Monkey Island

This is just me climbing over to the other side of Monkey Island.

This is the guy that got bit. He was walking up to this big monkey trying to feed it and this old, haggard looking one walked up behind him, grabbed hold of his leg and just dug her teeth in.

Well since Heather mentioned on her blog that I would have a certain picture on my blog I feel somewhat obligated to post said picture. Even though I'm fairly certain no one is even reading this thing anymore.

So the story goes that we jumped on a large ship that kind of resembles some ancient Asian war vessel to tour Halong Bay up in the north of Vietnam which is now being considered for the next seven wonders of the world. It's pretty frickin amazing and totally worth a nod. So after a night spent aboard this boat which is actually referred to as a "junk" (I never asked why) we got off on Cat Ba island for a little trekking before taking a bus to the port on the other side of the island to then get on a another boat which transported us to this even smaller island called Monkey island. Needless to say it had monkeys. But the best part was that it was set up in this little cove with a very private beach, with our own bungalows nestled just under the forest. It was totally baller. I felt like Englebert Humperdink or Jay-Z or somebody like that.

But the point of this post is to tell the incredibly embarrassing story of hiking up this rugged, dangerous, never-in-a-million-years-would-this-be-approved-by-OSHA, super liability trail to the top of one of the many mountains on Cat Ba seeing this fellow wearing almost the exact same thing as I was. Now I'm not usually one to play fashion victim but what are the chances. The only difference was that he had his shirt tucked in like he was climbing up here to attend some formal speedos dinner party.

Numbered days

We're now two hours out from catching a flight back to Saigon. The air transit in Vietnam is so affordable it makes it worth it to not waste twenty hours on a bus or train. But Saigon will be our last stop before heading home on Wednesday night.

Cham ruins at My Son

Homesickness is only in your head

So we've gotten around a little bit since the last time I posted. Currently we're in Hoi An which is one of the towns that got hit pretty hard by the typhoon about a week ago. The water damage is still visible on the walls which reaches over six feet high. It's hard to imagine what this town really looked like during the worst of the storm. And even harder to fathom how they pulled it together so quickly. There is still a film of dust and dirt all over the surfaces here where the waters have only recently receded but most of the debris has been cleared and everyone is open for business. It's really incredible to think about. We took a bus out of town to visit some old Champa ruins at My Son and there are still remnants of the flood hanging high up on trees and power lines. It seems that in some places the waters carried the washed away at least ten feet up leaving a dangling mess of dead foliage. We are really lucky that we detoured though Dalat instead of coming straight up the coast.

So in between here and Dalat we spent a few days in Nha Trang which is a whole other world when compared to the rest of the Vietnam that we've seen. It's located right on the coast with beautiful beaches reaching forever in both directions. Palm trees, blue waters, clear skies. I mean the place would be an absolute heaven if it weren't for the mass of foreigners attempting to mold it into the next Cancun. I constantly felt like I was walking down some beach strip in southern Fl. But the upside of this was the oh-so-satisfying comfort food. I actually had to come to Nha Trang for the best burger of my life. I have pictures and I will post them soon enough. But believe me when I say it was worth coming back for. And then there was the guilty pleasure BBQ joint. We were just walking the streets one night and some round guy came walking out of his place attempting to lure us in for "the best BBQ you've ever had". The exclamation on his statement was the giant neon cowboy sign waving back and forth with his right hand. I could only scoff on the inside since I'm from the south and he was too big to offend. His spiel I actually found very ugly. The selling point being that all of his meat came from the states, "none of this Vietnamese crap". For one I feel that the meat being corn fed and medicinally filled in the U.S. cannot possibly compete with the grass fed, free roaming beef that they have here locally. The tastes just don't size up. And two, if you're going to come over here and open a restaurant, not help contribute financially to the community that allowed you this opportunity by buying overseas instead of locally, and then knock the quality of food that they both eat and provide here, well then you're just a huge dick and your business should fail. But then he mentioned that he served hot wings so I went in and had some. I live for both hot wings and guilt so it was sort of the perfect storm.

So yeah, we spent five days there eating too much and also having a blast. We got totally lost on bicycles, went scuba diving and snorkeling, braved the roads on a scooter, got a sunburn, went to a day spa for a mud bath, and basically lived like royalty. It was super awesome.

And now we're here loving this place with it's old-world French architecture until tomorrow afternoon when we'll take a plane up to Hanoi and venture out from there.

Dalat

Some of the slimey eats at the local market.

We happened to be here for the annual moon festival when the moon is at its fullest. There are roving dragons with their own soundtrack (kids on drums and cymbals banging away) running all over the streets and into stores. Supposedly they bring good luck to those they visit.

This white one just about visited my face but when his laser beam eyes caught mine he turned the other way. I don't know if that's lucky or not?

Dalat to Nah Trang

We've been Holed up in Dalat for four days now which is one too many. We had scheduled a bus ride back to the coast for this morning but canceled it last night. If you have'nt heard there have been some really hellaceous storms on this side of the world. Only three days ago a typhoon barrelled through the Phillipines and as of the last time I checked there were at least two-hundred and forty dead. When it reached the South China Sea it picked up strength again and hit the cental coast of Vietnam pretty hard. So far there are twenty-four poeple dead and more than a few unaccounted for. Luckily for us we're further inland and at a higher elevation but we still got an idea of what this thing was like. The weather yesterday was just furious and from the inside of our room, five stories up we could hear the wind ripping through the streets. A tree fell on a woman while taking her kids to school on their scooter and a couple of back-packers new to the hotel said they passed a car with the top crushed in only a few kilometers outside of town.

So just to play it safe we put off our ride out for one day. Tomorrow we're heading back to the coast to Nah Trang. This is probably going to be nothing more than a pit-stop before heading north to Hoi An which is an area that took the brunt of the typhoon. I'm curious and a bit anxious to see what's happened out there.

And the picture is just something I took during a storm in Phu Quoc. It has no relation to the storm I just referenced.