When we arrived in China and had a relatively easy time getting through customs we began to think maybe this whole "communist" thing was overrated. Sure there were a few more guard-types around than other places, but it didn't seem out of the ordinary in any way. Until we tried to get onto our website to post a journal entry.

China has what is known as "The Great Firewall" - it blocks access to millions of websites, anything that can possibly say something bad about the government. Apparently they decided ours was one of these. Yet it is a very random selection - while BBC, Wikipedia, and Reuters are all blocked, YouTube, CNN and USA Today are not. In reality, it is not our website specifically that they have an issue with, it is most likely our hosting company, which probably has some users with questionable content.

So that means for you, our unlucky reader, that we will not be able to create our normal easy-on-the eyes content. While there are ways around the firewall that at least allow us to view websites, because of the complexity of how the blog functions we'll be limited to posting by email and hopefully at least putting some links to our pictures and videos to outside sources. When we get to Vietnam in a few weeks we'll go back and update our posts with pictures and videos, do the galleries and maps, etc.

UPDATE: I have since found a way through using anonymizing proxy servers to do just about everything. While it runs considerably slower (and thus makes doing all the little things to make this website work an extra big pain), we can now pretty much do everything except insert pictures into posts.

Like many of you who will be reading this post, both Jason and I had always heard how amazing the Great Wall of China was, yet we could never fully comprehend the sheer magnitude of it all. It's of course one thing to read about it, see pictures or movies, or listen to stories about it - and another thing to have experienced the glory of the Great Wall. Hiking the Great Wall of China was a sublime moment for us in our lives, physically being on this piece of history, in the middle of nowhere, in utter serenity.

The first thing we did right was NOT travel to the wall with a tour group to one of the more popular, aka "touristy" locations. Rather, we hired a private driver to take us to Jinshanling, a much less traveled part of the wall, where we would be able to hike to Simatai and get picked up from there.

It was certainly no easy feat hiking the 7 miles from Jinshanling to Simatai, as many parts of the wall are completely deteriorated, making it difficult to get a solid step. By far the most intense parts were the practically vertical climbs up stairs that felt like they went on for hours. The easiest way to sum up many of the parts of the trek was like being on a stair master on steroids for hours. Considering both of us have knee issues, we were amazed we were able to actually complete it without too many aches and pains (thanks to lots of ibuprofen!!)

It took us a total of 4 hours to complete the hike at a very leisurely pace so we could take in every moment of the scenery. The rolling hills and blooming cherry blossoms were spectacular, and there was something so magical about the whole area. The lack of people around was also quite surreal, considering how overcrowded China is. Of course, we couldn't avoid the hawkers trying to sell their goods on the wall, but they were pretty easy to shake if you firmly told them NO!.

We did however meet up with a couple of great people to stroll along the wall with (and who happened to be staying at our hotel). Kath and Jake were wonderful company to share the amazing experience and tranquility of the Great Wall of China with. We even all indulged in the flying fox zip line at the end of our journey (as well as drinks at the hotel after), which was an adventure in itself (and it also saved us a mile in walking from the end of the wall to where our car was waiting).

By far trekking on The Great Wall of China will be one of those awe-inspiring experiences in our lives, which we know we will always look back on with moving memories. Since we can't insert pictures into posts while in China, click here to see them!

That is the ultimate question we keep asking ourselves being here in China – who can we trust. The simple answer is …absolutely nobody. It seems like so many people are out to scam us in some way. We’ve narrowly avoided the “tea” and “art exhibition” scams, where college kids come up to you being all friendly and interested since you’re from America, and ask if you want to join them for tea. Next thing you know you’ve just purchased a $100 cup of tea from their friends shop. Or take you to see their art school and, once there, by some of their art. The only problem is, it’s the same art knock offs sold on the street just for ten times as much. We of course had our friend Jennathan to thank for warning us against this one (after she fell victim to both). Jason’s method of pretending to be Swedish seems to keep the street hustlers at bay.

It doesn’t end there though. Even the concierges at the hotels want to sell you on certain tours, or restaurants b/c everyone gets a piece of the profit. The Sofitel Xi’an recommended a tour to the Terracotta Warriors that was one big tourist trap, stopping at various “craft sites” so that we could sample some of the local wares, aka buy some junky stuff. We were even led to believe at one point that we were at a special factory that was restoring the original Terracotta Warriors, since most of them were in ruins when discovered – however, we came to realize 20 minutes into the tour they were just trying to sell replicas of the figures (check out the video to see our moment of this realization!) and had absolutely nothing to do with the warriors.

By the time we actually got to the Terracotta Warriors, along with thousands of other people, it was hard to really enjoy them (not to mention I think that China has built them up into an over rated tourist phenomenon to make $$$$!) They’re interesting and it’s quite amazing how recently they were discovered, but there’s way too much hutz and futz to make the whole experience happen.

Some of the cheating and scamming we’ve experienced is actually more blatant and in our faces, since we have no recourse in many situations since very few people speak any English (Jason has mentioned several times not wanting to end up in a Chinese prison like Jack Bauer from his favorite show 24).

For example, people have skimmed out amounts of change that we were supposed to receive once we’ve paid for items or admissions into parks. The second night we were at the street market in Beijing the piece of pineapple I bought seemed strangely to be double the amount the local person before me paid, and was clearly a rip off – the smirky girl chuckling with her friend also gave evidenced to that! And if you do happen to find a restaurant with a menu in “English”, you can be sure that the “English” prices are about 10 times what the locals pay.

A major slap in the face was when we had paid a lot of money to get a private car to travel to the Great Wall (of course arranged by our hotel), only to come and realize when we arrived that another couple from our hotel had paid the same amount to also hire a private car – nice of the hotel to let us know we were both going to the same place, on the same day, and doing the exact same trek and maybe recommend we take a car together (considering we were both down at the concierge desk together unbeknownst to each other arranging this). On top of that, once we returned from our all day excursion our driver tried to get an extra 100 yuan from us (and we also heard that the other driver tried to get an extra 40 yuan from the other couple, Jake and Kath) by saying it was for “bridge tolls”.

The most frustrating situation was today at the local pharmacy while buying some necessities, the store literally doubled the price of an item by claiming the price was the one on the top shelf verses the logical one on the bottom shelf (we thought $10 for a TINY bottle of sunscreen was steep).

 

We’ve just felt much more on alert being here in China and it certainly has colored our experience of this country. I guess I have a sense of what being a full fledged paranoia is about, since this is how we approach our days – who’s going to try and get us next!?!?

 

That aside, there are some positive aspects of the country. The food is cheap and good most of the time. The taxi’s are really inexpensive, however it’s literally a gamble whether you’ll make it to your destination alive b/c the insanity of the driving here. The Great Wall is truly remarkable. At this point in our travels, I’m sad to say that’s all I have positive to say. Hopefully we get a different feeling by the end of our time here when we get to a more “western” city like Shanghai!

The experience of riding down the Li River almost completely made some of our negative thoughts of China disappear. We could never have come close to imagining how breathtaking the views and scenery would be during this journey down the river.

Taking a boat down the Li River is quite a popular way for people to get from Guilin to Yangshuo. We had a sense that the “boat ride” would most likely be a giant vessel packed with tons of Chinese tourists, and that it might not be the most enjoyable and peaceful way to take the sites in (cigarette smoking, squatting, and spitting isn’t our idea of relaxing yet all too common to Chinese culture). Thus, we did a little investigation and discovered we could take a private speed boat down the river for just $12 more – also, we could bring our luggage with us and spend a couple nights in Yangshuo! We were in.

WOW, Jason and I were in total awe of the beauty of our surroundings as we flew down the river in our private boat manned by our very gracious captain. The large limestone karsts surrounded us almost the whole stretch of the river – for an entire 3 hours we got to view the splendor of the mountains. The day happened to be quite foggy, which created quite a magical feel in the landscape around us. Not even New Zealand could rival this beauty

Not only were the views of the mountains and river stunning, but passing by all of the fisherman on their tiny little bamboo rafts was quite a site to take in. It truly felt like we were in some sort of mystical story, since the images felt so surreal. Even our “bathroom break” was an awesome experience. Our eager to please captain pulled onto the embankment of the river, where we jumped off the front of the boat into yet some more amazing countryside. The backdrop of our pit stop was an open plain where a herd of cows were grazing. We also met a local farmer who wanted to share his birds with us (in other words charge us to take a picture with them), which was actually quite cool as you can see in the video.

We certainly have a new appreciation of China and some of the beauty it has to offer after getting out of the big cities and spending some time in the rural areas. Click here to see all of the amazing pictures!

Are two things that Jason and I love! Well, for Jason, more eating and not so much art... Who would have thought that the remote region of Yangshuo, China would be the place we’d be able to explore these passions! We heard from several people that taking a cooking class in Yangshuo was a must, so we signed up for the Cloud 9 cooking school, located right around the corner from our Paradise Hotel.

This was the full fledged cultural experience of Chinese cooking, beginning with our somewhat traumatic trip to the local farmer’s market to buy the fresh ingredients for our dishes. Let’s just say this farmer’s market wasn’t exactly what we were used to at the trendy and shi-shi farmer’s market at the ferry plaza in SF Embarcadero.

The experience started off just fine, typical fruits and vegetables lined up everywhere (not the cleanest of environments, but okay). Then we got to the live animal section – chickens, rabbits and pigeons – this I could handle. Slowly things were getting a little stranger – frogs, snakes, snails, turtles, all alive of course. It was weird, but manageable.

Okay, next thing I know our cooking teacher is asking us if we want to continue to the next section of the market, since things were about to get a little more gruesome. Sure, why not – when in China, do as the Chinese do, right?! I’d heard about dogs being eaten in several Asian countries, but to actually walk into the section and see dogs strung up was a little hard. Worst part is, there were caged live dogs awaiting their fate of being someone’s dinner that night – it was a disturbing picture. The pig bladder, heart, brains, lamb penis, and rats were also a lot to handle. Let’s just say we’ve been eating vegetarian in this country since that experience (minus the very clean chicken we prepared ourselves in the class)!!

All these gruesome images aside, the cooking class was fabulous. Our open air kitchen looking out onto the Yangshuo mountains was breathtaking. We chose three dishes to cook – braised eggplant, meat dumplings (chicken and beef!!) and Gung Bao (Kung Pao as we call it) chicken. Of all things, I never thought I’d be grateful to China for getting Jason in the kitchen and cooking for the first time EVER. I think we may have the up and coming JaSAN Can Cook!!! Check out his moves on the video clip.

So, from cooking in the morning to arriving at the Hotel of Modern Art (HOMA) in the afternoon, we felt like things were shaping up in our China experience. This remote hotel located between Guilin and Yangshuo that just opened in 2006 was certainly a unique place to spend some time. The ultra sheik and contemporary retreat is located on 1300 acres of land. In their words this place is “an open air art museum intercommunicating with natural environment".

There are around 200 very interesting art installations and sculptures scattered throughout the landscape designed by over 140 artists from around the world – they all interact with the environment in quite a special way. The only way to describe the surreal experience of being there is like imagining being Alice in Wonderland. Jason and I had so much fun frolicking around this compound on our “hogs”, as Jason referred to our dinky little bikes. From playing in the park, to pondering the meaning of the pieces and installations (more Joy than Jason, who was more interested in the slide and playground), we certainly enjoyed our time at HOMA. We even got upgraded to this really cool room (b/c there was absolutely no one staying at the hotel), which was fun. I guess all it took for China to grow on us is a little bit of cooking and a cool, contemporary art hotel!!

Thank goodness for this wonderful town of Hangzhou to lift our spirits and moods about China – this has been a definite positive note to end on. After battling some sort of stomach ailment for the second time while being in China, I was ready for something/anything to be nice and easy here. Heavenly Hangzhou located just a 2 hour train ride from Shanghai fit just the bill.

This lakeside town, surrounded by sprawling mountains is gorgeous, and actually considered by many to be the ultimate paradise of China. I can certainly see why people flock to this area to find respite in the beauty and serenity of the lake and mountains. We too discovered this area to be a lovely get away from the chaotic hustle and bustle of most everywhere else we had experienced in the country.

Our first day here we rented bikes and rode around the entire perimeter of the lake, taking time to absorb all the sites. Even the drivers in this area seem to be a little more laid back, making the maneuvering of a bike along the like-side somewhat manageable, yet definitely scary at times.

We climbed, actually took an escalator and elevator to the top of Leifeng Pagoda, which looks out onto the entire West Lake of Hangzhou. What an amazing view! Our next stop were these little motor boats we noticed along the water, which we rented for a short bit and motored around the lake on. A stop at the local market led to Jason buying a leather belt, and our discovery of Dairy Queen in China – the green tea, chocolate chunk blizzard was delicious.

It’s sad to admit, but after my last really difficult episode of stomach “issues”, we’ve been sticking to as much “familiar” food as possible (aka – staying away from Chinese). I must say you never know what you’re going to get in the local dishes here – even if they specify one thing, there usually seems to be some sort of weird, unrecognizable something in the dish that is just too weird to eat. I never thought I’d be so grateful to Pizza Hut for some good meals lately!

Beyond the scenery here, and the easy access to Pizza Hut, the town is filled with “cute” boutique-like shops that seem to carry stuff other then junk. I think this is the only time I’ve used the word cute to describe anything in China, so that says a lot about how we’re feeling about this place.

We are off to Hong Kong tomorrow, which although technically part of China, we hear is worlds apart. For us, that is very good news!!!

Most Westerners seem to think that Chinese and Japanese are basically the same thing. While there are some similarities between cultures, for the most part they couldn’t be more opposite. Here’s a few of the similarities and differences I’ve noticed:

Difference:

Japanese drive on the right side of the road.

Chinese drive on the left side of the road.

Difference:

Japanese love to eat things raw. You name it, they’ll eat it just as mother nature prepared it.

Chinese eat nothing raw. Since everything is covered in filth and disease it must first somehow be boiled or fried. Even vegetables.

Similarity:

Most Japanese people tend to look alike.

Most Chinese people tend to look alike.

(It’s ok – I can say this because I’m Jewish and most Jewish people tend to look alike).

Difference:

Japanese love top quality, brand name merchandise. They can be seen inspecting most purchases for fine workmanship and materials, otherwise they’ll think they’ve paid too much.

Chinese love cheap crap. They can be seen inspecting most purchases for shoddy workmanship and materials, otherwise they’ll think they’ve paid too much.

Difference:

Japanese people do not eat dogs.

Chinese people do eat dogs.

Similarity:

Japan"ese"

Chin"ese"

Difference:

Japanese people live for order and politeness. Everything can be solved by forming a line or apologizing for no reason.

Chinese people live for complete and utter chaos. The concept of a “line” is completely foreign, and all problems can be solved by just pushing the person in front of you harder. To my knowledge there is no word for “I’m Sorry” in Mandarin.

Difference:

Crossing the street in Japan is pretty easy.

You take your life in your hands any time you set foot in a street in China. Or on a sidewalk for that matter. Really, you’re only safe from being hit by a car or a bike or another person when you are in your hotel room. And even then only if you’ve remembered to hang the “Do Not Disturb” sign on your door.

Similarity:

There is very little English spoken in Japan. Unfortunately that made communicating with the locals difficult.

There is very little English spoken in China. Fortunately, that made communicating with the locals difficult.

 

We have a new favorite city . . .that is of course still after our first love San Francisco.  That being said, one of the major things we loved so much about Hong Kong was how much it reminded us of SF.  So many cute pockets of restaurants and bars, a beautiful bay, very friendly people (that was of course magnified after how cold people were to us in Mainland China), great shopping and not an overwhelmingly huge city. 

Even the sporadic down pours didn't get us down about Hong Kong, like it did in other places (Shanghai for example).  We just mounted up in our parkas, and hit the streets rain or shine.  The public transporation in this city is incrediblly efficient, easy and cheap.  Between taking the trams, subways, ferries and taxis, we got everywhere in ease.  This is actually the one thing that by far exceeds SF, since we all know that muni and BART aren't the most efficient and fast ways to get to all parts of the city.  Our favorite mode of transport in the city by far were our own two feet, where we got some pretty cool urban hiking in.

It was espeically nice how international this city was, with people speaking all different languages around us.  English seems to be the primary language people communicate in (of course Cantonese as well, however everyone speaks English).  So, we had no problem intermingling with the locals for the first time in months, which was really nice!

We even managed to muster up a couple fun nights out on the town - the bars and restaurants in this city are incredible, especially the ones we discovered in an area called SOHO (very Marina-like as one friend described it).  AND, one of our favorite things we did was to meet up with Kath and Jake, who we had met on the Great Wall of China earlier in our travels.  Hong Kong is their home now, and we had great fun throwing back some drinks and talking to the wee hours of the night!

Now, we must say good bye to Hong Kong, but will certainly be back.  We're about to have a real change in scenery, culture and climate, as we depart for Vietnam in about 2 hours.  The current temperature is 93 degrees!  Jason's trying to prepare for the intensity of the heat and humidity,

There are two great things about traveling in Vietnam:

1) I can now begin stories with “Back in ‘Nam”

2) The local currency is the Dong. And it’s 16,000 Dong to the dollar. So it’s not unreasonable to be walking around with a few million Dongs in your pocket.

I suppose there’s some other cool stuff too. Like the absolutely amazing, fresh, delicious food. The fact that people take such pride in everything they do. Locals smiling at you and actually being friendly. A culture with a sense of humor. Granted, not always with any sense of real urgency, like waiting half an hour for our luggage that was sitting just on the other “restricted” side of the baggage carousel.

Another bonus – things are incredibly cheap here. Like, really cheap. The 20 minute cab ride from the airport was $2 and our lunch came to $3. Granted, we got taken for a ride (pun intended) by our cyclo driver today. We’re pretty sure we paid about 5 times what we were supposed to – $30 to have two people pedal us around the city and take us anywhere we wanted to go for an entire day. It certainly seemed reasonable…

Let’s talk about “the cyclo” for a sec. A dying breed of public transportation (and for rather obvious reasons) it consists of a driver, three wheels, and a seat on the front. Very similar to a wheelbarrow. This may seem like a good idea except that they share the same congested, motorcycle filled "roads" that everyone else uses - and go at about 1/10th the speed, making them deadly icebergs in a chaotically flowing river of traffic.  I'll let the video speak for itself.

Speaking of cheap, we also had an amazing day of beauty on our first day here. I’ve never been a guy who needs to be talked into a day of back rubs and foot massages, and why not throw in a facial for good measure. L'apothequaire, recommended by the esteemed Jenathan, gave us a 4 hour day of spa goodness, including lunch, for $75 a person. And this would be considered really overpaying, since we went to a very high end place.

If you’re thinking about coming to Vietnam, come now. While you can already see signs of how the indigenous local culture is changing by the influx of tourist dollars and rapidly growing economy, it’s still quite wonderful. But in a few very short years this will clearly be wiped away and turned into another generic cultural Disneyland.

There's nothing like a night out drinking in Saigon.  Except for a night out drinking in Saigon that ends on the back of a stranger's motorcycle zipping around the city.

It all started innocently enough with an amazing dinner at Opera in the Park Hyatt.  Who whould have thought we'd have some of the best italain food of our lives while in Vietnam?  We wrapped things up and headed over to Q, a very cool bar/club just across the square.  Here we were entertained by what was, without a doubt, the drunkest girl we've ever seen in a public place.  She fell down at least ten times throughout the night.  The only reason she wasn't kicked out is because she knew the owner, which we found odd since she's from England.  Apparently she has been living here for 8 years.  Anyways, she was so over the top we added her to our There's Always One in the Group section.  Check her out.

Around 1am we decided to call it a night when I was struck with the drunken craving to actually get on one of these motorcycles we'd seen cheating death all day.  You can pay people to take you around similar to how you would take a taxi, so we found a couple of guys and sped off to the hotel.  But the hotel was pretty close, so we had them drive around randomly through the city for about half an hour.  Turns out it is every bit as fun as it looked, and was a definite highlight of the evening.

The area of the Mekong Delta is a hub of activity centered around river-life. Located 3 hours from Saigon, it’s a popular stop on the “tourist” trail, so thought we’d check it out and see what it was all about.

We opted for the Saigon Tourist day tour for this one, which ended up being quite an endeavor. You just never know what you’re going to get with these day trips, namely the people you’ll be spending in this case upwards of 12 hours with.

Our initial impression when the bus arrived to pick us up from our hotel was that we made a bad decision when Jason noted a half dozen children running up and down the aisles of the bus. Strike one! Strike two was the fact that the only two seats left (mine on top of the wheel well with no leg room) weren’t next to each other, so we’d be spending the next 3 hour drive without each other’s company (you’d think after almost 4 months of traveling together we’d be okay apart for a bus ride, but sadly we’re just not sick of each other yet.) Within 15 minutes of our drive, the beautiful sunny skies clouded over and rain began pouring from the sky – strike three! Hopefully things would get better from here.

I specifically chose this day tour because they advertised taking us to experience the floating market, which is supposed to be quite a site to see. Unfortunately, our tour got a bit of a late start so by the time we got to the delta, loaded our long boat and arrived to the market, there was almost no activity left on the river. That was a bummer to miss!

BUT, once informed our next stop along the river would be a candy factory, we all perked up, especially Jason. We got to watch them make lots of different treaty-cakes including popped rice bars, ginger and coconut candy, and sweetened rice paper. The smells in the air at this place were divine, and luckily they fed us samples of all the candy, with some nice tea to wash it all down. This was especially a score since usually on these things they try and give you the hard sell to buy all the goods, but this was more about sharing it with us freely.

Back on the boat after waiting out a down pour, our next jaunt was an hour and a half boat cruise through the waterways of the delta that eventually led us to a local music show. I’ll let you be the judge of the “performance”—not exactly like seeing Zero 7 at the Fillmore!!!

One thing that I forgot to mention, which was giving Jason a coronary throughout the whole boat trip, was “Marlborough man” sitting directly in front of us chain smoking cigarettes the entire trip. I have never seen Jason almost blow a gasket like this – he was so annoyed and frustrated at how inconsiderate this guy was. I think we know who “the one in the group” was this day.

The one thing that really didn’t disappoint, though much later then we had anticipated it would be served, was lunch. Although it most certainly wasn’t at a “local’s house” as advertised in the brochure, it was in a beautiful, lush, tropical setting behind a restaurant. We indulged in a 5 course Vietnamese meal, beginning with the Mekong specialty of elephant ear fish wrapped in rice paper – it was delicious!

By the time we got through with lunch and back to the bus it was already 4:30pm, and we had a 3 hour ride to look forward to. Although the day had shaped up into a pretty decent tour, ending on the note of a bus full of completely wired children going nuts on the 3 hour ride home soured things a bit. Thank god we have so much video though to remind us of the more enjoyable aspects of the day!

Although trying to find just the right place to stay in each destination we visit can be a bit of a struggle, this time it was easy; on the recommendation of our friends Margot and Charlie who were in Vietnam last year, they told us we MUST stay at Victoria Resort and Spa.  Okay, they are permanently on our AWESOME list.

This resort was beautiful - located on 14 hectares of lush, tropical land, pressed up against the ocean and beach, we were in heaven.  Our beach front bungalow was just perfect, with a direct view of the ocean, an outdoor rain-shower, and a lovely froncolny (how Jason refers to front balconies).  The landscape of the entire property were wonderfully manicured with lots of pretty flowers growing everywhere, as well the pools were expansive and refreshing.

Our 48 hours here was all about pools, beach, food, and naps.  The internet connection was terrible and only available in the poolside bar, so we were forced to put our computers aside and just completely relax (a well needed break from these machines that seem to control us at times!)

From the stellar seafood beach bar-b-q, to the incredibly friendly and personable staff, and the amazing pools, we did not want to leave this place.  The only reason we didn't extend our time here was the lack of reliable communication (internet access), which puts a damper in Jason trying to run his company.

Sad to say, we never even left the property of Victoria Resort to explore the surrounding area.  We feel okay about that, considering we've seen lots and lots of places over the past 4 months.  If you ever just happen to be in Vietnam (I mean who isn't), and are looking for a perfect, romantic getaway you have got to check out this place. 

You know how they say that women who give birth experience “labor amnesia” (blocking out just how painful the process was), well I think we experienced the same but opposite affect with “scuba divers amnesia”, forgetting just how AMAZING it was to be in the depths of the ocean. We were on such a high after our two dives in Nha Trang, we can’t believe we hadn’t been doing more diving all along.

The only other time we had ever been scuba diving was when we went through our certification course in Maui this past December. Now, when you get certified the process leading up to a dive is actually really long and a lot of hard work, having to set up your own gear, schlep it from the beach to the ocean, wash down everything at the end, plus study all the information so you can pass the test at the end. I think all that kind of turned us off to the whole diving process.

BUT, once your certified and especially if you do a boat dive with a reputable company, there’s very little work in the whole build up process to getting out in the water – they do it all for you. Basically, all you have to do is put on your gear with their assistance, waddles over to the ledge of the boat, jump off the plank, and the rest is pure enjoyment. We’re so down with the boat diving!

Rainbow Divers were a great choice to go out on the water with, and our particular dive master, Viet had eyes like a Hawk, pointing out things we would have never seen on our own (everyone told us to request the Vietnamese guys, b/c they have super vision for pinpointing stuff).

The definite viewing highlights were first and foremost Jason in a wetsuit – I mean come on, how much cuter is that. Then of course the amazingly colorful and vibrant coral reefs, the two enormous jelly fish we saw hovering around us, the moray eel bearing it’s open mouth at us, and a couple lion fish. Of course there were lots of tropical fish and a couple large schools of fish, which are always neat to see.

We’re definitely looking forward to doing some diving once we get to the Maldives, as we hear that there is some of the best dive sites in the world.  Thanks to Nha Trang for reviving our interest in exploring the world under water.

Doc Let wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. It was kind of like a jigsaw puzzle that you get all the way done with only to find out a couple pieces are missing. At first it seemed like all of the pieces were there, but then as you got farther into it you realized something wasn’t quite right.

A beach town about an hour’s drive from Nha Trang, Doc Let is supposed to be one of the most amazing beaches in Vietnam. While it certainly was spectacular to look at from afar, once walking on it you are able to see all of the trash that is everywhere. Particularly hundreds of blue plastic bags. There’s nothing worse than a romantic barefoot stroll down the beach that is interrupted by constantly bending down to peel gum wrappers off of your toes.

The second missing piece was the people. There weren't any.  There are two large resorts on this beach, and neither one of them had a single person in them. Not one. We would have thought they were closed except for the fact that they were completely staffed with open restaurants and bars. I think this is how it would feel to be a survivor after a nuclear holocaust. Minus the horrible radiation burns.

The day was salvaged by our little friend “Song” who ran onto the beach and begged us to come look at her fresh catch of seafood. Tough to say no since the goods come directly from the boats that are fishing these very waters 100 feet from shore. And it was around lunchtime. We ended up buying 2 pounds of sea prawns, and a couple of pounds of mussels and clams too. They were grilled up while we sat in beach chairs and then Song came over to present her handiwork, even going so far as to peel each of the shrimp for us as we ate them. We ended up horribly overpaying, but what the heck – all that for $10 is still a great deal.

With its huge Hollywood-like sign gleaming up in the mountain of the island across the way, I felt this strange compulsion to head over to Vinpearl Land and see what it was all about. I had seen a billboard coming in from the airport advertising happy families, huge roller coasters, video games - a slice of amusement park heaven. And since it was just a quick cable car trip across the bay to get there, why not check it out?

Strike One – the cable car. Completed just 3 months ago, the cable car line to Vinpearl is the longest in the world, stretching 10,000 feet over the ocean. The fact that it was so new made Joy extremely nervous . Check out the video of her mini panic attack. It’s 15 minutes of hanging precariously over the water way too high up to possibly survive a fall. My princess insisted on a private high speed jet boat for the return trip.

Strike Two – the place is empty. And I don’t mean empty in the “wow, there’s sure not very many people here” kind of way. I mean other than the hordes of staff it took to run the place we were the only humans there. Granted it was 174 degrees outside, but you’d think somebody would show up to check it all out.

Strike Three – There is supposed to be a very nice Sofitel on the island. We thought as long as we're there we would go take a look at it since we really like that brand.  When we asked the best way to get over to it we were told there was a twenty dollar per person "admission" charge to see it.  In Vietnam you can eat steak for a year for that kind of money. Why on earth there is any charge - let alone an absolutely exorbitant one - to walk into a hotel I have no idea, but that was the final nail in Vinpearl's coffin.