Log/Pic 2 Da Lat & Mui ne, Vietnam

So I am at a hotel that is costing me $4.50 per night and that includes breakfast and endless internet, therefore I'm taking advantage of it. I also wanted to send a couple of pictures of us in Saigon and Mui ne, our first stop north. If they do not make it with this entry, it will be with the 3rd.

We left Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), and took a four hour bus ride (5 1/2), on a big, air conditioned bus (small beat up no air con.). The driver got lost several times, but we met a really cool vetanarian from England who has traveled everywhere. She really made the time fly on this otherwise long trip to the coastal town of "Mui ne"

Upon arrival, we ditched our bags, looked at the beach just long enough to see two cows walk by, and jumped on a couple of mopeds. We actually jumped on the back of two mopeds driven by two locals who offered their services for $4 each for a tour to several locations for several hours. We could have had just the mopeds all day for $3, but did not know where to go.

Our first stop was to a fishing village where we bonded with some kids on the beach as the fisherman were returning home with the days catch. This is where some of the cool photos attached were taken.

Next we went to some canyons and took a little hike in them. Then we were carted to the red dunes where we were immediately (before the moped even came close to stopping) aproached by a couple of kids yelling "slide me, slide me." I was relieved when they pulled out what looked like plastric sleds.

Punda took the "death defying" slide the whole 15 feet down reaching speeds of up to 3 miles an hour, while I took photos "all" the way down. I had time to take one.

We drove all around the dune area and through the town and then back to the fishing village for sunset. I got some good shots of the families cleaning and sorting fish and preparing their nets for the next day. Everyone was very friendly.

The next morning we played Hackysac on the beach followed by a long swim in the South China Sea. Today we would pick up the big air-conditioned bus to a small town on the other side of the mountains-I thought. A small, non a/c van arrives to pick us up. The driver said it was a three hour drive vs. six because they cut through the mountains as apposed to going all the way around them. He was right, we saved three hours, but it was a hairy ride. We stopped to pick up every worker on the side of the road-at least every worker who thinks its alright to smoke when your crammed in a minivan with a bunch of others.

Here I am in Da lat, a great little town. Today we went to a little "minority" village called Lat village minority. The leader sang to Punda and me, played his instrument, and shared his wine which came out of an old bucket and was drank through a tube that had the lips of who and how many on it. We watched the locals weave silk and learned a little about the tradition. We went to a silk making factory that was quite amazing after we stopped at someones house who raises these silk worms. We drove through the mountains and took lots of photos of people working in fields of rice, flowers, and other veggies. We visited a waterfall, a mushroom farm and finally a monestery pogoda.

blog ya soon, love Larry

Log/Pic 1 Saigon, Vietnam

So I feel weird doing this, but Punda, my travel buddy for the first part of this around the world trip, made me realize that the best way to keep in touch with everyone was through a blog. I haven't done much yet but had access to a computer so I decided to take advantage.

After a four hour drive from Georgia to Alabama, (arriving 5 hours early), I took a plane to Arizona, then another to L.A. I had a four hour wait but met up with Punda, so it seemed like a quick layover.

For those of you who don't know, Punda is really Kevin Mckouen. He was my old roommate and he traveled to Africa with us which is where he received his nickname. We told him it was the Swahili name for engineer, (his profession), but it actually means "jackass." Don't tell him.

At 1:30 am on April 20th, we flew out. 13 1/2 hours later we were in Taipei, Taiwan. Of course it did not go by this quickly and I was extremely restless. I had a selection of movies on demand so I watched four of them-maybe five. I also tried a lot of yoga in the back by the bathrooms. Yes I probably looked like an ass, but I was going insane.

We had the whole day in Taiwan so we took a city bus to town. We planned on checking out the history museum but it was being renovated. We had trouble communicating to get us to a couple more sites we planned to see. We got off at the last stop-an hour later-and just walked around and observed. We ate at a street vendor and did some people-watching. It was fun just to be somewhere else where everything was just different. At the end of the day we got a ride back to the airport by some stranger. We played Hackysac until our four 1/2 hour flight to Saigon.

Once in Vietnam, we took a crappy bus south, then walked to a small family run guest house on the outskirts of the city. It was hot. A constant sweat poured off of me. For several days we walked around the crazy town. There was always a horn blowing and thousands of mopeds. We rode on cyclos (sik-low), similar to rickshaws in other countries. This was the typical dialogue of the cyclo drivers: "where you from? America! Me love America. America number 1. Where you go? I take you there."

Punda and I went to the Saigon Zoo and hand fed bamboo to the elephants. We went to the Vietnam War Remnant Museum and discovered a different story than we were taught in 5th grade history class. The alley we walked down each night to get to our little guest house is awesome, everyone is cooking or selling something. We get stares everywhere we go. We love it.

So far people are great. Yesterday was a day of walking so we felt we really deserved our one hour full-body massage. It cost us $5. Their money is the "dong" so you can imagine the time we have spent joking about this. The first thing I did when I arrived was take out 1,000,000 dong. I have spent about 500,000 of it-30 dollars. We are staying for $6 a night, our meals have been about $1.20 each, and a bus ride is 12 cents. We paid three bucks for our cyclo ride and 60 cents for the times we have ridden on the back of someones moped (available by almost anyone).

This is all for now. I haven't really done much yet. I will try show more and write less for the future log entries, but don't expect the spelling to improve. Miss and love you all-Jungle