new thoughts and what we've been up to.

a few quick thoughts about vietnam and her people.  i think these are some of the friendliest people i've ever met.  everyone we've done business with has been super nice and very thankful when we have come back to their store or resturant or a motorbike ride.  they all want to talk and know where we are from and when we say america, they always say, "cool."  so if we find a place we like we usually have been going back again and getting ideas from them on what to do in their city.  it's been good advice so far.  the kids all want to say hello, so they follow us around saying hello like 10 times, it's pretty funny.  also, the country is beautiful; but the amount of trash is incredible.  there's no real garbage cans, so people just pile up little pastic trash bags on the streets and a bicycle cart will come by and pick up occasionally.  this leaves time for the rats and dogs to get into the trash and spread it all over.  the traffic is congested to huge degree and the highways are littered with trash.  the motorbike rides are still fun as hell though.

oh, and i saw some like 5 year olds smoking.  it was surreal, the kids from the sand dunes that took us out there, i shouldn't have paid them.

so, we are now in Hoi An, just got in this morning at 7 AM after the all night 12 hour bus ride.  it was a long time and we were kinda packed.  next to some other americans though, and no one tried to rob charlie.  although, i'm pretty sure my giants hat got kiped.  i guess these things happen.  the overnighters are decent to lay down in but made for the super skinny people and charlie's tall ass is usually hanging over the edge by like two feet.  we split a bottle of wine on there so we could get sleep a little easier, still the back of the bus smells like fumes and you bounce around a ton.

last time i wrote we were in Mui Ne, the day we left we treated ourselves to a little spa day.  hahahah, pretty funny but nice.  got some salt scrubs, manicures, pedicures, and full body massages for 20 USD.  not gonna lie it was pretty nice.  that night we drank with this spaniard ramon before getting on our first all night bus to Nha Trang.  after everything ramon said, he would say, "it's okay," and shrug his shoulders.  he was pretty cool though and we diced and drank with him until he ran out of money and then i took chuck for a fair bit of cash. 

we got to Nha Trang at about 6 or 7 in the morning and had a motorbike guy take us to a cheap hotel.  i thought were were getting a good deal in Mui Ne for a cheap place for 5 USD a night, i mean it was stinky and there were cockroaches but it's 5 bucks.  either way, the new place was 3 USD a night, hahah, not bad.  no other kids and the sheets and blankets they gave us were pretty sketch but i guess that happens when you are bumming it.  the weather was pretty poor the first couple of days there so we ended up playing cards and watching the rugby world cup by this pool at this microbrewery.  it cost about a 1.50 to chill and use the pool for the day.  i didn't know it was a microbrewery until we got there and nearly lost it when they had some beer that was darker then a lager.  seriously, it wasn't that good but it was amazing. so that was pretty fun and we got to hangout with some other travellers which we hadn't really got to before cuz we kind of avoid the super popular places but also that combined with the state of the places we've been staying i don't think many other people stay there.  anyway, we went out to dinner and drinking with them that night and had a good time in general. 

the next day we got a motorbike ride to the market and setup a trip with the dudes to do some tourist shit the next day.  the market is crazy.  it looks like makeshift tents and spots but with so much stuff out we thought they might just never close.  not sure if that is true but each store, you can't even call them that, stall i guess, had so much shit out.  weird things, dried fish, dried shark, flip flops, clothes, fake watches, fake sunglasses, fake everything, fruit, meats, people were gambling on horse race chess (i watched but had no clue what was going on), people were sleeping in their stalls, shellfish (charlie ate one, said it was super good), and every other thing you could imagine.  the place had some unique smells, you could say in the least.  we walked the 2 km back to the hotel checking out some of the alleys in town.  there are the main roads in town but then there are all of these alleys.  they are way crazy and cool, it's seems that they are mostly where people live, but there are lots of kiosks (we've eaten a lot of street meat and kiosk food, some good, some fairly questionable), and we saw a gym (using concrete plates), motorbike fixing shops, and maybe some resturant houses.  we've eaten in a lot of resturant houses too.  the best pho we got in Nha Trang was at one of these and it was probably the cheapest pho we had too at like 1.50 USD; 30,000 Dong.  the money is crazy, everytime i pull cash out of the ATM i'm a millionaire.  i always knew i'd make it some day.  we also got a porkchop meal in one of the house resturants too and it was for under a buck.  you can easily spend like 6 or so dollars a meal to or charlie and i have usually been splitting 6 dollar meals.

the next day the motorbike guys picked us up at 10 AM for our tourist shit.  we didn't really know the plan but whatever.  they first took us to two temeples in town, one a little newer where charlie got scammed into buying some postcards for like 400,000 dong, it's only like 20 bucks but it was still pretty funny, they told him it was for an orphanage though; so he has that going for him.  i said that was too much and then offered 40,000 dong.  i never figured that charlie would be the bigger sucker.  the second temple was more of ruins that had been restored, pretty cool, on a hill overlooking most of Nha Trang.  the we went on about a 45 minute motorbike ride on the highway out to a place where we could check out a waterfall and do some swimming.  it was a little hike and we had to pay to get in but it was pretty fun.  the water was really nice but both of us were a little sketched about getting in as it had been raining and the water was pretty merky.  it was super freshing though.  another motorbike ride back to town where we spoke with the dudes about where we could get some snake for dinner.  they said, yeah, we know a place.  we'll be back to pick you up at 6.  so cool, we're gonna eat some snake.  hahahah.

at 6 they came by and off we took into the sticks to get to the place.  we get out there and we're about to sit down but they go, no, come back and pick out a snake.  hahahah.  here it gets a little trippy.  they got some bags full of snakes, some little ones, a bag with a bigger one and then a bag with a cobra.  niether of us had seen a cobra and wanted to get that but it was 2 million, so we got the other big one.  i'm not sure what kind of snake it was but it was black and yellow stripped.  so, they get the snake and half a liter of vodka and go back to our table.  the dude straight cuts the snakes head off and drains all the blood in this vodka, which we're about to drink up!  they bring some shot glasses out and we pour 4 shots out, two for us two for the motorbike guys, learn the word for cheers (yo) and gut it.  now you would think it might taste different but it mostly just tastes like vodka.  we have a couple shots of that and some of the best freshly roasted peanuts i've ever had, when the chef brings out the still beating heart.  we got it on video, i swear to god, and charlie chews that shit up like a boss, i got video of that too.  he said it wasn't that bad and kinda just tasted like the vodka.  we cheers some more with the motorbike guys, until a little grill is brought out to cook the snake on.  we picked out 2 types of grilled snake and then snake soup.  plus there was this little chubby kid that was absolutely bananas with his family, but this little guy gets up and starts like spasing all over the place, pretending that he's cheersing with us and eating; just making weird motions and bobbing and weaving all over.  but he's funny as all get out.  we got video of that too.  so they bring the first type of snake out to grill an some soy sauce one with peppers in it and one without to dip it in.  the sanke is wrapped up in some type of leaf then grilled.  and you know what, it wasn't bad.  it was actually pretty good.  there's lots of bones in it but you just chew through them.  we have some beers with the meal, get super excited that we did some crazy shit and take pictures with the owner, the cook, and the motorbike guys.  it was definitely a trip. 

the next night we ate grilled frog and szchewan clams at this place that had been right next to our hotel for super cheap.  stoked cuz neither of us had ever eaten frog before and it was pretty good and the clams were out of this world but mad cuz we were on the night bus outta Nha Trang when we discover the place.  so it goes.

anyway, we are in Hoi An and this place is famous for buying custom clothes.  you can get custom suits for as cheap as 50 USD but maybe drop more on some better material.  probably not in our budget but who knows, we were thinking about getting some party suits...