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Cau Lai and Wontons |
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Dan and Georgie and couple from England, Helen, also from England, Fiona and I loaded up onto an 8am bus this morning and headed for Hoi Ann. It's a really fantastic little place. There are nearly no cars and all the streets are narrow and quiet, except for the |
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Cua Dai - The First Vietnamese Beach |
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Hoi Ann is only 5km from the coast of the South China Sea, so today we rented bicycles and headed down that way with a full load of beach gear, drinks, fresh bread, fruit and pleny of snacks. After riding 4km, we could see the palm tree lined Cau Dai |
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Journal... What Journal? |
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Today we’re heading down to the beach again, so I’m just going to relax and take a break from the journal, but I promise that tomorrow will be really interesting, especially for the ladies!
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A Custom Wardrobe in 24 Hours |
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As I mentioned a few days ago, Hoi An is a clothing mecca, with something like 200 custom tailors and a local population of only about 4,000. The shops line almost every street, manequins displaying everything from suits and dresses to jeans, each tailor eagerly trying to fit you for |
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Alleys and Visiting Neighbors |
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I went to the tailor this morning for the final fittings of my jacket and pant, which both fit great, with only the pants needing a little more room in the crotch (well, you know how it is).
I went to the post office to mail them out in a package with |
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Bus Floors and Sand in the Pants |
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Benjamin and Eva, Per and Nina, Fiona and I boarded a bus at 7pm last night for the 12 hour overnight trip down to the beach town of Nha Trang, catching up with Dan and Georgie who left yesterday. The ride was very hard, the road full of giant potholes |
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The Cheap Date and Cat Weasel |
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We all headed right to the beach this morning for some more relaxation and battering body surfing fun. Some of the waves seemed a little larger today and it was probably a little crazy to even be in the water ? not many people were. If you got your |
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Goodbyes to Some Great Friends |
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Today I wanted to do some sight seeing in Nha Trang, so I got up early and started walking the beach front, eventually getting to the outskirts of town where the clean, sandy, beach gave way to mounds of garbage surrounding half demolished buildings and shacks that still seemed to be |
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Dalat Brings Bun Thit Nuong - The Reason I Came to Vietnam! |
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I caught the bus to Dalat this morning, scheduled for 7am, but and hour and a half late. Dalat is an inland town up in the mountains of the Central Highlands, often called the city of the Eternal Spring with the days being pleasant, but the cooler evenings requiring a |
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Motorbiking With the Best and More Tin Bras |
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Even though Dalat streets can still be a little busy with traffic, I decided to take a deep breath and rent a motorbike for the day. It was absolutely awesome! After only a few minutes, all of the things I?d learned from watching traffic while walking the streets, the |
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The Note and Van Windows |
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My two goals for today were to find someone that would teach me how to make Bun Thit Nuong and to figure out where my next destination would be after Dalat.
The challenge of finding someone to help me with the Bun Thit Nuong was that no one could speak much |
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Hom, Dien, and One Dinner Per Person |
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Caught the 8am bus to Mui Ne this morning. The road out of Dalat is so narrow and curved that they have mirrors all over the side of the road so drivers can see around corners for oncoming traffic. It really is a great ride though – in the |
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Ling and the Sand Dunes |
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Today I rented a bicycle and headed for an early 10km ride to the Mui Ne fishing villiage and nearby sand dunes. The dunes were enormous, and the tons of sand was being lifted by the warm blowing winds, sand blasting my body with grit leaving my face and arms |
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To Dien - A Surprisingly Difficult Goodbye |
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My plan today was to catch the 2pm bus to Saigon. I went to tell Dein that I would be checking out, and her face dropped right away - it was obvious that she wasn’t happy that I was leaving. It kind of took me by surprise.
I had |
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A Blind Masseur: $2.50 per hour |
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This morning I headed over to a cheap little restaurant that I found last night, and had a fantastic bowl of Pho, a traditional Vietnamese breakfast of vermicelli noodle soup with beef or chicken, fried, crumbled rice wraps and if you’re lucky, a zillion vegetables… this was the best bowl I’ve |
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Cu Chi Tunnels and Firing an M-16! |
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Today I went on a tour of the legendary Cu Chi Tunnels, used by the communist Viet Cong in the 1960’s during the Vietnam War. At the height, the tunnels stretched over an incredible 250km and were several storeys deep, with levels at 3, 6 and 10 meters below the |
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Good Morning Vietnam - The Last Time |
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My last day in Vietnam. The past 28 days have brought experiences and emotions far different, and beyond, what I’d expected. I came here with nothing more than a child like excitement to taste authentic Vietnamese cuisine, like Pho and Bun Thit Nuong, but will leave with a |
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