Originally written on November 13, 2004

In the morning we had our free breakfast of eggs juice and tea (eggs, extra salty just they way mom never made because we would have run out of a whole box of salt in a week). We hopped on the bike and headed out to find ‘fairy spring’ and never found it. We headed down the road to find red dunes (never found), saw fishing village, great beach, beautiful views. On our way to the dunes we stopped at an internet cafe to download some pictures onto the mp3 player and to look up departure methods and times from Mui Ne to Saigon. The women running the cafe/internet told us that she operates a morning minibus. Later, we asked all around town and no other designated tour company leaves Mui Ne in the morning, so we thought that her deal was shady or more likely a crappy local ram jammed minibus ride from hell.

We decided to turn back, as it was late afternoon and still many km’s from the white sand dunes. We had a great swim in the ocean waves, watched the kite surfers and drank our beer. MMMM…

We wanted western food (hadn’t had pasta since we left) and went to an Italian restaurant. What were we thinking?!!! It was very disappointing: garlic bread, cheese ravioli, spaghetti in tomoto and bacon sauce (hardly any sauce and not crispy bacon). To make up for the meals shortcommings we destroyed the parmesean cheese that was free FU ‘Good. Movies before bed, then sleepy time.

Originally written on November 12, 2004

We arrived in Mui Ne after our 4 hour bus trip from Nha Trang at about noon. As per usual, we were dumped off at the place where the bus company get some commision if we stay. It looked OK, but it wasn’t near any restaurants so we would have to eat there or catch a cab every day — not bloody likely! So, I left Heather with the bags in the hotel restaurant and went out front, rented a motorcycle of some guy for 5 bucks (he filled it up with what he said was gas from a green 7up bottle, said see you tomorrow, and drove south looking for a good place to stay. I checked about 5 places and all were either OK and expensive 50US or more, or crappy and expensive. Except for the Rachua dua which was nice and only 25 US. We got a pretty decent AC room, 30 seconds from the beach, and the place had a pool. I probably could have gotten the place next door for cheaper, but it didn’t have a pool. We arrived, had a quick shower as is the custom to rid the travel sweat, and headed out on the motorcycle.

Where were we going you might ask? Question: where would 2 canadians go who were living on the cheap? Answer: to get beer! No need to pay ridiculous hotel prices. We headed into the town of Phan Thiet picked up some beer. This was also where we had our first really good whiff of Nuoc Nam, or fish sauce. Let me describe the smell: first a smooth sweet smell, like old honey or weak maple syrup followed by a puzzling, if not quite shellfish-ish then certainly fishy, but definatly pungent after smell. The first smell is good the second is bad leaving you feeling the need to constantly inhale to keep the sweet smell always going through your nose. Sadly, this is not possible. We got out of there quick, it really stinks.

On the way out of town we noticed two cham towers on the hill overlooking the place. We found our way there and after paying the 2000 dong toll we rode our motorcycles right up the ancient structures. There we were greeted by two young girls who happily guided us around and told us of their family. Li and here sisiter (sorry li’s sister, wher you May?) also showed us some berries they were eating. We enjoyed one or two only A)because its wrong to just ‘eat some berries’ and B) they where growing on an old military outpost which we also toured. Not nearly as exciting as the Cham towers, but certainly more dangerous. With daylight fading, and the camera batteries giving out, we headed back to our resort stopping along the way for some dinner, then to bed. Below is the original message (the sunset was from tonight):

We are currently in Mui Ne, Vietnam and still the internet is ass. We have been keeping up to date and hopefully when we get to Saigon next week we will be able to update pictures and the daily events. Here is where we are staying: http://www.elephantguide.com/hotels/phanthiet/tropico.htm Cheers for now. Sunset at Mui Ne last night…

Originally written on October 26, 2004

After a somewhat restless sleep, to be expected the first night in a new city we began our day. First, free breakfast downstairs. Eggs (scrambled with cheese or onion, fried, french bread, pound cake with cream filling, fresh fruit (orange, pineapple, papaya, miscellaneous!), freshly squeezed fruit juice (taste like mango but has different seeds?), ham, bacon, spring rolls, fried rice, and these awesome crispy donut like pastries.

We ventured onto the street to begin our walking tour (map from hotel). We quickly learned that sidewalks, and the inside of stores are for motorcycles, not pedestrians/shoppers! Crossing the street you do in blind faith. There is next to never a break in the busy traffic, with the exception of other people walking into traffic to also cross the street. We hold hands, look for a slower moving group of motorcyclists, and then enter the intersection. To succeed in crossing the street you must move at regular slow pace, don’t look left or right because you may freak yourself out about how crazy such a simple thing as crossing the street should be. We learned that even small, minor streets can be hazardous. » Read the rest of the entry..

Originally written on October 19, 2004

Breakfast, of course, is a French baguette from the airport strip/bus stop street vendor and some water. The market does not always sell baguettes, often packaged bread with weird dried plant material inside and typically not fresh. We bought oranges once from the market, they were delicious. I would like to try more fruit, but this involves purchasing a decent knife, which we cannot take as carryon on our flight from Vientiane, Laos to Hanoi, Vietnam. So, we will eat fruit we can peel until then. Bananas of course are not one of them. It�s too bad that banana�s make me gag because they are plentiful. I tried papaya at our guesthouse in Bangkok and thought it tasted like coffee. Apples are also plentiful here and I look forward to having some!

Alas� Today we went on an inner tube down the Nam Song River. For US each we rode a tuk tuk upstream from the town with another couple. We were dropped off at a dirt road where they are building the library, currently only two to three rows of clay bricks thus far, and we were there! Luckily, the other woman traveler knew where the river was and we walked maybe 200 metres down the road. The river was flowing quickly where we were to embark on our journey so we held hands to ensure we stayed together. Agriculture was prominent on one side of the river, and treed mountains the other. » Read the rest of the entry..

Originally written on October 17th, 2004

Today we awoke (after hardly sleeping) and were happy to be venturing onwards away from Vientiene. A nice city, but really nothing going on there. We hoped to catch the 10:30 am bus to Vang Vieng so headed early to the bus station to secure a seat. We were not sure if there was assigned seating. We arrived at the station looking for the ticket counter for Vang Vieng, instead we found the 9:30 am Vang Vieng bus and a Laos gentleman (likely in charge of ticket sales) on the bus waving us on. Well, although Kirk had told me earlier that he was starving (we were going to go to the market after buying our ticket) he jumped on the bus, and I behind him. We weren’t sure if the gentleman understood that we did not yet have tickets and were hoping that we could purchase them from him on the bus journey. Did not want to upset anyone and break the rules in this (or any) communist country. The bus was equipped with many overhead fans (rotating for circling the cool air) and all of the windows were open. » Read the rest of the entry..