Balloons

If I was a kid, I would definitely be all over these balloons.

Even at the age of 27, they're still rather tempting.

Final Day in Sapa

As with every day in Sapa, it began with a crowd of local H'mong women waiting out the front of our hotel.

The day involved about 3 hours of trekking to a couple of local villages. Along the way, we saw some more amazing scenery.

This woman walked with us the entire way and her baby was so well behaved!

Jeremy is a sucker for the locals selling their goods - he ended up buying something from each of these little girls.

And some other cool/cute shots:



We then took the 9 hour sleeper train back to Hanoi. Our final night will be spent here and tomorrow we'll be in Malaysia - where I plan to engage in some intense retail therapy, before the flight home to Perth :)

Sapa

The 9 hour overnight train from Hanoi to Sapa was surprisingly comfortable and quiet. We arrived this morning at around 7am. The town is breathtakingly beautiful full of vast green mountains.

Shot of the side of our hotel.

Random street side buffalo.

Random black piglet.

A one and a half hour walk took us to this waterfall.

This local woman walked along with us for the start of the trip. She is wearing traditional black H'mong dress, typical of this area. All the women have very long hair, as it is considered bad luck to cut your hair after the age of 12.

Good ol' basket for a backpack.

One of many colourful stalls that sell locally hand-made fabrics and jewellery.

Mud Puppies

Another must do in Nha Trang, are the mud baths/hot springs. It takes about 5 minutes to get there from the beach front. For less than $10, we spent the afternoon bathing in mud.

You then dry off in the sun, followed by a rinse down in fresh hot mineral water.

Then over to the pool for a soak and a massaging high pressure wash down. Ahhhh, just what we needed.

We LOVE this town :)

Beach Town!

Ok, so if you want to come to Vietnam, Nha Trang is a MUST see. This beach town is the best place to relax, drink and fill up on seafood. We spent nearly all day lying on these sun beds: reading and drinking.

Vendors come around and sell everything you can imagine: books, cigarettes, beers, snacks, massages, sunglasses and one guy was even selling his paintings. Jeremy and I opted for some freshly grilled king prawns. YUM!

3 Days in Mui Ne?

So, there was a slight glitch in our plans yesterday. We were meant to be on a 1pm bus to Nha Trang, however at 2pm, the bus still hadn't arrived at our resort. While waiting out front, I took this shot of a herd of cows walking past us on the street.... as they do here.

When we enquired with the bus company, they said we had missed the bus. I was MAJORLY pissed off...and won't go into the details now. But as a result, we had to stay another day. It wasn't too bad in the end. We had a nice lunch and a couple of drinks over some games of pool at the local 'Pogo' bar shown below.


And now, we're about 4 hours away from getting on the next bus. I'm making sure we don't miss this one!

Happy Birthday to Me

Despite my flu, I wanted to make the most of our stay in Mui Ne. So this morning, we woke at 4am, to go on the sunrise tour of the local white sand dunes. The Jeep picked us up just after 4.30am and we met a nice German/Spanish couple, who were also on tour with us. Below is the sun, coming up over the dunes.

We hired some bits of plastic to slide down the dunes on.

And here's a random dog that I saw while I was out there. Cutie!

We also visited the local fishing village. This town is where 'Nuoc Mam' or fish sauce comes from. The smell was rather intense.

We were back at the resort by 9am and after a couple of spoons of soup, I hit the bed. Spent the day drifting in and out of sleep. At around 5pm, Jeremy wanted to head into town for an early dinner. After freshening up, and getting out of the room, I felt surprisingly good! By the time we chose a spot to eat, I actually felt hungry and managed to eat half this burger.

Glad I'm on the mend. Happy Birthday to Me :)

Mui Ne, Baby!

Our last day in Saigon was Tuesday. Spent the day seeing the rellies and doing last rounds at our favourite eating spots, before leaving the bustling city. Tuesday arvo, was when flu symptoms struck me and I started to feel very sick. Wednesday morning, I didn't feel any better - but it was only a 4 hour ride to Mui Ne, so I decided to commit. Checked into our VIP Bungalow! Here's Jeremy on the balcony.

Here's the view of the balcony (taken from the bed, where I have spent most of my time over the last two days)


And here's a shot of the beach, taken from out front of our place. So, we're spitting distance from the beach, but its intensely polluted. We will have to wait till the next beach town, before actually venturing into the water.

Meanwhile, my flu got worse and worse. Before I left Australia, I saw a Dr who recommended that I bring some Tammiflu along, just in case I get hit with H1N1 aka Swine Flu. The main symptom is a fever coupled with body temperature above 38 degrees. I had both, along with a string of other symptoms. So Jeremy got me to start taking the meds. I spent the first whole day in bed, only venturing out for dinner. We ordered a seafood feast (specialty of this area) and I literally ate one scallop, one prawn and a small piece of fish. My appetite was gone and I knew that meant I was sick!

Ray Ban Wayfarers

Yeh, I know these aren't really cool and they're just knock offs.

But for $3 each, we couldn't resist.

Its Just Weird Really

Check out this anti-smoking poster. A pregnant woman, clutching her child, surrounded by cigarette butts.

The creepiest bit, are all those arms coming out of the pile of butts. ..! Somehow, I don't think the Department of Health in WA would authorise this.

Meet the Rellies

Yesterday was a long and eventful day. We were picked up at 6am and taken to the 'jungle' where my youngest Uncle lives. My Grandparents live nearby, so they met us there too, along with an assortment of cousins that I couldn't keep track of. Below is my Uncle 6, he normally lives in France, and is currently on holiday here. We started the day with a shot of whiskey. Him, his brother in law and Jeremy went on to polish off 3 bottles between them. Nasty stuff!

Below is my Grandad (mum's Dad).


My Uncle's family mainly live off the land. In the morning, I watched as two chickens were killed to make our lunch.

Below, are jackfruits. If you've never had them, they're an amazing sweet fruit, with a yellow flesh. They're even better, when eaten fresh.

Here's all the family gathered for the lunch.

And finally, I let my 5 year old cousin take some pix with my camera - below is the best one he took :)

The Million Dollar Bag

Temika once called me the Bag Lady, and I think she's right. We stumbled upon a leather goods stall at the Ben Thanh Markets yesterday and I couldn't resist having a quick look.

A million vietnamese dong later, I emerged with this baby. Don't be alarmed, a million dong is only around $70 AUD. Mmm, there's nothing like the fresh smell of leather. I'm really really happy with this purchase!