Happy New Year! Phan Thiet, Vietnam

Ah, heat and humidity how I've missed you! Felt so good to step off the plane from Hanoi and sense the warm air. I may be from Finland but I'm built for a warmer climate for sure. In Ho Chi Minh City I parted ways with my travel buddy Aurea and met up with my beach buddy Alicia. Alicia had booked an amazing beach resort for us close to the town of Phan Thiet on the southeast coast of Vietnam, which was about a four hour train ride away from HCMC.

The Hotel
The resort where we were staying, Rock Water Bay, was relatively isolated in that there were no shops, bars, or restaurants anywhere in the area. There were other beach resorts along the beach, but well separated from each other. Anyone wanting some peace and quiet should consider heading this way. We had the most beautiful room right on the beach, with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the beach and the rocks. At night we would fall asleep with the sound of the fierce waves exploding against the barrier just outside our window.
The minus points came from the ridiculously expensive prices of absolutely everything - but I suppose that is what they can charge when there is nothing else around! I wouldn't mind paying top dollar for good quality but unfortunately the quality of the overpriced products and services was very disappointing. The food especially was a let-down and for a foodie like me that's one huge minus. It was so bad that neither Alicia nor I could even finish our meals on the first night - the only time we ate at the hotel restaurant.
Negative feelings aside, lying by the pool all day drinking one cocktail after another reading my book and napping felt pretty damn good!

Scooter
We rented a scooter for a few days in order to explore the area around the hotel as well as Mui Ne, another 'resorty' area on the other side of Phan Thiet 50 km away which we heard was more happening in the sense that it had shops and restaurants. Driving in the city, in this case Phan Thiet, guarantees an adrenaline rush - it was certainly survival of the fittest that applied. The honking confused the hell out of me. The general idea seemed to be that like in Hanoi, everybody honked at everything, and most times I didn't know if it was to announce their presence in the traffic or a loud way to say "get the hell out of my way." Furthermore, it was just the way they drove in general, with no regard for anyone but themselves (if that).
Bicycles, mopeds and cars would suddenly appear from side streets left and right without first checking if they were getting in front of other vehicles; so at all times you had to keep a watchful eye out for surprise attacks from either side. Also people like to exit a lane with little to no signalling, and drive on the opposite side of the road in the wrong direction for long distances if it meant that was the side the exit was on. So on a two way street you actually ended up having four lanes; one going in one direction, another in the opposite direction; and then additionally on both of those lanes on the outside you would have vehicles going in the opposite direction to the traffic waiting for the exit lane. Oh, and traffic lights? Like they didn't exist. Actually... I guess that's not exactly true; most people slowed down and some even stopped at the lights, but if no one was coming from another direction why sit around and wait for the green light? But I'm not going to lie, I had loads of fun driving around. And so did Mr. Jenkins!

The Cutest Cow, Ever.

Driving on the country side was the exact opposite. It was relaxing, peaceful, and absolutely beautiful. The only disruption to the quietness was me yelling STOP STOP STOP to Alicia so I could jump off the scooter to take a picture (more often than not of a cutie cow). Throughout our expedition I remained in awe of the beauty of the scenery and the most polite and happy people who all waived at us and greeted with a friendly 'hello' every time we came across anyone.

Wifi issues
For the first time in over three weeks I experienced trouble with going online because the wifi at our resort wasn't the best. In fact, for me it didn't work at all! For an Internet junkie (ok, ok, Facebook junkie) it was a bit difficult to get used to not being able to email and stalk on all my friends but it soon became a blessing. I thoroughly enjoyed knowing that I couldn't get in touch with (or obliged to contact) anyone even if I wanted to, and it gave me an opportunity to really relax. But on the flip side I wasn't quite expecting not to have Internet, as we had our onward journeys to book as well as a few flights and accommodations I needed to sort out. Luckily the hotel let us use their computers at reception so we wouldn't have a meltdown.

The randoms
I wasn't sure if I should bring this up at all or not, but decided the Russians deserved a section of their own. So... What is it with Russians and southern Vietnam? Every hotel had signs, menus, and instructions written in Russian, every tourist shop had tags and prices in Russian, even some road signs were in Russian! Oh, and on top of this, there were a bunch of Russians everywhere.

So from one random topic to another. Crabs. On the beach, digging holes. So cute! Alicia and I sat having lunch by the beach just watching these rather big crabs dig enormous holes in the sand for hours. It's even funnier when we went for a walk on the beach with the crabs running around sideways left right and centre trying to get out of our way all the while looking straight at us - there were hundreds of them!

Ever so randomly Alicia found out one of her friends was in Ho Chi Minh City with nothing to do, so he jumped on a train and joined us for our last couple of days. How great is that, el mundo es un pañuelo!

Buddhist Grave

My final random section has to do with swastikas. Driving along the countryside we noticed a few cemeteries where the graves all had something eye-catching about them, and that was the fact that they all had swastika symbols on the gravestones. Next to one of these cemeteries was a temple which had big swastikas on its walls too. Having grown up in Europe, seeing the what to me are Nazi symbols displayed proudly on gravestones and churches startled me. It was only when I looked it up that I understood how common it is in the Buddhist culture to use them, after all, it is a sign that has been used by Buddhists for 3,000 years and is still commonly used.

Oh, and happy New Year!
On this glorious day we got up at 4.45 am (who would have thought) and drove to the countryside to watch the sunrise. Well worth getting up for, it was beautiful to watch the world awaken; cows calling out to be fed, roosters announcing it was time to get up, people coming out of their houses to start the day. And then there was me, half asleep sinking my foot (wearing flip-flops of course) in cow poo trying to cross a field to get the perfect sunrise shot.

Sunrise in the country side. Phan Thiet, Vietnam

Other than that it was a fairly uneventful day with lots of poolside action and champagne. You know, standard Monday stuff.

Reliving Vietnam
I have just looked through my pictures from my Vietnam album and if I ever had a doubt in my little blonde head that bringing my bigass camera with my bigass lens was a mistake.....well that grain of doubt was officially erased. The moments I have been able to capture on file are priceless. What fits in the frame of the picture is a beauty of a memory in itself, and the recollection of what was outside of the frame will stay in my mind forever. Well, there's hoping anyway.

It's night time and I am sitting on the terrace of our hotel in Phan Thiet typing up the events in Vietnam so far, and I can't think of a better place to be. The terrace is right on the beach front with the rising tide and breaking waves a touch away from my feet. There is a gentle breeze blowing in from the horizon bringing a distinct smell of the sea and I can almost taste the salt in the air. The sound of the waves is so loud it seems like there's a storm approaching but the skies are clear and the stars are so bright it looks like there are more of them tonight than I've ever seen before.

Dragon Fruit