snooki, seafood overload, easyriders, no dice

So Nha Trang's pretty much the Vietnamese jersey shore. Packed with tourists, particularly dirty Russian ones, western booze houses and a complete lack of culture. There's even a poor man's Disneyland there. I really think there's more white people than Vietnamese people in NT. Sure there's nice beaches but we didn't come to Vietnam to sit on a beach and drink all day.

The first night we went out and we quickly realized that this place was not our scene if you know what I mean, brohemians. Sleazy bars and wasted white people, coupled with ladyboys trying to mug sloppy tourists. We even saw a Snooki look a like that was parading around the dance floor without her top on. Classy broad.

At least we had copious amounts of cheap seafood and I could get my laundry done.

Since the diving had a whopping 4-5 feet of visibility due to weather I nixed that and we met up with some easyriders, Anh and Tai, and high tailed it outta there early this morning. We rode for ~200kms and are spending the night in some small mountain town. Really nice ride through the mountains and farmland. Headed to Dalat over the next couple of days.

BPY muchachos.

Praying to the weather gods

Took the train down to Nha Trang yesterday and spent the night at a couchsurfer's place. He owns a local dive shop so hopefully we'll be able to squeeze in a few dives if the weather clears up.

We were a few days late getting to NT so all of Mark's rooms were taken. He had an unfinished room with a mattress on the floor so we took it. Ha an experience but not much sleep, so we moved over to a hotel with some luxury and an ocean view.

Gonna chill here for a bit to see how the weather behaves then probably head to Dalat or straight to HCMC.

adios

Mucho Amor, heading to Quy Nhon

I fell in love with Hoi An. I also fell in love here. Well, not really but I met one of the coolest chicks ever. She's a Greek Canadian and has like the same exact perspective on life as I do. Just LTD babay. We talked for a while about the necessity of solitude and how it molds you into a better person. Someone once said, "Use solitude as a millstone, to extract all that is good." And we couldn't agree more.

Really though, everyone I met in Hoi An was thuper cool. Eva and David, from Germany, are gonna be lifelong connections and I'll hopefully be joining them in Colombia. Erin lives in Arizona and works for the Forest Service researching the Mexican spotted owl. So she essentially sits in the woods at night, gets stoned, and hoots for owls. Pretty sweet gig if you ask me.

Hoi An's a quiet town with great food and the friendliest people. The weather's been acting up so I didn't get to go diving, but we still had a great time.

We took a cooking class, hung out at the beach and I did the essential Hoi An thing to do - got some shoes made.

The other night Alby wanted to stay in but I agreed to just. one. drink. with a German couple we met. Well 1 quickly turned into a dozen and I somehow found myself DJ'ing at a bar until 4am. So much dahncing. They even offered me a job afterwards but I don't think my liver (or the rents haha) would be happy with that.

I could seriously stay here for a while. It's such a quaint town with charming old French architecture and they light up the river with candles and lanterns at night. And omg the food. But I need to get out. Meeting up with Kim (from Halong) this afternoon then I'm taking the night bus to Quy Nhon and meeting up with Alby for some much needed R&R on the beach.

keep it real playas

Hoi An

Got in safe and sound this morning. New pictures are now up.

oy choy oy!, brown eyes, sun finally, bbq, hai van pass, motorbikes

The night bus was like a luxury sedan compared to the local bus I took the day before. I got off in Hue and met up with Alby at his hotel which at $18/night was well worth paying for after a few restless nights before.

He'd been in Hue for 5 days or so already so he'd met some locals that helped us show the way. We. Got. Weird.

I ran some errands, did laundry, etc and then we met up with one of our new friends, Tho, for a beer to meet an Easy Rider. I was a bit nervous about motorcycling down to Hoi An (actually borderline pissing myself) so we had a beer and chatted with the rider. Nam turned out to be a really chill dude that's been hauling tourists for 10 years or so. After a handful of "yo's!!" We fist bumped and put down the deposit to leave for Danang then Hoi An in a few days.

Our night kinda devolved from there. We got some bun hen (great clam soup) and then continued drinking at different bars. Being the bachelors that we are we cast a wide net throughout the night, telling all the bartenders how we wanted to buy them drinks later at the bar we'd end up at - Brown Eyes.

Well, they all showed up. Since all drinks were bogo, we got thuper weird. The music started out with lame oldies and I was afraid it was one of those bars in Asia where they're still behind the times. But late night, they through down some SICK beats. Like Bootie on steroids. In retrospect I guess I shoulda spent more time talking to the girls that had joined us, but really all I wanted to do was take off my shoes, let my hair down and just DAHNCE.

Because we had a few local friends in Hue we had the chance to learn a ton of Vietnamese and eat incredibly well. Aside from the formalities we learned how to order food, bargain and charm the ladies. We also ducked into a handful of places to try all the Hue specialities. Our last dinner was ridic. We went out with a local tour manager that Alby had met, Thuy, Thuy's wife Le and Alby's mom Jule for some bbq. For clams, sauteed veggies, ribs, grilled pork and bbq pork intestines with 10 beers we paid like $16 total. Gah I love this country.

We even spent 30 minutes one afternoon at Thuy's office helping him correct his English brochures over coffee. Looks like Alby's even got a job offer to work for the tourism center. LTD baby.

We checked out the DMZ which was alright I spose, though for a 12 hour tour we spent 9 hours on the bus. The best part for me was hearing about the Vietnamese perception of the war, talking about how imperialistic the U.S. was and how scared and weak-willed the Americans were. Really intriguing considering we usually only see accounts via Mel Gibson slaughtering animalistic Charlie movies.

We woke up this AM and hopped on the back of motorcycles to head south. We hummed through rice paddies and then hit the beach, cruising down the Pacific's idyllic waters, crammed with fishing villages and women foraging for oysters and clams. We then climbed up through the mountains through the Hai Van pass. I always said I'd never get on a motorcycle but after talking to some locals and other tourists, I discovered that most buses take the tunnel through the mountains and miss the scenery. I'd never forgive myself and I'm glad I took the bike. It blew my mind. The scenery, weaving through the hills, cruising through the sun - simply unreal.

We got into Danang and met up with some of Alby's friends that he met in Halong. It's a beautiful place but kinda a surreal no man's land with tons of new construction. We're off to dinner soon and then taking the motobikes the last 30 kms to Hoi An manana.

Godspeed and remember to live the dream.

frogger, engagement party, oye mate!, kayaking, Bruges

Killed my last day in Hanoi running errands - twas pretty fun weaving in and out of traffic in Hanoi, charging past Ho Chi Minh's dead pickled body with a mile long line of tourists waiting to see the dude. Pretty much like a real world game of frogger.

I then took a trip through the back alleyways in the West with my host to see the markets and then stopped for steamed rice balls filled with sugar cubes. They were pretty good, but honestly, a few were enough for me and the entire plate of 15 was a bit rich. Anywho, we started chatting up the proprietor (translated via my host) who quickly asked if I was married. "Pssh. Nope."

Oh! Well she excitedly said that she had a beautiful single daughter. Naturally I said we should get together and see if there was any magic in the air. She then invited me over for lunch later that day to meet her daughter.

I showed up a few hours later and the family brought me into their house, nestled next to a pond with the remains of a downed B-52 protruding from it. Hovering over a meal of sauteed beef with greens and tomato soup felt surreal. We locked eyes, she blushed, and I kept drinking with her pops. Unfortunately, she only spoke a few words in English so I don't think we'll have a blossoming romance. And no, it wasn't "me ruv you rong time" you perverts.

The next morning I headed over to Halong Bay. We got on the boat out there and the single travelers instantly bonded. I met a Hungarian bro, Aussie dude and an awesome Canadian chick that's wwoof'ing around the world - she pretty much confirmed that I HAVE to do that.

The first day in Halong went by quickly but I was stunned by its beauty. At night we had a great seafood meal and since drinks were "so expensive" we smeagled some booze onboard and my Hungarian roommate had some homemade Hungarian swill. I drank until I was sauced enough to sing karaoke and dance with an old Chinese lady and even caught my first squid!

The next day was simply unreal. We took a boat to Cat Ba island where we stayed in bungalows on the beach. There were 20 people tops on the island and we spent the afternoon kayaking through the limestone karsts. I guess I'm a nerd but kayaking through Halong and seeing all the floating villages and pearl farms was honestly a dream come true.

We had a ridic buffet that night of grilled pork and chicken and clams right from the beach before I passed out next to the bonfire in a tank top. Yes, tank top weather has finally arrived. Thank God.

The next morning I tried to head back to Hanoi to catch the tourist bus to Ninh Binh but alas, things were lost in translation and I ended up sitting in the aisle of the local bus bumping arms with squaking grandmas and dodging loogies to NB.

I spent the day here where it's kinda a Bruges-ish Vietnam with Halong scenery. The city itself sucks but I took a ride through the country where it's pretty beautiful. Being out in the fields alone made me sing some John Denver as I absorbed the outdoors.

I'm headed to hammer town in prep for the night bus to Hue tonight. Gonna meet up with Alby, a cool Aussie bro I trekked with in Sapa and we'll take it from there.

New pics are up (on the right sidebar).

Let's dahnce.

Layover

Just made it to Ninh Binh. Helluva bus ride to get here but just staying for the night. Some trekking manana then overnight bus to Hue and gonna meet up with an Aussie bro I met earlier. Happy St. Paddy's. More to come later.

vaya con dios

chicken coop, BTs, you buy from me, rice paddies, blackout, one of each, who's snoring?

I just got back into Hanoi this morning from Lao Cai via the overnight train. Another so-so night of sleep as the beds are made for Vietnamese people and I slept hanging off the bed in all directions.

When we got into Lao Cai the other day en route to Sapa, my ride escorted me to a restaurant down the street from the station to wait for the others. You know, one of those hellish places in every tourist junction around the world. English menu, food served clean, with forks instead of chopsticks. Every seat taken by dreary-eyed white people and barking Chinese tourists. Uh, yeah, F that.

With a couple of hours to kill I walked around and stumbled into an open air cafe for some real coffee. People were pretty surprised a white dude would sit down with them so I had some instant friends. I eyed one of those bamboo bongs I've been seeing everywhere (for tobacco) and began inquiring. Before I knew it, I was holding a packed bong with a lit match in front of me.

Jiminy Christmas talk about going to the dome. It felt like someone slapped Nicotine patches on my temples. I gave the universal cross-eyed, "I'm one and done" face and everyone had a good laugh at my expense.

We then took a couple hour bus ride to Bac Ha market, an open air market in the mountains every Sunday where local tribes (different Ha'mong peoples) gather to sell veggies, meat and handicrafts. Again, the "lunch included" was at a clean, white people only restaurant where you had the choice between chicken pho and beef pho. Hrmm, not my style dude.

I ambled over to the market where local women were cooking over wood fires and men were hunched over hitting their bongs in ways that would shame Cheech and Chong. I sat down and just said "one please". She brought over a great tasting noodle soup, with what I later learned was horse meat and liver. Heh, tasted like pork to me!

We then went on a 12 mile hike through the mountains of Sapa with majestic views of terraced rice paddies. Since it's the off-season for farming, we had a bevy of Mong ladies follow us the entire way, chit-chatting, until we got to our rest stop when the realllll fun started. They were relentless in hawking their knick knacks and I almost pulled a Billy Bob in Bad Santa and yelled, "I'm on my FUCKING lunch break!!!"

But it was all good. We ended the hike in a village nestled in the hills and stayed at a family's house. We got to put our feet up and cracked open some beers. Then they brought out a feast for us accompanied by housemade rice wine. ooooooweeeeee. They just didn't let us stop taking shots of that swill. After a whirlwind of drinking I was having trouble seeing straight. I asked for the time. 7:45pm. Oh dear God. The men in the village drink this stuff for breakfast. Maybe that's why they have so many kids running around.

I crawled my way into bed around 9 I think and we slept dorm style in a glorified barn. Actually much more comfortable than the train, though it might have been because I couldn't feel anything. We hiked throughout the next day and spent some time in Sapa town before hopping on the train. I tried grilled sparrow, which tasted like tires marinated in motor oil. I wouldn't recommend them.

Gotta kill some time today, probably with the help of $.20 draft beers, and then hopping on a boat to Halong Bay manana.

Hasta pronto,

mdm

Choo Choo!

Sticky rice with dried pork for bfast with the host family. Then ambling around the city some more today. Gonna go check out where McCain cried like a little girl (but honestly, bamboo shoots under your finger nails!?!!? I can't blame him.)

Holy testicle tuesday btw, you guys weren't kidding about the traffic. I've been making a habit of buying whatever grilled meats I see on the street...can't tell you what they've been, but they've been tasty.

Taking the overnight train to Sapa tonight. Ooooh those night moves! Eh, doubtful. Probably be in a sleeper with old viet dudes chain-smoking cigarettes.

First Day!

Sunrise in Hong Kong, a few hours til I'll be in Hanoi. Got my Charlie Sheen red bandana on already.

Vaya con dios brah.

Just left SF, headed to Vietnam on Wednesday. More to come.