Sanctuary Seekers

Well, this day started out normal enough. We made it to the airport very early in the morning, checked in and our flight left on time. We didn't realize it then, but all this timeliness was setting us up to experience something in Tokyo we never in a million years expected. We landed in Tokyo, made it through the maze of security checks, shuttle bus ride, up and down stairs and escalators,,,,it seemed someone was always there to direct us to our next gate in Terminal #1. It was all very organized. We had a two hour layover in Tokyo, so I went to some shops and looked for something unique, bought some tea boxes and headed back to our Delta gate #15 to wait for a while longer. We sat down in some chairs to watch what was on Japanese TV. It wasn't long before they started boarding our flight. We were in Zone 4, the last boarding section, and we usually wait until the line is short before we get in it, but we got up knowing we would be sitting for the next 8-9 hours. We had been standing for only about a minute or two when at 2:46pm it started... It started with the signs above us swinging and starting to make a rubbing sound, then we noticed the whole place was starting to slide around and we realized we were for sure having an earthquake. Randy was immediately concerned about what might fall down on us from the ceiling above. Everyone seemed to migrate to the columns for some reason, I guess they were the most stable appearing object in sight. We were huddled onto our own column, holding on to each other. The earthquake just went on and on, I thought it was never going to stop. We knew the airport was built for this type of thing and it wasn't shaking as much as it was swinging and shifting, like we were sort of suspended, I guess we were. At one point it was bad enough that a lot of dust and debris was falling down out of the ceiling and light fixtures, I started to fear that if it got worse the ceiling above would fall on us. I remember thinking, if it is this strong in a building built for this, what are the people on the outside experiencing? Then it calmed down a bit, then started up again, calmed down a bit, then started up again. Finally it settled down somewhat, but continued to rock and roll for a while. Later we found out the earthquake was an 8.9. We had one pretty good after shock not long after the initial earthquake, I hear the 1st after shock was a 7.7. Everyone began to start walking and looking around to evaluate the damage and to see if everyone was ok. As far as we could see, everyone was fine. There didn't appear to be too much damage, but then we noticed the chairs where we had been sitting just a couple moments before the quake hit,,,,they were trashed with what fell out of the ceiling above. It was nothing that would have hurt us, but we thought it was amazing that our chairs were the only ones that had any amount of debris (see picture). Everyone was completely dusted with white stuff that had fallen from the ceiling. Our Delta flight #90 was already about 3/4 loaded, but they suspended boarding. Almost immediately Japanese TV started showing pictures of a few earthquake scenes and a map of Japan where the earthquake was the worst. But, we really had no idea how strong the quake had been or what damage had been done to Japan. We really didn't think it was too bad, because there was so little apparent damage at the airport. After about 1/2 hour they loaded the rest of us onto the plane, thank goodness we had bulkhead seats with more leg room. At first the Captain announced that it would be about 30 minutes before we could take off while they inspected the runway and that we would be safer on the plane. We kept having almost constant aftershocks,,, they weren't bad, but every few moments the plane would start to rock and tilt. They felt like vertigo, but we would all look out the window and see the wing moving around and know for sure that what we were feeling were aftershocks. Then the Captain announced that they were still inspecting the runway, probably because they had to reinspect it after each aftershock. Anyway, in the next announcement he said that they had evacuated and closed down the airport, we figured that also meant the tower too. I felt so bad for all those people who had been evacuated to the tarmac, it was cold out there and who knew how long they would be there. We felt good that we were in a warm plane and the flight attendants brought us snacks and something to drink. They were very calm and friendly and joking around with us, we were all in the same situation and made the best of it. We had been in the plane over an hour by now and had no idea what was going to happen. The Captain was so great, at least every 30 minutes he would tell us what he knew about what the new plan was, whether it was different from the last plan or not. It made us feel better just knowing someone was working on a plan and were in touch with our Captain, it kept us calm. No one complained. Finally, he said that they were inspecting the airport to decide if they could let us back inside. Then we thought, oh great, they are thinking about making us spend the night in the airport seats. In the next announcement our Captain said they were inspecting the basement of the airport and were thinking of taking us off the plane, through the basement of the Tokyo airport and outside somewhere. We'd rather stay in the plane, but we knew our Captain probably didn't have much say so about what they did with us in Japan. The aftershocks continued. We could see lots of airport vehicles running around outside. Next he told us that the highways were closed, and the trains and buses weren't running, and the city had completely shut down except for some of the local streets. We didn't know what was going to happen to us, but at that point we felt our chances of getting to a hotel were probably nonexistent. The flight attendants decided to feed us a meal, just in case... and we were really glad for that, because it had been hours since we'd eaten anything. We'd been on the plane for a few hours at this point and the frequency aftershocks had slowed down a bit. Finally out of the blue, the Captain said they were going to let a couple of planes leave and ours was one of them,,,,,,the plane exploded with applause and yeahs!! The Captain told everyone to button everything up and get ready to go while getting was good. So, within minutes everyone, including the flight attendants were ready to leave. Then we just sat there,,, nothing happened, for what seemed like 30 minutes, and we were starting to worry something had changed. Then all of the sudden the plane just backed out, taxied to the runway and took off to more whooping and hollering and applause. All in all we'd been sitting on the plane for about 5 hours. We were so happy to be in the air and on the way home. The crew was just awesome the way they handled everything. We may never know what Delta really did behind the scenes to get us out of Japan after that terrible earthquake, but we are so thankful we were flying on Delta, they really came through for us all, at a most important time.
Randy had to get up and walk around from time to time during the night, but amazingly, I went to sleep and slept most of the flight and woke up in time for breakfast when we were only 1-1/2 hours from Portland, I've never done that before.
There was more applause and yeahs when we landed at PDX. When we touched down I called my mom, because I knew she had sen the news and would be worried. She answered the phone on the first ring and was so happy to hear we were ok. Then I texted my sister Renee, sent Randy's family an email, and called Julie to pick us up. It was good to be back on firm ground. When we entered the airport we heard an announcement talking about the next flight to Tokyo. They said there were no connecting flights from Tokyo and no hotel rooms available. We were so happy that we got out. While we were waiting for our bags to come up, Delta had quite a few counselors there to talk to us if we needed to debrief about our experience with the earthquake. That was really nice although I think most of us were just fine and glad to be home, but it was the first time we had talked to anyone about what we had experienced. Also, there were news crews with cameras aimed at us when we walked through the door. I ended up being on the Channel 8, 5 oclock news talking about the aftershocks. They asked me to send the pictures I had of the earthquake (I sent them when I got to Julie's, but I guess they didn't get them in time or they decided not to use them, because the pictures weren't on the news). Julie picked us up and we went to chat with her and Tom for a while. We stopped at Costco, what a culture shock, then finally got home just before dark. We had no idea that the earthquake had been an 8.9, the damage done, or the devastation of the tsunami until we got home and turned on the TV. We had escaped only by a hair. We are so thankful that God watched over us, it could have been very different. Our hearts and prayers go out to the people of Japan, especially those who are suffering near the epicenter of Sendai, not only with the devastation of the tsunami, but also with those who's nightmare may have just started because of the nuclear emissions. Their lives will probably never be the same.
When I think back on the earthquake experience,,,the image stuck in my mind is,,, during the worst part of the quake I looked over at the column across from us about 15 - 20 ft. away. People were squatting and standing around the column with fear on their faces and in their eyes, dust and debris was falling down on them from panels in the ceiling and all the light fixtures. It was a scary sight and I knew our column looked the same to them. That picture will always be in my mind, I just didn't think to grab my camera. What an ending to our trip!! Thank You Delta for getting us out safely!!
Vietnam is a very beautiful country, but it is just at the beginning of learning how to protect it's resources and repair the damage that has already been done. But, then again they have come a long, long way since the war. They are a very industrious people and I know they will be able to do whatever they decide to do. They are also some of the sweetest folks I have ever met. There were only a few of the older folks who didn't seem too excited to see us there. I suppose they were probably from the north or for some had a bad memory from the war, and I don't blame them. But, for the majority of the people of Vietnam, they were very nice to us and bent over backwards to help us any way they could. The food took some getting used to. We didn't eat much meat of any kind, partly because we saw it hanging in the market, in the heat, fly's love that,,,, and partly because we didn't know what some of it was. Even when we would order something with "no meat, only vegetables", some mystery meat would invariably be in it. Maybe we're weird, but I like to recognize what I'm eating. Usually the food was very good and very fresh and we really didn't have any stomach problems, Randy had a small, short episode, but it passed quickly.
We had a wonderful trip. It seems like we've been gone way longer that 3 weeks. I think I've gotten the travel bug out of my system for a little while. But, part of the fun of travelling is planning the trip, and we are already discussing where we might like to go next, but it will be down the road.
So, this will end my blog of our Vietnam trip. It has been an interesting experience keeping this blog from day to day, but it is nice to have it all documented and finished when the trip is done. Until next trip.................

#2- earthquake

#4- earthquake

It is another beautiful day here!
Packing is not my favorite thing. We’ve been in this little cottage long enough to spread out. It is always more difficult for me to leave somewhere after I’ve made a nest. But, after one last fruit plate and a couple last ca phe sua da’s, we said our goodbyes and off we went to the little Phu Quoc airport. It is so small it only has one gate. The government is also planning an international airport here on Phu Quoc. Doesn’t hardly make sense when the airport they have now only has one gate.
It was a short 40 min. flight to HCMC. back to craziness. We got a taxi to First Hotel, where we stayed just before we went to Phu Quoc. They had just opened a new hotel across the street from the existing one the day before, so they put us in the brand new one as a promotion. It was absolutely beautiful, all marble and granite, inlaid designs in the marble, all new furniture and wood, and crystal chandeliers. The rooms were all new state of the art stuff we had never seen before. Our room was a basic room, but it was like a suite, complete with a whirlpool tub and huge glass separate shower, robes and slippers, probably a 36” flat screen TV, refrig./minibar, and a master panel that operated everything in the room. It had some kind of new fancy key system we had never seen. It was unbelievable. What a nice surprise- when we were expecting only a room. The only thing missing was wifi, it hadn’t been hooked up yet. There were only a few folks in the new hotel and the staff was so proud of it they literally followed us around trying to do something, anything for us. Anyway, enough about the hotel, but we recommend it to anyone. We had some errands to do, so we went back out into the very scary traffic. Every time we are out in it we see things that are amazing, like a motor scooter going down the street with a full mattress on the back, (see photo) We took a nice long shower and headed across the street for our last dinner in Vietnam. There was a BIG wedding going on next door. That was interesting to watch how they do weddings Vietnam style.
Our flight leaves at 5:55am, so we have to be up and at it about 3:15am, yuck. We will miss the breakfast included with our room, but never fear,,,,they are making a box breakfast for us to take with us. Goodnight……

#4- First Hotel, Our promo room

#6- First Hotel pool

#14- Saigon traffic, mattress on Moto

#16- Saigon traffic

#15- Saigon traffic

#17- Saigon traffic

#30- Our last great dinner in HCMC

#31- Our last great dinner in HCMC

We have no idea what day it is and we haven't known since we left the states, that's the sign of a true vacation, right? Dating this blog is the only reason I've even known the date. It's been great to be that kicked back for awhile.
We should have gone snorkeling today instead of yesterday. The sky is clear, the sea is calm and blue. It is a beautiful day! After breakfast we rented a motorbike and went for another ride around the island, a different direction. We finally found the pepper farm, which was really interesting. This was a peppercorn farm, the plants were 5 years old, very tall and in rows. Too bad they won't grow in a colder climate. I bought some Vietnamese peppercorns and some of the farm’s spice combos. They also had different kinds of fruit wine, but it all tasted just like sweet vinegar. Then we stopped at the local lady budda pagoda. The pagodas we've seen here are very similar and all the pagodas are amazingly ornate. (see photo) We ended up back in town and bought some more post cards, found a coffee shop, wrote our cards and mailed them. It seems strange to sort of know our way around a large town so far away from home. We were done cruising around and headed back to the really fancy, nice place down the road from our place to have lunch. After lunch we just went straight out to the pool, got some beach towels, found some nice loungers and went swimming in the infinity pool all afternoon and lollygagged. We wear block all the time, but we are both brown biscuits. It was really nice of the hotel to let folks use the pool just for having lunch there. The restaurant was right next to the pool that was right next to the beach that was right next to the ocean. It was a fun time and a very beautiful place, but we were glad to get back to our little piece of paradise. It was a nice last day on the island of Phu Quoc. It is interesting to see how the locals have merged with the visitors, I think it is a love/hate, catch 22, type of thing with the locals. They like the revenues, but probably would like their island back. We doubt that will happen, from what we hear the Vietnamese Government has big plans to build huge resorts on the beaches of Phu Quoc, construction has already started in some areas. We’re really glad that we got to experience this place before it changes into something we might not even recognize in 10 years. We made some friends here, Reny and Tony, that we will be keeping in touch with. They are our same age and live in Australia. Maybe one day we will met up again, that would be nice. We had a nice dinner sitting in front of the ocean for the last time in Vietnam and talked about what an interesting 3 weeks we had just experienced. What a great way to end our trip…… Tomorrow we fly back to HCMC.

#1- Beautiful little Sara

#3- Peppercorn plants

#7- Lady budda pagoda, Phu Quoc

#14- Infinity pool at Edan

Good Morning Vietnam! - (couldn't resist) and everyone else too. Today we are supposed to go on a snorkelling trip, but the weather is blustery, overcast and the seas are somewhat rough. I guess they will call it off if it will not be safe.
There were several divers on the boat too who were in different stages of certification. The name of this organization is Rainbow Divers and it is authorized for PADI certifications. I used to dive alot in my younger years, but I blew my eardrums out by deep diving with a bad cold. Randy wasn't interested in diving either so, they took us for snorkelling. The first place we stopped was turtle island, a very small island with a reef around it. I was pretty disappointed in what was below the water. I have snorkelled and dived in many other places around the world where the coral was colorful, varied and there were lots of fish and sea life. Here the reef was pretty brown, there wasn't much color, it looked mostly dead. A few of the corals looked like they were trying to recover from something and were a vague shade of green or yellow, but for the most part it was all brownish. Visability wasn't very good either, but that didn't surprise us with the seas being so rough. I saw very few fish. There was one school of fish that swam around us, but the fish weren't any longer than 4"-6". When I asked what had happened to the reef, one person told me that a few years ago there was a warm current and the ocean got so warm that it killed the reef. Another person told me that the local fishermen had used dynamite for fishing and that killed the reef. Well, the reef didn't look blown apart, but it did look really silted in areas. Who knows, but the reef was in bad shape and I hope in time it will recover. It was good to swim in the ocean though and feel so very small. We enjoyed being on the boat out on the ocean, that really was the best part of the day. They fed us a nice lunch on the boat, most of it was good, we just have a hard time eating things we don't recognize. No one got sea sick except one of the dive masters, he still struggles with it almost every time he goes out, how frustrating for him. The guy driving our boat mostly did it with his feet which was interesting to us. Another thing strange to us was that some of the men had really long fingernails. Sometimes is was only the little fingernail. It seemed a very common thing in Vietnam. The picture of long fingernails below is of the man driving our boat with his feet.
Back at our little beach place we just relaxed, read and rehydrated. I got another $4 massage which just turned me into a noodle. The sky had lots of clouds this evening and we ended our day with a beautiful sunset.

#5- On the boat

#8- Our boat driver, drives with his feet

#7- Check out the fingernails of our boat driver

#19- Sunset

What a beautiful day! The sky is almost clear, the ocean is crystal blue/green. What a wonderful place we found here on the far edge of the world. Pictures can't capture it, I've tried. Today will be another laid back day in this small paradise. We moved to our "new digs", a stand alone cottage today, it's really cute with one more window and more ventilation, more room and all for $5 more for a total of $30. We frequently eat a really good meal here for $2-$4. Everyone is so accommodating and friendly. I rented a bicycle from the hotel next door and rode into town today, (about 3 miles one way) partly for the exercise and partly to buy some things. I bought some post cards and went to the Phu Quoc, Vietnam post office. Amazingly it is very similar to ours at home, don't know why that surprised me. I didn't expect it to be so organized. At one place I tried to buy some post cards and the lady kept trying to show me why I should buy the post cards I had rejected, it didn't matter that I had another stack to buy. Anyway, it was getting frustrating and then she wanted 5 times the normal price for post cards, I was irritated by then so, I just walked out,, I had had enough, tired of dickering. Went to another shop and no problem, correct price, no hassle. I know competition is tough amongst the local people to make a buck, but some of them just never figure it out that we can only take so much bargaining and dickering. They usually always start way beyond the top price, hoping you don't have a clue and will pay 5 times more than something is worth. I get exhausted, but sometimes they get the top price and for them I guess it is worth it. Randy got a sunburn from laying in the shade. I tried to find some aloe vera, but there was none to be found in the town of Duong Dong. I did find some panthenol (Vit. B5) spray that is supposed to be really good for sunburn, so guess we'll try it.
This evening we hiked up the road a piece and went to a fancy place for dinner, just for a change of menu. They have a beautiful infinity pool next to the ocean and told us that if we had lunch at their hotel, we could use the pool the rest of the day. Tomorrow we go on a snorkelling trip, but the next day we may try it out. I ordered a scallop salad, check out the picture below. We saw pictures of really large sea scallops roasting here, but this is what is left. These waters are getting severely fished out. I had no idea.
We're really going to enjoy our new cottage. It usually is comfortable sleeping with two fans on us. We are very happy here.

#1- Nearby beach

#4- New Digs, cottage

#12- Dinner at Eden. I ordered Scallop salad, this is what I got

#11- Dinner at Eden

We have less than a week left to go in our trip. It seems like the time has gone by so fast, but in another way it seems like it has lasted quite awhile. It rained again last night, but sky is much bluer today and the ocean is much clearer and blue/green. We decided to just hang out and not go anywhere today. Everyone else seems to have the same idea. The water looks great today, so think I'll go swimming later. It is hard to just lay around and do nothing. We thought when we planned this trip that we couldn't wait to do nothing, but it is harder than you think when you are used to going and doing at such a fast pace at home, but so far today we have succeded at doing nothing but lying around on the loungers, watching the ocean, drinking when we are thirsty and eating when we are hungry. I was all ready to go jump into the ocean for a swim when some of the local folks stopped me and told me there were jellyfish in the water today. So, since I've been through that before several years ago, I decided not to try it. Maybe it will be better tomorrow. I got another one of those wonderful $4 massages, then I asked her if she ever got massages, and she said no, so I gave her a massage for about 10 min., but I had to pay her for mine, no discounts,,,Ha! We found out from an Australian man today that if you lay directly on the sand there can be these little bugs that will bite you and in Australia they call them "no see um's", "because you can't see them". Amazing,,,,Go configure!
We were going to walk down the beach to another place for dinner, but it looked like it might rain, so we stayed here. They had a BarBQ planned for tonight. Not your normal BarBQ though. They barbqued whole fish and squid and squid legs and shrimp in the shell with heads and marinated chicken and beef kebabs. Randy had the chicken kebab with salad and rice, I had a green papaya very spicy salad and fried squid rings mmmmm. I haven't been taking as many pictures because we aren't going anywhere. Tomorrow we move to a bungalow, we're looking forward to that. We watched a movie and hit the hay around 9pm.

#2- Fruit plate watermelon,pineapple,banana,mango,dragonfruit

#8- offering to Budda

#9- sipping on a coconut

#10- The massage and manicure gals

#11- Sara Kim and her mom

#5- view from Beach club

We started our day looking out over the ocean drinking coffees, and having mango and banana pancakes. What a great way to start a day. The plummer was here and waiting before we were even out of our room. He had the faucet fixed in about 15 min. We rented a motorbike ($7 per day) and headed out to explore the island. The town of Duong Dong is not a very clean place, but some areas were definately set up for tourists, good restaurants and shops. We crossed the bridge to find ourselves right smack dab in the middle of the outdoor market place. A Vietnamese market place is something difficult to explain, once you've experienced one a few times, unless you are there for a specific reason, there are way too many people and smells to stay there. We ended up turning down a side road and were able to bypass the market. We were looking for a pharmacy, because Randy wanted to buy some tums. It was hard to tell which store was a pharmacy since it was all in Vietnamese. We finally found a shop that had lots of little bottles and boxes and sure enough it was a pharmacy. Then we had the job of trying to explain to the lady what we were looking for and we were able to purchase about 24 anti acids for about 40 cents. She let me come around behind the counter and look for whatever I wanted. I don't know how she ever found anything, everything was just piled and crammed, but she seemed to know where to look. I recognized alot of the names of drugs in the boxes, so I made a note of it in case we needed something later on. We headed off down the road saying "hello" to every child we passed. I think it is the main word they learn in school and they all run out of their homes to wave and smile and say "hello" to us, almost every where we go in residential areas especially. It is really sweet. We were headed down the beach, but we didn't get very far before the road became so rocky and potholey and rough that we had to turn around. We met some German guys who had gone farther than us and had to turn around as well. We headed back to town, but missed our turn off and ended up right in the middle of the outdoor market again. This time we continued on and I got some great pictures. We stopped in town at Peppers and had a good lunch, then headed back to our hotel to chill out.
I put on my swimming suit and settled down in a lounger to read when the massage girls showed up. I had read about them and they they walk down the beaches offering massages, manicures, or pedicures to anyone who wants one. So, I got a 40 min. massage and a manicure for $6.50. It was really a good massage and my nails look good. Think I'll get a massage everyday, they are only $4, unbelieveable. This is a lazy afternoon, just napping in the lounger drinking a coconut shake. We had a light dinner and some wine then headed back to our room to watch a movie on the computer before we turned in for the night. Randy didn't sleep very well last night, so we're hoping tonight he will get some good rest.

#1- Cafe Sua Da, mmmmm

#13- Phu Quoc market

#7- Phu Quoc market

#5- Phu Quoc market, fish and shrimp

#18- Typical scene, Phu Quoc

#23- Randy with Army helmet

#40- Museum, inlaid table and chairs

#45- View from our room

Our room at First Hotel included a huge breakfast of things we recognized and things we had no idea what they were. There were some dumpling type things and we didn't know what was inside, but there was the great noodle soup and lots of wonderful fruit and eggs and juice and coffee.. We were really close to the airport,,,, check in was quick, the flight was short and the next thing we knew, we were on Phu Quoc island. The taxi to our beach hotel was about 20 minutes. We weren't sure what to expect, the road in to our hotel was dirt, really bumpy, rocky and winding. The name of our hotel is Beach Club. At first we thought we'll stay here for one night and then maybe find something different. It is way more rustic than anywhere else we've stayed, it was basic, but clean and it grew on us. It is at the far end of the beach so, it is quiet and self contained, not much else to do but relax, and that is why we chose this place and that is why we came here, right? Plus, it continues to get the highest ratings on Trip Advisor. There are about 5 rooms that are connected together and several other separate bungalows. The first three days we get a room and the last three days we get our own bungalow, (they have been booked for months ahead) There is a restaurant that opens at 6am and closes at 10pm, it has good food and they bend over backwards for you. There is also a resident baby (really cute about 1 year old) and two resident dogs, and a handful of staff that take care of everything. There are lots of palapas and loungers. The beach is right in front, although, and I read about this, last year there was a storm and some of the hotels on the beach lost their beaches to the ocean and our hotel was one of them. They had to build a low wall with 30 foot deep pilings to keep the hotel from being lost. At low tide there is a small beach directly in front, but there are nice beaches on each side and folks swim in front all the time. We went for a long walk to explore our surroundings, but it started clouding up so we quickly headed back. We barely got back to our hotel when it puckered up and poured. All the workers sprung into action, carried in the cushions, battened down the hatches, lowered the awnings on the wind side and waited until it passed. It isn't the rainy season, but the locals are saying it has started about one month early this year. To get back to our room the workers gave us cone hats to make the mad dash. It only rained for a short while then everyone came out for dinner. I had grilled eggplant with lemon grass and chili sauce and fried fresh squid rings (no legs).They eat alot of squid here. I have no interest in eating whole squid steamed or stewed, and I haven't eaten squid rings for years, but they were REALLY GOOD! Randy had salad and chicken and rice. We retired to our room, I took a shower and when randy took his shower the water faucet broke off the wall. Randy got the staff to come into check it out, but it was unfixable tonight, the plummer will come tomorrow morning. An interesting day, Our bed has a mosquito net over it, we haven't had a problem with mosquitoes since we've been here, probably only a couple of bites in two weeks, not bad. But, we figured there was a mospuito net for a reason, so we went to sleep with a mosquito net and and fans blowing over us.

#8- Our room at Beach Club

#17- Resident baby

#20- View to the north

#21- Fishing boat

#27- A rain storm, what fun

We started our day with another good breakfast, again included with our room. The day is somewhat overcast again, but warm. We walked around and checked with the desk about ordering a taxi for 1pm to take us to Vung Tau and the hydrofoil station. Our hydrofoil didn't leave Vung Tau until 2:30pm, so we had time to relax and hang out for awhile. There is a lot ot granite and marble in Vietnam, we had no idea,,,,but there seems to be a lot more granite than marble. There are granite tables, granite steps, long granite walkways, granite everything. When I think about how much we pay for granite in the states, it's amazing to think that here it is just "everyday". This is a beautiful place, we hate to leave, but onward and upward. The hotel gave us a glass of juice, a bottle of water and a snack to take on our travels,,,in this country they are always giving you water. Every hotel gives you one bottle per person everyday, the bus gives us each a bottle of water, the plane gives us each a bottle of water, always a abundance of bottled water, we probably haven't bought but one or two bottles of water since we've been here. Anyway, the taxi arrived at 1pm, we loaded our gear and off we went to Vung Tau, about a 45 min drive, $20. Vung Tau was a nice, clean and manicured town, it seemed more upscale and cosmopolitan, maybe that was because of the route the taxi took, we'll never know. We arrived at the hydrofoil station, bought our tickets and still had more than a half hour to wait. It was fun to see the hydrofoils come and go, they move very fast and make it up the Saigon River to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), in about 45 min. It looked just like another river until we got closer to HCMC then we noticed lots of industrial activity. On the hydrofoil I sat next to a young woman (24) who could speak English pretty well. She went to college and had a job with the HCMC "Renaissance Hotel Organization" as manager of the food and beverage department. She had just gotten a new job and promotion with another large hotel organization in Vung Tau as operations manager, that started in one week. She was very excited, but overwhelmed that she had to move from HCMC to Vung Tau in one week as well as work. Her name was Jade and it was very interesting talking with her about her life, an insiders view that we don't ever get.
In HCMC we got a taxi to a different hotel named"First Hotel". Of course, it was clear on the other side of the city and it was rush hour traffic, but we finally made it. The hotel seemed very nice so, we checked in and got ready to get some dinner. The restaurant was Korean style food, we looked at the menu and decided to check out somewhere else. They told us the hotel also had a restaurant across the street with normal food. So, we head across the street looking for some normal food, mainly for Randy, but we laughed when we saw their menu, it was "normal Vietnamese food". So, we headed back across the street to the Korean restaurant and actually found some wonderful things on the menu. I had sauteed scallops with bean sprouts in a sauce and sauteed pumpkin blossoms. Randy had palm heart salad, we eat a lot of palm heart salads in Costa Rica, but this one was the best we have ever eaten, and chicken Cordon Blue, he said it was the best meal he'd had in Vietnam. As we sat at our table we looked out the window across the street, and noticed an archway with a sign that read "Saigon Tourist Hospitality College". We noticed there were several large hotels and restaurants within a one block area that were in process. So we asked the manager about it. He told us that all the people who worked at First Hotel were in that college or had graduated and were honing their skills before they headed out into the hotel/restaurant world. Apparently these other hotels and restaurants sere all involved with the college in some way, it was a very interesting way to train young folks. Everyone couldn't do enough for us. On the way back up to our room there was a shop in a corner of the lobby, so I stopped and checked it out. I really wasn't looking for sandals, but they had some beautiful sandals with inlaid mother of pearl designs, for $6. So, being the softy that I am, I found a really nice pair. I know someone spent a huge amount of time making these sandals. Everytime I wear them I will think of the little, (probably Vietnamese woman), who made them.
We were tired and needed to get an early start tomorrow,,,,,Phu Quoc Island here we come.

#5 Vung Tau- Hydrofoil

#10 Vung Tau- baby on hydrofoil

#11 Vung Tau- hydrofoil, nice young woman named Jade

#16 HCMC- rush hour traffic

#18 HCMC- family

#19 HCMC- First Hotel, what is it

After our normal breakfast I called our local travel agent Tony to see what he had in store for us today. Well, he had his private car and a driver ready to take us for the 6 hour drive to Long Hai for $100. We said, YES. Having a ride the whole way would get us there much quicker avoiding a transfer from bus to find a taxi that would take us to Long Hai from Phan Thiet. We left Phan Rang with Hoa as our driver and off we went down the road at about 8:30am. Tony had Hoa take us to see Mui Ne on the way. It was a beautiful place scenery wise, but there was so much garbage on the beach we were amazed. In fact we have noticed quite a bit of garbage, mainly small plastic bags, on the roadsides and beaches. We saw this in Costa Rica years ago, then they started the eco movement there and now Costa Rica is totally different, mostly cleaned up. We hear the word eco here from time to time too, so we are hoping that it will only be a matter of time before the people of Vietnam get serious about not littering. Some of the hotels keep their own beaches clean, that is nice. We arrived at our hotel "Anoasis" at about 2:30 pm and went straight to our cottage bungalow, it is a really cute place, large with plenty of room to spread out, (see picture below), then we had a much needed lunch. The food was really good! I had a Thai soup, my favorite, Tom Yum Kum, it was excellent, the best I've ever tasted, maybe because we are so close to Thailand. After lunch we went for a nice walk on the beach. It is a really nice beach here, one side has nice sand the other direction eventually turns into rocky tidepools. We went down and watched some of the locals clean their nets, what a daily job!!! When we arrived in Long Hai the weather was a bit overcast, coolish and breezy, but as the day has turned into late afternoon, it is still overcast, but now somewhat muggy. Later on we went down to the restaurant, perched on a rocky ledge overlooking the ocean and had a light dinner. One thing I had was sauteed morning glory with garlic. I had been wanting to order it for several days now, it was really good, like a green. Anoasis is a very nice place but probably not worth the price we paid, it is getting a bit run down and not maintained as well as it could be. We are seeing this everywhere, part of the worldwide economic crunch. All in all it was a good day and a very nice place to be.

#8 Near Mui Ne- Oxen

Long Hai- Anoasis, our cottage #1

Anoasis- our hotel

Long Hai- Anoasis beach

Long Hai beach- Randy #2

Long Hai beach- locals cleaning net #1

We woke up to the sound of waves coming to shore right outside our room. There were some grass palapas on the beach so we went out and sat under one and had some coffee, it was great. The locals are up early going out to check their nets, hauling in their nets and going swimming in the ocean. That water is cold this early in the morning, but they don't seem to mind. Breakfast is included in our room charge and it is the basic fare, eggs or sauteed vegetables, rice or noodle soup, fruit, congee ( a stewed rice dish with assorted things in it), and breads. As always I get the noodle soup, it is wonderful, Randy gets the eggs and fruit. The fruit here is usually pineapple, mango, bananas, and dragon fruit. Dragon fruit was in one of the pictures in the beginning of our trip. The meat looks like it would be sweet, but actually it is just refreshing, not sweet, white with little black seeds. At breakfast I met a couple about our age named Margo and Dick from Wisconsin. They came here for their 40th Anniversary and are stranded until March 10th. It has something to do with Korean Airlines. They are just chilling and enjoying their time., but they were so excited to meet us and speak ENGLISH. They were funny, they hadn't spoken English except to each other for awhile and they don't speak Vietnamese. We spent part of our day together at the wonderful infinity pool here and we had dinner together and shared travel stories and things we'd learned to make our travels here easier. We had a good time with them.
Later this morning I set out in a taxi to find an ATM and a travel agency in Phan Rang. Our next stop off, tomorow is in Long Hai beach (200 miles south) and I discovered this morning that there is no public bus or train that goes there. At the travel agency I found out that they had a private bus that goes to Long Hai every other day and tomorrow is NOT their day. So, it looks like we will have take their bus to Phan Theit (about 100 miles) and then find a taxi to take us the remaining 100 miles. It could be worse. At the travel agency, I think the only one in town, named "Good Morning" is owned by an man named Dang Huy, Tony for short. He has lived in Seattle and Calif. and speaks English fairly well. It seems like he has taken us under his wing because we are from Or./Wa. He will make sure we get to Long Hai tomorrow. I will call him tom. morning at 7 am. Today was a laid back day that we really needed after all our travels. The weather is beautiful, warm and breezy. It is so good to hear the ocean so close to our bed, it puts us to sleep.

Den Gion- dinner with Margo and Dick

Den Gion menu #2

Den Gion weeding #2

Den Gion weeding #5

Ninh Chu Beach #3

Today started out normal enough, but quickly turned into something far away from normal, even for Vietnam standards. We had our breakfast and coffee at the nearby coffee shop, packed up and headed to the train station about 11:30am. Our hotel had arranged for our train tickets yesterday. We arrived at the train station and finally I found a woman at the ticket office who spoke enough English to tell us where to go and wait for our train. Out on the train deck others told us exactly where to stand based on our seat numbers. It wasn't long before the train pulled up and I presented our tickets to the train steward and he said with hand signals that we couldn't board and pointed to the date on the tickets.. Horrified, I realized the tickets were for the next day,,,the hotel or the train office put the wrong dates on our tickets. Randy stayed on the train deck watching the comings and goings of the train we were trying to get on and I ran to the ticket office to have our tickets changed to the correct date, but ticket office lady told me the train was full and there was no train until the next day, but later she came up with another train that wouldn't get us to our next hotel down the road until maybe almost midnight,,,that was not an option for us. There happened to be several young men around bugging us to take a taxi somewhere, so I asked them to take us to Phan Rang,(about 6 hour drive) that set them back a bit,, but they realized I was serious and I offered them a fair price for the trip. As is usual they started to barter starting at a very high [rice, but I stuck to my guns, I had already figured out the distance and a good price last night. They kept saying no, but came down in price increment by increment, but I got tired of the hassle and walked a little way down the street and asked another taxi driver if he would take us to Phan Rang for the same price and he immediately said yes, questioned it, but decided it was a fair price. So, I got a refund for our train tickets, we loaded our luggage into the taxi and off we went. Randy said that from the looks of the train and how filthy, noisy and unsafe it looked that it was a blessing in disguise that our tickets were wrong. The taxi cost us a lot more, but a much nicer, quicker and safer way to get to Ninh Chu. Our taxi driver was a pretty good driver and didn't drive too crazy, but after about an hour he starts to get sleepy and begins to nod off a little. That is just not what you want when you have a semi truck coming at you head on around a curve. I started handing him candy to wake him up. He finally decided he needed a coffee and we were glad for that. He had a coffee and we had some smokey tea they brought to us, then we were off again. Not long after that he stopped at a pharmacy and got some medicine for a sore throat. He was coughing, but we thought it was because he smoked. Great, now we are hoping we don't get what he had. We finally get to Phan Rang at about 6:00pm, it is dark. Our driver pulls over and says "other taxi". So, we flagged down a local taxi, said goodbye to our very nice taxi driver from Quy Nhon. We felt bad because he was sick and had another 6 hour drive before he was back home. But, he made more in 12 hours that he would normally make in one week and we tipped him well. It was a short drive to our new digs. It was dark so we couldn't really see much, but we had a nice room and an interesting dinner. The menu had so many unusual things on it like,, squid, eel, salamander, goat and other things we didn't even know what they were. We had shrimp. Our room is right on the beach and we could hear the waves crashing just outside, it was nice and put us to sleep. Goodnight.......zzzzzzzzzz
( I only took a few pictures today from the taxi, I'll post a couple of them later)
P.S. Randy seems to be feeling pretty good now and is almost back to his normal self. Thank God for Cipro. I am still doing ok).

Communist Ra Ra statue #2

Quy Nhon Bay Nets

Mountain on way to Nihn Chu

We had an incredible night's sleep and woke up very refreshed and ready to go. The (included) breakfast was very unusual and had everything from normal fruit to pieces of meat we had no idea what they were, little packages of gooey stuff that we didn't know what was in the package, boiled eggs that looked like thousand year old eggs, little omelet looking things, (I think Banh Xeo) , that had bean sprouts and little shrimp still in the shell, and other vegetables,,,they were really good, but we had to stop and shell the shrimp. We think the locals eat shell and all. It was very different breakfast food, but fun to try new things. Most of it was good, some of it was awful for our tastebuds.
We were ready to take a trip to the train station to buy tickets to Phan Rang, our next destination, but our hotel took care of it for us. That was a nice perk. Our train leaves tomorrow at 12:30pm, a 4 hour trip. Our tickets cost about $4.5 each.,,,,not too bad and we won't have all the road nightmares and honking.
Today we walked almost all day. Our butts needed a brake from all the biking we've been doing. The bikes didn't really sport the best seats. We left the hotel and walked along the beach for quite a ways, had a good coffee at a crowded local coffee shop, .then headed down into town to go to some pagodas. On the way we looked for a place to buy a new charger for my phone,,,the one I bought the other day for $10 died after a few days, ( I forgot and left my charger at home), and I would like to use my phone for the Vietnamese translator on it, so I needed a new charger. We were walking down a street and ran across and small store that looked like a cell phone graveyard inside. There were cell phone parts strewn everywhere. An older man worked there and the only word we had in common was "Samsung", but he produced an old used Samsung charger that worked perfectly for my phone for $2.50. We were both happy and we moved on to the pagodas. We have never seen a pagoda before so it was very interesting. At the Tam An Pagoda, one of the monks took us for a walk through and we were allowed to take pictures. Some of the pictures are below. There were lotttts of fragrant asiatic lillies placed near the budda and the whole room smelled wonderful. The other nearby Pagoda we went to was Long Khanh Pagoda. There didn't seem to be anyone around here so we just walked around and inspected things for ourselves. They had a huge budda here standing on a lotus flower. The dragon staircase was amazing. Then we walked another few miles to the ancient Thap Doi Cham towers. This walk took us through the very industrial part of town. We saw lots of folks working very hard. It looked like we were on a main street, but there were lots of shops rebuilding engines, motorcycle repair shops, etc. We were the only non Vietnamese people we saw all day in this area and we got the distinct impression that we were the only foreigners they had seen for a long time. It was a very unique experience. Everyone was very friendly and everywhere we went people kept giving us the peace sign, including the children. The Thap Doi Cham towers were still in pretty good condition considering they were about 1000 years old. Inside each of them there was an alter of some kind. It was a beautiful, cool, relaxing, site with gardens. See picture below. We decided we would take a taxi back to our hotel, but as we started walking there wasn't a taxi to be found. It was hot and we walked for most of a mile before a couple of guys on motor scooters came along, "Xe Om" known as motor scooter taxis . They whisked us across town, back to our hotel for a total of $3, a nice relief.
When we started out this morning I was inspired to focus my picture taking on the children today. I got some wonderful pictures of the children of Quy Nhon. We ran across a small zoo and there were quite a few children there. The parents just love it when you want to take a picture of their kids. It is a really sweet thing. These people are so great.
We had a nice time in the afternoon up on the roof looking over the ocean and fishermen and their unique way of catching fish. The local folks especially the young ones , lots of them, come and play volleyball on the beach every evening. Many families spend their evenings together on the beach and in the nearby parks. A home next to our hotel has an American tank still in their courtyard, we can see it from our 6th floor room, amazing, but a reminder of what really went on here some 40 years ago. Quy Nhon isn't a travellers destination, but we found the people here to be hardworking and gracious. We are really glad we stopped here.
We had showers and a nice dinner and called it a day. Randy is feeling better today and we are very thankful for that. We discovered this evening that our hotel offers a jacuzzi, sauna and/or steam spa and massage for $4 per hour. We may do that in the morning before breakfast. We're hoping the train will be a fun trip. Tomorrow will be a new adventure.

Long Khanh Pagoda #1

Long Khanh Pagoda #3

Long Khanh Pagoda #11

Tam An Pagoda #1

Tam An Pagoda #5

DSCN0421

Kids #1

Kids #6

DSCN0439

American tank in courtyard

We had a smooth checkout and said goodbye to Hoi An. It always feels strange to leave an area you have gotten familiar with, knowing you will probably never return. We had a one hour wait at the bus stop just outside of Hoi An before the BIG GREEN bus came to pick us up and take us to Quy Nhon. During that hour I took some pictures of "what went by" (see below), it is always amazing at what goes by in front of you if you just stop and wait.
The 6 hour bus ride was probably the most nerve wracking thing I think I have ever done. One half the trip we were going in the wrong lane straight into head on oncoming traffic, it didn't matter if we were going up and hill, around a curve or what ever. Somehow we didn't wreck, but at times it was only by inches. But, the worst of it was the constant VERY LOUD BLARING BUS HORN that the driver honked about every 15-30 seconds for 6 hours, you couldn't ignore it, you couldn't read, you just had to tolerate it, there was no where else to go. All the other trucks, buses, cars and motorcycles on the road were honking too. Our seats were built for little people and we felt like tunas tortured in a can for 6 hours. I'll tell you, my nerves were fried when we arrived in Quy Nhon. I do have to say that everyone was very friendly and the best part was that the bus had cushioned seats and was air conditioned. We don't mean to complain, it was just part of our experience here and we will value it, but truely we hope our travels won't take us on another bus ride at least for 6 hours.
We arrived in Quy Nhon at about 3 pm and checked into our hotel. I did all the research online before I booked anything, so it has been very interesting to see things in real life. Our hotel room is amazingly beautiful. It has a gorgeous view of the Quy Nhon bay. The hotel is right across the street from the ocean. We were tired and hungry from our all day travels, so we took showers and headed down stairs for dinner. For the most part every where we have gone someone knows enough English to communicate very well with us. But, here in Quy Nhon since it isn't really a travellers destination, folks try hard, but struggle more with English here. We had a difficult time ordering dinner until we discovered with our little waitress that she can communicate easily if it is written, she just has a hard time with the spoken English. We found that to be true even at the front desk and everywhere else. That was a nice discovery, it will make things much easier. I did download pictures of some food before we left the states and printed them out, I hope they will help us when ordering food for the rest of our trip. From now on we won't be in tourist areas, so we suspect that it will become a little more difficult to communicate.
We had a nice dinner and Randy still wasn't feeling very well, so he went back to the room and I went for a walk then went up on the roof (8th floor) of our hotel and enjoyed the beautiful view from there for awhile. The lights around the bay and the boats on the water looked like a floating town. It is really nice to be out of the tourist area.
So far, Vietnam is a fairly safe place to walk alone, at least in the areas we have been. I wouldn't walk around Saigon by myself, but Hoi An and Quy Nhon seem perfectly safe. There are lots of families out and about. It seems they spend alot of time as families and hang out in the parks and on the beaches together. Again, everyone is very friendly.
It was only 8pm, but I was tired and hit the sheets where Randy was already sleeping.

Bus stop #2

Bus stop #15, chicken lady

Lychee fruit #2

Phu Cat- Cham towers #2

Quy Nhon bay late aftenoon

After an early breakfast we were off on our bikes by 7:30am before it got too hot. We headed north west into the countryside, going through several villages near Hoi An. While we were going down the road a young Vietnamese girl, Dong, pulled up next to us and started talking in English (they love to practice the English they learn in school) Dong took us to her home town she called the pottery village , other wise known as Thanh Ha. This village used to make high end pots for the royalty of Vietnam during Imperial times, but now they only make items(very nice items) for the tourist trade. Dong took us directly to the home of a family that made all kinds of pottery, from small vases to nice eating wear. As soon as we showed up everyone even grandma jumped into action. Grandma 88 years old now had been making pottery since she was 13 years old, that's 75 years! I'm sure she has made some of the Imperial vases. The potters wheel was turned by the foot of the grand daughter. Grandma quickly churned out some small pots. It was great and they were desperate to sell us something, but all we could think of was carrying it all for the next two weeks and we ended up leaving with out buying anything. We continued on down the road to the "ceramic roof shingle village". We don;t know the name of the town, but that was about all everyone did was make shingles and paint them by hand, either red, rust, brown or green color. On down the road we came to a pretty remote village, we stopped to have something cold to drink at a cafe. They had empty bottles of pepsi so we ordered one thinking they had pepsi and the guy said "ok, one moment" and he promptly went next door to the market and bought one for us. It was not cold, but it was wet and cost 30 cents. We were really and finally in Vietnam and no where near a tourist anything. The people here were genuine and had no agenda. They were so very friendly. We decided to turn back toward home and a strange thing happened as we went back through the town,,,the school had just let out and there were probably about 100-150 grade school type children walking towards us from the school,,,all the kids started to wave at us, smiling and saying hello all the way out of town. It was like they had just learned how to say hello in class and now immediately had the opportunity to practice their English. It was so great, we felt like king and queen in a parade waving and saying hello back to them as we rode through the village. It was precious that these kids were so happy and friendly to us. We had a good ride and a wonderful experience with the people of Vietnam today.
Today I figured out the rules of the road. Literally, today if there was only 5 feet between Randy and I someone would pull out in front of me, not even looking, just pull out, and I would have to slam on my brakes or whip around them. And that is the way it goes,, everyone does exactly what they want to do and everyone else has to pay attention and go around them or stop. No one waits until there is a break in the traffic and then pulls out onto the road,,oh no,,,they just pull out. The only ones who have the right of way here are the ones who are doing something crazy and they are all doing something crazy, everyone else just has to acommodate them and go around them or stop and let them do it. It is normal, no one gets upset, they just constantly toot their horns so that sometimes you will have a clue that someone is coming to an intersection or getting ready to go around you or turn in front of you. You need to watch in front of you, behind you, and to each side alllll the time when you are on the road. It is nerve wracking. Needless to say, we took the back roads and stayed out in the country as much as possible. Amazingly, we haven't seen even one accident.
I got some good news today...my credit card was reactivated so we are good to go. I tested it out and it worked just fine so we are back in business and so very thankful.
I walked around town most of the afternoon doing this and that. When I got back to the hotel room, Randy was coughing so I asked him if he was ok and he informed me that he has had a sore throat for three days. I could have crowned him for not telling me earlier. I thought he was acting a little less enthusiastic than normal, but chalked it up to him just getting used to a new environment. He was hoping it would get better on it's own, but it is getting worse. So, I put him on antibiotics and hope we caught it in time to nip it in the bud. The only thing he ever gets is sinus infections that usually start with a sore throat and last forever. I hope I don't get whatever it is he has,,,,I'll be watching carefully.
Tomorrow morning early we take off for Quy Nhon about 200 miles to the south on the coast, we should be there by 2:30pm. Almost 7 hours to go 200 miles, should be interesting.
This area has been interesting, but we are for sure ready to move on to less touristy areas and get out to meet the people. Below are some pictures of our day.

Pottery village Thanh Ha #2

Pottery village Thanh Ha #3

Roof shingle village-painting shingles #1

Hoi An Market