Rock Garden Spa Resort Phan Thiet

... working front.

So my thoughts so far are that the Vietnamese are initially very welcoming people and the country, different and interesting. We have just arrived at our fourth stop, Dalat, a mountain town which has already been described to me as the Paris of Vietnam and it will be interesting to see if this consistent holds true here and the diversity that this location offers so watch this space... more to come!

8th March 2009 Dai Duong Ocean Hotel, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 80% humidity 34 degrees Today it was Women's Day and even if you didn't know it from the posters and activities going on in the city, everyone kept saying 'happy Women's Day', which I thought was rather nice. This morning I tripped across the road to the park where there was a lot going on, even at 8 o'clock on a Sunday morning. Clearly it was a celebration for ...

... accompanied by an eleven year old boy that was not exactly enthusiastic about having to make this trip with us. Fortunately the scenery made up for his lack of enthusiasm with red sand dunes, cliffs and other formations on either side of valley that the creek followed. The stream was very shallow and warm and easy to navigate, but the water was red and we could not see the bottom of the stream with even an inch of water. Before we got to the waterfall ...

... of vodka and a few limes sliced up with two shot glasses. Nevermind, didn't take us long to finish it all either. The bill came... and the vodka was less than a quid! And officially a bottle of beer is 9000 dong and a bottle of water sits at 10,000. There be places that exist where beer is indeed cheaper than water. Off to dinner now, can't wait for my steamed rice and water! I may have two bowls... Much love, Gam and Siles xxx

... that we hadn't drunk nearly enough wine over the last few weeks and were going to find a restaurant with a wine list. We didn't have to go far from the hotel to find a beautiful restaurant with live seafood and an open BBQ at the front. Lobster is still damn expensive even here so i had a tiger prawn after our main meals. Didn't need more than one though cause it was huge! Easily 25-30cm nose to tail and delicious - kim very jealous but ...

... 40 mopeds, about 10bikes with kids on and a few old ladies walking....... my god, is all that came to mind, I am not sure how we didn't kill anyone or crash ourselves! Seeing the local buses made us glad we had gone on a slightly more organised affair- they have about 8 people to two seats and have bikes, luggage, dogs, you name it hanging off the top.........many will ...

... in the kitchen. I had some really ripe, juicy and delectable Thanh Long - sooooo good (this fruit grows on a short tree that looks like a mix of cactus and tree. The fruit starts as a pineapple-shaped fruit in a green rind. As it matures it becomese a purplish red and finally it regains some green color) In Phan Thiet Afterwards, we headed for the heart of Phan Thiet, visiting the nieghborthood where Mom and G-parents lived for umpteen ...

... of the morning etc but finall, the bus rocked up an hour late and we were on our way all excited. This had been one of the best stints of the trip so far and so much more could have been written to bore you all.......... (You faithful readers may well realise that I'm now over a month behind my postings, so the final stop off in Malaysia at the end of my trip on 20th Dec should arrive sometime in the New Year if lucky along with complete photos per each blog)......

... take 20 kg apiece when we're leaving the country with everything we own can they?' Well, of course they can. We weighed the luggage upon arrival at the airport and were horrified to find that we were 50 kg over! Not only that, they wanted to charge us 70 RMB ($10) per kg that we were over so the fine was going to cost more than one of our tickets to Vietnam!! Time to rethink this one. We were allowed 2 pieces of carry on but hadn't wanted to take the maximum because our smaller ...

... to prepare myself, given that I've found just about everywhere else to be very full-on. I'm continuing to have a good time & meet some cool people, and drink some truly awful alcohol. This will require some elaboration when I have cheaper Internet access. Vietnam is quite intense and I've felt less than good a few times. But it's all about change, that's why I'm here, and it's happening. So... I'll head off then. Hope everyone is doing well.