Laos is great!

Laos is great!

So far, we can safely say that all of the problems we had getting into this country have been warrented by the great experiences we've had upon arrival. The people are nice, the traffic is easy, the landscapes are beautiful and the food is very diverse (in a good way). We started in the capital of Vientiane, which was a delightful little town. It's the biggest city in the country, but at only 250k people was easy to get around. From there we moved on to Vang Vieng, which has probably been the biggest surprise on the trip so far. It's a small town at the foot of some gorgeous limestone mountains, strewn out along a fast moving and clean river. Our hotel room ($5/night) sat right on the water, and there was a restaurant that went out to the water where we spent most of our nights. Inner tubes were available for floating and the view was absolutely stunning, so we sat in the water for hours at a time just taking it all in. In the city center (if you can call it that) there were numerous "video bars", which are essentially just restaurants that play TV shows off DVD's. Oddly, FRIENDS was the big show, and at any given time you could find 3 or more restaurants playing it. We went to these places for a good cheap meal, and stayed to watch 5-6 episodes of a 100% American show. Fun stuff! At one point we also rented mountain bikes... nice TREK bikes to do so some offroading. We rode quite a long ways into the mountains and through numerous little villages, and stopped do a hike into a cave. It was a fantastic ride, although we both got fried by the sun.

Which brings us to the next topic- the heat. It is ungodly hot here. We like hot weather, the hottest stuff that Missouri offers has always been OK by me, but here the sun is so intense it has really caught us off guard. You can feel it burning you on short walks, and even the dark skinned locals wear pants, long shirts and hats most the time. We don't have A/C, so the only way to cool off is in the shade or in a river. Mosquitoes were a problem in Vang Vieng, so we slept under a mosquito net which made it even hotter. Slowly though, we think we'll get used to it. It's just part of living in a place like this... just one of the normal everyday things you get used to. Similarly, just a couple of nights ago a 2ft+ lizard crawled through the open window of our bungalow and shot up the curtain onto the wall- scared the crap out of us. The next 15 minutes or so were spent trying to coax the big guy out the door. It's this kind of stuff that really makes the trip what it is!

Currently we are in Luang Prabang, the ancient capital of Laos, and we just had an awesome evening. We visited a night market put on by a local minority group (Hmong People )which had tons of handmade clothing, paintings, scarves, figurines, alcohol, etc. We got a few cool little souvenirs, including a small bottle of Lao Whiskey with a scorpion in it... potent stuff. There were also tons of food stalls... people had grills and lots of animals on sticks. We got grilled chicken, a foot long sub with chicken, cheese and veggies, a plate of noodles and beans (3 different noodle types) and 3 handmade fruit shakes (Lime, Lime-Apple, and Papaya). These were too cool... it was just a bunch of plastic cups with fruit in them, and you pick the cup you want (based on the fruit inside) and they put it in a blender with some ice for you. Best slushes I've ever had, and that’s saying quite a bit. And for those that are curious, the grand total for all the food and drinks I just mentioned was about $4.

Tomorrow we start heading into much more remote areas... some of which are accessible only by boat and only have power a few hours each day (via generators). We'll be working north and then west towards the border with north Thailand, and it's possible we won't have internet access for a week or more, so don't be concerned if you don't hear from us!


-------------- Pictures from Laos should be up shortly

Vietnam to Laos

Well, we had our longest bus ride yet from Hanoi to Vientiane--22 hours!! They weren't the most enjoyable hours...the bus was overfilled because the last 2 rows were filled with about 50 cases of barley tea. We were convinced they were probably drugs that we were assisting in smuggling to Laos, because why would you want to bring so much barley tea to Laos? The people operating our bus were actually quite unpleasant which made the ride a bit worse as well. We were on a sitting bus instead of a sleeping one to save money, so it was a pretty tight fit, and about halfway in started to smell quite a bit. One of the people working for the bus was flirting with 2 girls sitting in front of us, and reached over them to lean their seats ALL the way back onto us, so Jason and I had very little space for most of the ride. We arrived at the Laos border about 2 hours before it opened, so we had to sit on the bus and wait. They turned it off including the air, and since Jason and I were in the back it became almost suffocating with so many people and no air! Finally the border opened and we left Vietnam without any problems, but getting into Laos was a bit more challenging. Jason and I felt very preapred: we had our money ready in US Dollars (they prefer that), we had our passport sized photos, we had pens—lots of other people were scrambling around to come up with enough money or didn’t have everything they needed. We filled out the visa applications and were one of the first people to turn our paperwork in. They processed them and told us it would be $72 for our 2 visas. We handed them the 4 $20 bills we had, and watched as they examined each one carefully, and handed 2 of them back. One had a small ink stain, and the other had a little tear at the top of the center that happens when they’ve been used and folded. We told him we didn’t have any other money, were from the U.S., and the money was certainly legitimate. They said they couldn’t take them. There was a money exchange in the same building so Jason brought our 20’s to them and asked for 10s in return. He accepted one of them, but not the other. So we had $60 for our $72 visas, and no way to get any other money. We asked them what we should do and their suggestion was to go to the ATM 30 km inside of Laos….obviously if we could get into Laos we wouldn’t have a problem! While this is going on almost everyone else has gotten through, with the exception of some people from Chile, Germany, and Sweden. Each had separately called the Laos embassy before coming and were told they could get transit visas for 2 weeks for free, so they had no money to pay for their visas. They ended up having quite the confrontation with the people at the border crossing who said it wasn’t true and they must pay. They refused to call their embassy to check, and began yelling at the people and demanding their passports. And hour and a half later they were able to borrow money and get through, and we found another American who traded us one of her $20s and we got through. When he handed me $8 in change the $1 bills were all very dirty, so I demanded he give me clean ones instead! It felt like a tiny piece of redemption. It wasn’t the best first impression of Laos, but things got much better after we arrived in Vientiane!

Getting off the bus was wonderful, and we found a place to stay right by the Mekong River. We walked around and both noticed how quiet it is—there isn’t constant honking and yelling! People drive normally, crossing the street is easy, and everyone seems so laid back. They have good cheap beer and food and everyone we’ve met has been wonderful so far. We are spending a few days here recovering from the crazy bus ride and taking care of some finances and laundry. We don’t plan to spend the full month here, so we should be able to take our time and not have to worry about visas expiring. In a couple of days we’ll take the bus to Vang Vieng, and there we get to go tubing down the Mekong, and possibly rock climbing! We’re excited to get to check out a new country for the next few weeks.

Off we go

We've covered a lot of ground and had a change of plans since the last post, but the last week or so has probably been the most enjoyable one so far. From Hanoi we took a public bus to Halong City, the gateway to Halong Bay. For some reason, instead of taking us to Halong City, the bus literally dropped us off on the side of the highway where two guys on motorbikes were conviently waiting to pick us up. They extorted some ungodly sum out of us to take us the rest of the way, which we couldn't really do anything about because we didn't even know which way we were supposed to walk. On arrival, the city was dead.... barely a tourist or a local to be seen. From what we could gather, most people tend to book their tours of Halong Bay while they are actually in Hanoi- they take a tour bus to Halong City, get strait on a boat, and then once off the boat already have a tour bus back back to Hanoi waiting for them. Consequently, there is very little in the city at all, and we milled about for a few hours trying to find a good deal on a tour. We started by going to a nice looking hotel and asking about tour prices. We were quoted $62 per person for a 2 day tour with 1 night sleeping on a boat in the bay. We though this was too high, so we explored the dock area and after an hour or so of intense negotiations, we managed to secure a tour through a nice fellow for the price of $69 for a 3 day 2 night tour, including 1 night on the boat and a second night on an island we had wanted to visit anyway. He also threw in a free bus ride back to Hanoi when we were done, and a free stay at his hotel that first night. So we jumped in a cab with this gentleman and he took us right back to the hotel we started at. Turns out it was the same place, go figure.

The tour was fantastic. Halong Bay was truly incredible and unlike anything we've ever seen, far exceeding our expectations. We rode through the massive bay (over 3000 islands) for hours on top of the old wooden boat, went kayaking, and had a decent nights sleep on board. The next day we were dropped off on Cat Ba Island (the biggest in the bay) and got to climb a good sized peak to a view reminiscent of Jurassic Park. It was a short, 2 kilo walk but climbed somewhere around 700 feet. It took about 30 minutes each direction, maybe a bit more. Afterward we were taken to our hotel on the other side of the island, and from there we walked for a mile or so to a beautiful beach with only a few other people on it. It was definitly the prettiest beach on the trip thus far. The next day we jumped a boat (which by the way, was near sinking the entire time) back to the coast and then hopped on a bus back to Hanoi. We decided while on the way back to skip out on the city of Sapa, which was supposed to be our next stop. To go, we would be cutting our visa expiration a bit too close for comfort. Also, the train tickets to Sapa were extremely expensive, and it would cost quite a bit more to get to Laos after that. That being said, we booked some bus tickets to Laos for this evening and we *should* be there by this time tomorrow.

Since we're leaving Vietnam, here a a few of our thoughts and observations that might be entertaining or informative.

1.) We both agree that the best way to describe Vietnam is one word is 'chaotic'.
2.) For some reason the people here love the movie and music of 'Titanic'. We have seen it on TV multiple times, and the soundtrack is played all over the country in both English and Vietnamese. The soundtrack is even blared on loudspeakers in the streets.
3.) There are signs that say 'Merry Christmas' and 'Happy New Year' all over the place. We have no idea why, but they've been in every city we've seen.
4.) Late night Vietnamese TV is hilarious. On a couple of occasions, it has consisted of two teenage kids sitting in front of a TV playing a soccer videogame against eachother. There is an announcer, and each kid even has a cheerleader that watches the screen and cheers at the appropriate time. Very entertaining stuff.
5.) We went to the 'Hanoi Hilton' where John McCain and other U.S. Pilots were held. Apparently, the U.S. pilots were treated extraordinarily well and the whole ordeal was more like a vacation than a prison. On the other hand, the Vietnamese that were imprisoned ealier in that same place (by the French) were tortured, murdered, and abused. Propaganda? Nah.
6.) KFC and Pizza Hut are MUCH better in Hanoi than they are in the U.S. 3 weeks of rice and noodles may have play a role in that.
7.) There is definitly a cultural difference between North and South Vietnam. The north is more aggressive, chaotic, and slightly less pleasant overall. We don't think this has anything to do with the war, but it's interesting nonetheless.

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Pictures from the remainder of Vietnam should be up momentarily!

Crash!! (Again)

This morning we arrived in Hanoi after a 17 hour bus ride. It turned out to be quite an interesting ride--4 hours in we hit someone on a motorbike!! Jason said they actually ran into the side of our bus and weren't paying attention, so it was nice to know it wasn't our driver's fault. I felt the bus jerk quickly to the left then heard a loud "thud" on the right side. We stopped and some of us got out to see what was up. We aren't sure how bad the man was injured, but he was taken to the hospital (on another motorbike of course!). We were told he would be okay. A crowd of locals had gathered around to see what had happened, and as soon as the man was taken away, Jason and I became the center of attention. We had about 20 kids surrounding us, pulling Jason's hair, poking us, and giggling. One guy emerged named Hai who spoke decent English and translated for us with everyone. The young girls were captivated by Jason's hair, and gave him a round of applause when he put it in a ponytail on top of his head. They all wanted to take pictures with us and shake our hands, and told us many times how beautiful I was and how handsome Jason was. Later they asked me to sing a song, so I sang "You Are my Sunshine," and they sang a couple of songs for us. They asked many times how we felt about Vietnam, and we told them how beautiful it was and how nice all of the people were. Hai responded that Vietnam was very poor, and the people were short (they kept referring to how tall Jason and I were!) He said they were very gentle and smart though, which we certainly agree with! Another couple from our bus from Portugal joined us and he was very tall, and the kids had a great time trying to jump up to his height. Between his height and Jason's hair they were easily entertained! We couldn't communicate well with everyone, but there was tons of laugher and giggling; definitely the highlight of the trip so far! We talked with them for 2 hours while they fixed the bus, and when we had to leave Hai said "I hope someday in the future we will meet again." I hope so too.

Today we are checking out a few things in Hanoi, and tomorrow we go to Halong Bay! It's probably the highlight of Vietnam and I'm very excited to go. The following day we will come back to Hanoi, then take the train north to Sapa. We'll spend a day or so there, then head for the Laos border! Hopefully we are done with vehicle accidents, we're hoping the train will be a safer way to go!

What we did today

We did it! Today we think we sucessfully found the only mean people in Vietnam. We got some bikes from the hotel (back on two wheels, yay) and rode about 4km out to the Hoi An beach. Michelle had read in the guidebook that it was OK to park your bike on the beach, but that some people had set up little operations to try and charge you to park in certain areas. Well as we rode up we were yelled at and flagged down and told to park our bikes in a certain area because they were not allowed on the beach. After we did, the guy tried to charge us 20 times the already illigitmate amount the guidebook had stated. We said nevermind, we'd park somewhere else, and asked if there were any free areas around. The guy just told us to get our bikes out of there, and was of absolutly no help. So on the way out we passed the guy who had initially flagged us down. Hoping he would be more helpful, I asked him if he knew of any other place we could go that was free. He just kept yelling 'No!' and motioning for us to pay or leave, then he got out a big stick and kept hitting a sign that said how much it cost and smacking our bikes trying to get us out. I got out the guidebook and pointed to it saying I knew it was free somewhere... but the guy just kept yelling and getting more aggressive. Quite frankly, they were both totally full of crap... I couldn't even get either of them to look me in the eye when we talked. I tried, they just turned away when I looked at them and told us to 'go home'. pff.

Anyway, working off the assumption that the beach was probably bigger than just that little area, we rode back a short ways and then headed north (parallel to the beach) to see if there was some other way to get there. There was, and after only 1/4 mile of riding we were rewarded with free parking for our bikes, cheap beer, comfy chairs right on the water, and beaches as far as we could see in either direction - with no people. In fact, it was by far the nicest beach we've seen thus far. Since the road we took actually connected to the beach we had originaly tried to go down (behind the 'security guard') we rode up from behind the guard on the way back just to waive and smile, but he was gone. Dang.

Off to Hue tomorrow.

The last week

It's been awhile since we last updated, but it's been a great week! After the last post we spent 4 great days in Dalat. After wrapping up there (we were both sad to leave) we took a 6 hour bus to Nha Trang. We only stayed 2 nights there, party because we couldn't get in the ocean, but mainly because we only have 30 days on our Visa and if we don’t pick up the pace we’ll be cutting it a tad to close for comfort. So, at 7 pm last night, we got on an overnight bus to Hoi An.

An overnight sleeper bus is a thing to behold. They are behemoths on wheels... easily towering over every other vehicle on the road. They fit so many people on that it's unreal… the beds are 2 high (bunks) and are barely wide/long enough for your average Vietnamese person, much less an American (even I was slightly squished). Your feet slip into a small narrowing cubby that slides underneath the person in front of you. This is probably hard to imagine, and I never got a good picture, but you are essentially trapped up to your knees, so extricating yourself from your ‘seat’ is a process of wiggling and fidgeting. The bus sleeps three across, so you are also right next to other people. Two things came to mind as we rocketed down crummy Vietnamese roads packed in that sardine can: 1.) My Mom would absolutly freak out if she ever got into this situation. In fact, there is absolutely no force on this earth that could possibly hold her on this bus once she walked in and saw how cramped it was. 2.) I kept flashing back to the Seinfeld episode where Kramer has a bunch of Asian people sleeping in his chest of drawers (Carl Farbman drawers, I believe?). Michelle and I were both on the top bunks, so the swaying of this massive vehicle did a pretty good job of keeping us awake for the 11 hour drive. We didn’t get sick though, so we’ll call the trip a success.

Anyway, Dalat was fantastic and is our favorite place so far, although that might change for Michelle soon. The cool weather was great, and the look and feel of the city was slightly European but distinctly Vietnamese. We toured some great waterfalls and other sites and basically just bummed around for a couple of days… just like you should on vacation. Our hotel had Discovery channel and we had the good fortune of being there during Asia’s yearly “Shark Week”, so that was cool. Nha Trang was also nice, although it was extremely touristy. We easily saw more westerners there than everywhere else combined (thus far) and consequently the street vendors and salesman were much more aggressive and annoying. We ate more good food, sat on the beach, and walked a few miles to an awesome Buddhist Monastery. Now we’re in Hoi An, which is covered with tailoring shops where you can buy custom fitted clothes at dirt cheap prices. For example, a handmade, custom fit silk dress runs somewhere in the $15-$20 range. As I write this, Michelle is scouring the Jcrew and Athropolgie websites trying to find a picture she can print and show the tailors. You can buy fitted suits as well, which I’ve been considering, but I probably won’t end up getting one.

We’ve had a lot of interaction with locals over the past week, most of which has been great, and a few things come to mind as being particularly interesting (at least to me). First, we were constantly being approached by people who tried their hardest to start up conversations. Sometimes the conversations were just friendly conversations, other times they very abruptly turned into sales pitches. Either way, if there is no where to be the conversations can be a lot of fun, mainly because the locals have a tendency to blurt out everything they know about the U.S.A. right then and there. We’ve had people tell us stories (which may or may not be true) about relatives in the U.S. We’ve had people start randomly naming off U.S. cities and landmarks (New York, California, Sea World) only to smile and walk away when they finished. We’ve had more than a handful of people say something like “Barack Obama, number 1!” or tell us about how much they love him. And among the salesmen, the fact that they once served with the South Vietnamese Army during the war seemed to be a great way to try to get us to buy things. As we move into north Vietnam (we are in the middle right now) Michelle and I are very interested to see if and how the sentiment towards us changes.

The most interesting thing that struck me during all of this was a simple passing comment our hilarious and eccentric tour guide made a few days ago. He was giving us a simplified, broken-English version of Vietnamese history and said “Vietnam was ruled by minorities (the Vietnamese) for many, many years. Then the French ruled for 100 years, then the Americans for 20 years, and now the Vietnamese again.” I found this particularly interesting, because you’d be hard pressed to find an American anywhere who would say that the United States ever actually ‘ruled’ Vietnam as the French or Vietnamese themselves ever did. Even staunch proponents of the war, people who initiated, designed and executed it like LBJ, Nixon, or Kissinger would never say that we ‘ruled’ it: we were there for a purpose and never intended to stay. But it doesn’t seem like people here necessarily view it that way. Regardless of our reasons why, from their viewpoint the Vietnamese were not in control of their land, and so we were viewed as their rulers. This is a decepitivly simple concept and a gross diconnect between how Americans want to be viewed and how they are actually viewed. And sadly, 30 years later, we still do a poor job at representing ourselves correctly, as our two current wars will attest.

Finally, this blog’s layout has been updated a bit, as I’ve added links to our pictures to the right hand side of this page. Each country will eventually have it’s own link and gallery. I will probably update those pictures more frequently than we update the actual blog, so check back occasionally.

That’s all for now.

P.S.- Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize? Seriously? Lol.

From Palms to Pines....

We made it to Da Lat! I have no idea how, as it was the most terrifying bus ride I've ever been on. We expected Vietnam to be rolling hills, but no, there is some serious elevation here. We also expected a 3 hour bus ride which turned out to be over 6. Six hours of winding up narrow mountain roads in a huge bus, precariously close to the edge (I saw one vehicle down there), often with other huge buses coming towards us. We kept thinking we must be close, because we were reaching the tops of the peaks, but then we would cross the pass and drive up higher peaks! I'm not sure what the elevation here is but will try to find out today. So far we LOVE Da Lat! The weather is beautiful, crisp and a little cool (probably like the weather you have in Missouri about now). We found an incredible hotel, $7/night for a private room with hot water, television, free internet access, and it's very clean. And the room is pink and white :) We think we might stay here 4 nights since we both slept the best we have since we got here last night. Today we plan to just explore Da Lat, and tomorrow possibly tour outside of town a bit, as there are supposed to be pretty waterfalls and lakes. We are both very happy with where we are right now!

Funny side note--the other day at the health clinic the nurse told me she thought I was Vietnamese when I first walked in! So apparently I really can blend in anywhere. At the same time another clinic worker slowly approached Jason's hair and gently pulled a curl and watched it spring back. He looked absolutely amazed, and told Jason his hair was "pretty and beautiful." He definitely will not be mistaken for Vietnamese.

Since we have free internet for a few days I imagine we'll be on here fairly regularly, so look for updates! This town is supposed to be very kitschy so hopefully we can get some fun pictures.

Minor Update

Since the 'incident' (which hereto for is how we will refer to the motorbike occurance) we haven't done much. We sat on the beach for about 6 hours yesterday, got tan, ate food, and have visited the clinc once per day to get re-bandaged. Today, since we're leaving the city, they were nice enough to give us brand new unopened bottles of some cleaning stuff, cotton, and bandages so we can do ourselves up. They charged us, but it was just under $3 so no problem. I'm also happy to say that despite the ungodly humidity, we're both healing up well. Today we head to Dalat... the city itself is at around 5,000ft of elevation, so the cool, dry mountain air will probably help even more. That's all for now.

Read Michelle's post first! (In addidtion...)

Hello... just wanted to add a few things to what Michelle said! To reiterate, we are both fine. The ordeal messed up our budget for a few days, but we can make up for that. Physically, it's nothing a few 65 cent beers won't fix, althought we did exhaust our gauze and some other medical supplies a mere 3 days into our trip. =0

The area we were in when we crashed was pretty much the middle of nowhere. It was a beautful drive out to a very small village. The road we were on was a very fine powdery red sand, so it could have been much worse. The camera that broke (not related to the crash, Michelle did it!) was my cheap Canon camera that I've had for a couple years, not my nice DSLR- so we'll still get plenty of pics. However, we were very dissappointed to have not gotten pics of the beautiful countryside, quaint little village (not a foreigner in sight, except the two of us sliding across the ground) and extremely nice people (but terrible drivers). We're in great spirits at the moment... everyone was so nice about it all (the people that drove into us on the wrong side of the road, the nurse, the mechanic that fixed our tire, even the owner of the motorbike) that it's hard not to be.

I'm sure everyone wants pics... so here has been our day thus far-

http://cid-fb8cc05f73293d8d.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Trip%20Pictures?uc=1

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We've gotten a lot of comments about the Tsunami/Typhoon that hit this part of the world. Just to clarify, the tsunami didn't hit here, it was primarily in the South Pacific. Central Vietnam DID get hit by a typhoon right as we were arrrving (we passed through some turbulance on the plane) but all we saw of it on the ground was some heavy rain. No worries!
We've got 2 more days here in Mui Ne, then off to Dalat!

Crash!!!

It's hardly noon and we've already had quite the day! We woke up this morning and watched the sunrise over the ocean, and both commented on how it was hard to believe we were in Vietnam, looking at the South China Sea. We were quickly thrown back into the reality of Vietnam once we rented our motorbike for the day and started off! The plan was to go to 2 different sand dunes, a waterfall, and just explore. As you know we owned a scooter and also drove one around Honduras, however, driving motorbikes here is a completely different experience for many reasons. 1) They are small and have small tires which Jason said made it more difficult, 2) They are manual transmission! Which took some getting used to, there were a lot of screeech/jerk forward moments as Jason got used to it. Also the rear brake is a foot brake, and the front brake is hand. 3) We're driving in Vietnam, which means it's a free-for-all. The road is divided into 2 lanes to be used as each individual chooses. Beyond that it's a maze of other motorbikes, trucks, bikes, people on foot, and animals wandering in front of you on the street. If someone is coming towards you or you hear a horn, you move right. And it seems to work in theory until.....

someone is driving right at you on a dirt road on the far right side and isn't moving!

About 12 miles away from where we were staying we were exploring a small town and driving down a dirt road, when 2 guys on a motorbike were on our side of the road coming at us. It was unclear what they were doing or if they would move, and got close enough that Jason made a sharp right turn. Moments later we were skidding across the gravely road on our sides. Once we and the bike came to a halt we were surrounded by locals coming to help and make sure we were ok. One women had some type of green ointment she was putting all over our gashes and the guys that almost hit us were picking up our bike. Before we knew it we were each on the back of a bike heading to the local clinic where they fixed us right up for less than $2! We're ok, but kinda beat up. I have a pretty deep gash in my right arm and a good scrape on my leg, along with some road rash. Jason's injuries were wider-spread but not as deep, with a big scrape on his hand, and scrapes down his right side, elbow, and knee. We were pretty embarressed (even though it was not Jason's fault!), but everyone was so helpful! The guys who took us to the clinic brought out bike to the shop to get air in the tire and then sent us on our way. We barely made it home because of the busted tire, but are only having to pay about $30 to fix the bike, and less than $4 to fix ourselves :)

Unfortunately this means we can't get in the ocean any more, so we'll spend the next few days sitting on the beach with some beer. Oh and the worst part is our camera broke! Not from the crash, it just stopped working, so we have no pictures of the crash or clinic or people that helped us. Don't worry though, we're fine!!! Just a little embarressed and beat up :-/

We're here!

Well, we made it! The flights were long both smooth, with no major hiccups and minimal jetlag. Saigon was great, we spent a couple of days there meandering about and getting adjusted, and then this morning we caught a bus to a beach town called Mui Ne (about 5 hours). Travel has been extremely easy so far, much easier than was thought it would be. The people are nice, and everything is cheap! For example, today we've booked a basic beachfront bungalow ($7, $3.5 per person), had a meal consisting of drinks, fried rice, red snapper w/ garlic and chilli ($5 including large tip) and breakfast of huge banana pankakes ($3ish). We've come in right at our 12 month travel budget every day, even in the most expensive city, which is great

We haven't had any huge problems so far... but we've madea few rookie mistatks. Most notably, we took our anti-malaria medication this morning at 6am (on an empty stomache) right as we walked out to go get breakfast. Apparently that stuff works fast, because by the time we got to the restaurant 15 min later we were both throwing up. Alas, it passed quickly and we're great now!

We purchased what's called an 'open-bus' tour in Saigon, which is really a pretty neat deal. It was just under $40/person, and it allows us to take a bus from Saigon all the way up to Hanoi (approx 1000miles) and get off at any of the stops we'd like to. Mui Ne is the first stop. In a few days we'll head to a mountain city called Dalat, then on to Nha Trang (another beach town), Hoi An, Hue, and then to Hanoi. The buses are very nice, with air-con, nice seats and on the longer rides even sleeper reclining seats. Not a bad deal! Feel free to Google any of these places, pictures should be easy to find.

Tomorrow we'll probably rent a scooter and go check out the huge sand dunes that run into the ocean just outside of town. Beyond that, we'll just be lounging around.

That's all for now, take care!