Good morning Vietnam

For breakfast I had.....prawns with pork, pork rind, fish soup, fish and rice.....oh so many adventures in Vietnam this past 2 weeks. I could write a book!!! In the past 10 days I have ventured from Hanoi down the coast to Hoi An...a 450km journey that took me 32 hours in total, and only 5 hours of that was broken down on the side of the road (not to worry the 10, 12 and 14 year old boys fixed the bus)

I decided to venture off the beaten track and go to an area not mentioned in the lonely planet....Ha tinh. To get there I took the worlds slowest train and local bus. I arrived to find that no one spoke English and that they probably hadnt had a tourist there in ages. Felt a tad unsafe there so I took a local bus to Lang Co, another place without tourists.....the local bus was so funny....while the bus is driving down the highway one man holds on to the open door and hangs his body out of the bus hollaring at people on the side of the road trying to get them to come on the bus!! Not so safe!!

I arrived in Lang Co and found an amazing family run guest house. My room had a porch that overlooked the lagoon, and only 4 minutes in the other direction was the ocean. Paradise. The whole family was so amazing and treated me as one of the family.....fed me, took me out for seafood with their entire family, took me out on the motorbike, painted my nails, cut my hair (with the meat scissors and 1 cm turned out to be 5 inches...ahhhhhhhhhhh. They wanted me to stay forever! The only thing they made me pay for was the room...$5 per night! I spent my days sleeping, swimming, motorbiking, drinking coconuts(such a beautiful thing), playing cards....one night I went with Thuat, the son, and his friends to eat cat, crabs and to sleep on the beach! His friends cat was getting old so they decided to cook it, seriously....and on the beach there are sand crabs, we walked along the beach and just grabbed the crabs from the sand...we cooked them over the fire and at tonnes and tonnes of fresh crab and cat....Dont worry I refused to eat the cat! That morning I saw my first sunrise...Its hard to believe it was my first, but it was....I could have stayed in Lang Co for ages but decided to move on, although I may go back! I am now in Hoi An staying at a hotel that is fancier than any I've stayed in before....has a lovely indoor pool and free bike rentals!! Im only paying $3.50 as I met a girl from England to share with!! Hoi An is going to be trouble for me...the whole town is filled with tailors who can make ANYTHING...there are even shoemakers that can copy or make any design you show them....I must find a job here to afford that!! I went to a few tailors and told them that if they found me a job for a couple weeks I would buy lots of clothes :)

I've seen so many many amazing things in Vietnam...but one of the most fascinating thing I've seen was at the beach in Lang Co, each night while sitting at the beach small blue glow in the dark 'flecks' are washed ashore. If you touch them it feels like sand....but you can make prints, just like paint prints....however I have no
idea what it is so if anyone knows I would love to know!!

Wowzas thats alot to read...well I have more stories but I'll have to save those until I get home!!!! Hugs, love Megs