Last post

Dear everybody,

We fly home from Bangkok in two days so this will be our last post. It has been an amazing trip. Our hearts grew three sizes this trip. We saved Christmas this trip. We're world famous now. Here are some photos.

 

This is a little friend at our restaurant in Hoi An, Vietnam. Look how he is sitting on his little bum!

 

Scrawny buddy.

 

These photos are kind of mixed up, some are from my camera and some are from Simon's. This is from our Easy Rider trip.

 

Old city Hoi An.

 

 

BBQ with the boys. The people you can see behind them were making bets on where we were from and kept trying to make us have drinks with them. Unfortunately, they didn't speak English, we didn't speak Vietnamese, and whenever we asked Duc and Hero to translate they'd just say, "They're really drunk."

 

Liberation tank.

 

Bunk bed bus!

 

Amazing fresh pineapple.

 

Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi. There's Turtle Tower! On a little island in the middle of the lake.

 

 

Uncle Ho!

 

Sweet backpacks in the Women's Museum.

 

 

More bunk bed bus.

 

So fun.

 

Back to our Easy Rider trip. Water tunnel under the road.

 

The last unicorn.

 

Easily the best photo of the entire trip, taken by Simon.

 Back at Hoan Kiem Lake!

 

Waiting in the rain for the sacred turtle to surface. It didn't.

  

Back in Bangkok.

The End! Actually, I'll probably post highlights later, so come back someday.

"Go look over there."

Continued!

 

Elephant waterfalls.

 

Cashew fruit.

 

Rice noodles drying in the sun.

 

Pepper plants. As in black pepper.

 

Fist-sized buddy in an outhouse with me.

 

Rubber trees!

 

Coffee on the left, green tea on the right.

 

Rong house.

 

Motorbikes crossed this rickety thing. We watched one almost fall through.

 

Matching jackets. Awwwww.

 

Nothing greener than rice paddies.

 

World's greatest water slide.

 

More of a shower.

 

Hero is the best.

 

Rice and everything else drying out on the road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"How are you doing? I don't care!"

So, we were only in Nha Trang for about two hours when we were approached by a man on a motor bike shouting "Easy rider!". We had heard of Easy Rider Tours (very good things), so over a few beers and a photo album we agreed to a six day, five night tour through central interior Vietnam, slowly working our way up to Hoi An. Our guides were Duc, the funniest and grumpiest guy whose favourite joke was to ask you how you were doing, and then tell you he didn't care, and Hero who was probably the nicest person we'd ever met. We rode on the backs of their bikes. It was so fun and hard to describe so I'll just add some photos and tell everyone the story when we get home.

 

Our sweet view of the sea from Nha Trang.

 

Nice beach.

 

Very early on in the trip Duc decided he didn't feel like driving anymore.

 

Nice valley view from the mountains.

 

Hero, and hot pot snails on the first night. 

 

Unripe coffee beans from the coffee farm.

 

Silk worm cocoons at the silk factory.

 

Boiling the cocoons to gather the silk.

 

Duc's weight.

 

Huge weaving machine.

 

 

 

Swinging on vines through the jungle! Not actually, but doesn't it look like it? Also, the area around Dalat was cold enough for a sweatshirt! WHOA.

 

This Buddha was huge. Like, the size of a house.

 

Different Buddha.

 

Hero being delightful.

 

There are all kinds of stairs that just go up into the mountains and end at nothing.

 

Silk worm farm. These guys were finger-sized and very very slow moving.

 

Houseboats on the river. I should tell everyone now that if I could off hand remember the names of ANY of these places, I'd tell you.

 

Huge machine that shakes the rice off of the plant. We think.

 

Rice gathering tools.

 

Huge beetle.

 

Sun drying the rice/feeding the chickens.

 

Bricks drying before the kiln outside a brick factory.

 

Simon's new wimple.

 

Lil' python.

 

Not so lil' python.

 

Like, man eating size.

I'll have to post the rest of the pictures tomorrow when I feel better. I am battling day two of what I believe to be my first food poisoning of the trip. Yahooo!