pre-sweetened coffee flavoured stuff) and Jade an orange juice (Tang with ice).  Our first run in with the local pho...  Not so great.  Turns out to be a ramen noodle like bowl of soup with maybe a cheap cut of thinly sliced beef. Ah well, we'll stick to eggs for our free hotel breakfast for the next few days.

Our first several blocks of walking were an overload.  Thousands of people cruising by on motorbikes - bicycles - cars - walking, perhaps to work?  We weren't sure.  We ended up wandering around the endless street scene which consists of pretty much what you'd expect.  Lots of street cafes - shops - markets - construction - people sitting on motorbikes up on the sidewalks - bike-taxi drivers holding up a hand with 2 fingers up and a friendly smile - locals sitting around on plastic children's outdoor furniture eating hot soup and iced coffees.  We went briefly thru the larger market which was fairly close to our hotel.  It reminded us of the Global Market to the tenth power.  Clothes - trinkets - rice - lentils - coffee - pigs feet - liver - tripe - small fish - big fish - and tons of unidentifiable seafoods, most of it still alive or very recently killed (as in a young woman crouching over a squirming foot-long fish, clubbing it gently to its death).  Jade saw a rat race thru a puddle which seemed about right.  Being a bit touristy - the kind of place that a kid my sneak a few bucks from our pockets - we moved on.

We stumbled upon what seemed to us, an authentic street - filled with much of the same from the market, but comfortably spread out and filled with locals. We purchased the biggest water that we saw at a little street vendor (about a liter).  Our first transaction was bumpy.  Lots of smiles, nodding, me looking at Jade, Jade looking at the woman...  She held up ten fingers, which didn't mean much to us.  10 US dollars was a bit steep for water, but 10 Vietnamese Dong would have been like two tenths of a cent. I ended up handing her a 100,000 Dong bill (about 5 US dollars), and probably gave her a look that said, go ahead, do your damage, rip me off, or give me the correct change, because I won't know the difference.  She handed me my change and we walked away drinking the ice-cold water.  We took out my money cheat sheet finding out that we had just spent about 50 cents on the water.  This gave us a little confidence and we felt good.  We walked up to a little old lady making Vietnamese sandwiches of which I was eager to try.  At another 50 cents, we felt like this was going to be the start of a fantastic vacation!  We continued walking and taking in the street scene.

We stopped at a cute little spot for coffee.  We sat inside, but it didn't really have doors. We each had an iced coffee, which in combination with shade and fans, cooled us down nicely. The iced-coffee was very strong, with lots of sugar in it.  It also comes with some more sugar water, or something to that effect.  Pretty good actually.

As we walked down the bustling street, a near-toothless 80 year old or so Vietnamese woman that was sitting next to a building pointed at me and smiled. I smiled back politely until she started laughing, and puffing out her cheeks at me. Confused, I dropped the smile and kept my eyes on her with curiosity. I mentioned it to Jade, and after a quick discussion, we decided she was calling us fat, and making fun of us. We've been joking about it ever since.

By then it was about 10:45am, so we decided to head back to the hotel for a quick cool-down, wash-up, and hopefully a poop (I think I noticed a boday in our bathroom, I've always wanted to use one).  We headed back, and did all of the things described, Jade took a nap, and I flipped thru funny music tv shows and cooking show - all in Vietnamese of course.

Jade was annoyed by the tv shows that I was taking interest to - and sent me to get water while she took a snooze.  I forgot to mention we were welcomed back into our room by very loud construction in the room above us or next to us.  They broke for lunch at 11:30 thankfully.  So on my way to fetch water, I thought I'd start blogging about the specifics of our adventure to help us remember the details.

More to come.
Adam