Hello from Vietnam!

Well I thought I better give you all an update on what I have been up to in Vietnam for the last month. There have been many amazing adventures, but in the interest of brevity I will just fill you in on some of the highlights.

We started our trip in Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon) where we explored the underground tunnels made by the vietcong and the war history museum - both very intresting. From here we headed to a beach town called Mui Ne  which would have been great if the whole town didn't reek of fish - got out of there fairly quickly.  After Mui Ne we hit a mountain village called Dalat where we did a moterbike tour of the surrounding area (see pic).  After Dalat  we headed to a beach party town on the east coast called Nha Trang.  While Nha Trang was a little too commercialised for our liking (think Mazatlan) we did end up having one crazy night on the town which began with me telling the bartender to "surprise me", proceeded to Ben and I doing the conga on the dance floor and ended with bowls of noodle soup from a street vendour and Ben getting his balls grabbed and wallet attempted to be stolen by a local girl gang - ha!  Needless to say the nest day was a bit of a write off.

This brings us to Vietnam highlight number 1 - JUNGLE BEACH!! 

From Nha Trang we went up north to a place called Jungle Beach.  It is a very secluded stretch of beach with just one "resort" on it.  THe resort consisted of a few thatch huts and all the meals were served "family" style, with tons of food.  It was an awesome place and we met some brilliant people there. On the second day we did a trek to a waterfall.  The trek had to be done entirely barefoot as it consisted of climbing huge boulders along a beach and then following a stream through the jungle.  Needless to say it was a bit of a mission but well worth it as the waterfall was amazing.  We spent the day there swimming in the plunge pools and cliff jumping off the edge (see pic of cliff jump). Because it was such a mission to get there nobody else really goes, plus nobody else really knows about it so it you felt like it was your own little peice of paradise, pretty cool.  However, Ben and I both burnt the soles of our feet and I just about got sun stroke but it was worth it! Got to relax later with a bonfire on the beach which was ace.After Jungle beach we headed north to Hoi An where we got some clothes made and did a cool bike trip.  THen we proceeded north to China Beach and "took it easy" at Hoa's place with $1 bottles of vietnamese rum - Yum! Also had a bit of a beach volleyball tournament but our skills left something to be desired (could've used you linds). From Hoa's we proceeded north to the capital city of Hanoi which brings us to highlight number 2...SAPA!!!  Sapa is a mountain village in the northwest of Vietnam.  Sapa is home to a variety of hilltribes that have basically been untouched by modern life and still live in quite old fashioned rural circumstances.  We did a 4 day trek in sapa that included 2 nights on an overnight train and 2 nights in the villages with families.  THere were 4 people, us and an awesome english couple, and our guide, a local, on our trip.  THe first night we stayed with an amazing family who insisted that we all do shots of rice wine with our dinner.  Now, donn't let the the name "wine" fool you, rice wine is a homemade strong alcohol that tastes like a mix between straight vodka and straight tequila.  Apparently it is rude not to drink when a shot is poured, especially when each shot is a "toast to the elders", "toast to the family", etc.   So we spent the nights shooting back this alcohol with a hilltribe family that could not speak any english.  I finally drew the line after about 7 shots - lets just say treking was not easy the next day.  The 2nd night we finally got a shower which consisted of a swim in a freezing cold river and then of course - more rice wine.  The people were unreal as they are extremely friendly and live quite literally as we would've 100yrs ago.  We got to learn quite a bit about the local customs and languages aswell as experiencing some amazing scenery.  Without going into all the surreal details of the 4 days, I am not sure how else to convey how amazing this experience was.  I have put up some pics so you can get an idea of the land and the people  but overall it was something I can never describe in words, the people, the hiking, unreal......Anyways, that brings us to the present.  I have put up some pics at www.kodakgallery.com (username: [email protected], password: little)Hopefully I haven't bored your too much. We head to Laos on  sunday so expect more amazing stories!Miss you all (1.5 months left!)LoveMelissa