Me so Moist

Wow, realize its been a few days since I've blogged.  oops.


So I spent the past couple days in Hoi Ann.  It was definitely a lower key city than either Hanoi or Hue.  I hear its really hot at home now, so i'm not sure if its hotter here or there, all i know is that it's pretty standard for me to go through about 3 liters of water in addition to whatever juice i have.  I'm pretty much saturated with sweat at all times.

the food here is great.  I'm eating so much, with most meals being less than $2.  our splurge meal was $5.  pretty awesome.  The coolest thing about this city is most definitely the tailors.  Our first night here, we met this Australian couple that comes back here once a year for the past few years to get this certain shop to make some clothes for them.  The guy said he's only been wearing her suits to work every day for the past few years and they've held up amazingly.  So, I couldn't resist and bought myself a custom made 3 piece suit and a dress shirt as well as bought meghan a dress made just for her.  Its amazong how cheap they were too.  when i tried on the shirt and suit, they fit perfect and was of really good quality.  I'm looking forward to rocking it at home (lets just hope I need to wear it for something med schoolish soon).

One of the two days we were in Hoi Ann we rented bikes to ride to the beach which was about 4 or 5km away.  The beach was very nice, with palm trees and warm water although not the whitest sand nor crystal blue water as I'm expecting when i get to thailand.  The interesting things are the Vietnamese culture around the beach.  they don't like getting tan.  so the few women on the beach, are fully dressed both in and out of the water.  I'm talking Jeans and  long sleeve shirts, hats and some even wearing gloves in what is probably around 100 degree heat.  Like i said, this is also what they wear into the water!  Another way they beat the midday sun is by not going to the beach til 5pm.  I didn't get to the beach til a bit after 2 in order to avoid the worst of the sun, but around 5pm, the beach went from pretty empty, to flooded with asians.  We actually ended up leaving aroudn 515 and the onslaut looked nowhere close to stopping.  Now that shows true love of going to the beach....they hate sun, but still have to be there. 

Marla and i were talking to this woman who was half vietnamese, who lives in the US now about how the vietnamese people had been treating them.  Well, they both look asian so the locals are really critical of them.  marla is from the Philippines  and is very tan the asian women here are always asking her "why so dark" and then they're really rude to her.  the other woman has issues with people repeatedly coming up to her, "why you so fat!" to which she answers, "why you so ugly and stupid?" in fluent vietnamese.  I guess they're not the friendliest people, although i have yet to have any issues... at least nothing beyond some undeserved dirty looks. 

The ride back from the beach was pretty exciting.  There was a long stretch of road construction that I had to use my $1 beach cruiser bike to navigate.  Around deep holes, dodging motorbikes on the sidewalk, along with pedestrians, over other crazy obstacles too.  Made it through no problem.  Once I hit the main road, about 100m later, POP! I thought some kids through a firecracker at me.  turns out my fat butt just busted a tire.  Too stubborn to walk the bike, i rode the bike, busted tire and all, to the place where we rented it (which was probably only 500m away). 

Then yesterday, my last day in Hoi Ann, I picked up and then shipped my custom clothes back to the states.  then we just wandered the city for a few hours, relaxed at a sidewalk cafe for some drinks and just tried to take in the city for a while.  It was a pretty relaxing day.  Matt, Marla and I then had to catch a sleeper bus at 7pm.  with only a 1hr break and then a half hr break, we arrived in Dalat around 1pm today.  long frickin night of traveling, luckily I spent most of it sleeping and reading.  well, mostly sleeping.  This town is 1.5km up in the mountains.  so far it seems ncie, but have only wandered a bit.  Matt is sick and has been spending most of his time either sleeping in the room or on the toilet.  luckily we found a nice large room for only $4 a person for him to do that in.  Luckily, i think he looks like he's doing a bit better this evening than he was yester-eve.

I can't believe i have another 5 weeks of traveling to go.  I've never had this much time to just relax and enjoy life, and its amazing how much i miss my girl and my friends and my family.  I wouldn't say i'm homesick yet, I guess it would just be nice to be sharing this experience with someone.

we'll be here for a couple of days and then on to Saigon and then off to cambodia.okay, over and out.