Chuc Mung Nom Moi

Happy Lunar New Year! The city is decked out in preparation for the lunar New Year. Residents are purchasing new clothing and gifts for friends and family. Food is being stockpiled. Red and yellow flowers/flowering plants are for sale on the street corners. Hal's company is gifting their local employees as well: cash for the staff and "the suggested gift for the entry/exit station (foreign visa office) which serves the Hue office is: a bottle of wine : 250.000. Envelope : 500 000, 1 case of Heineken, a card, water melon seed, 1 kg dry beef." The new pictures are from district one where we went last night to see the lights and decorations. District one is the city center and is about a 10 minute, $7 taxi ride from here.

Phan Thiet Weekend

We escaped the smog of the city for the fresh breeze off the South China Sea - or, as we would call it in the US - the Pacific Ocean. We hired a car for the ride out and took the train back. All the car rides here are nail-biters and this was no exception. Just try to imagine driving a scooter or vehicle and being surrounded by other vehicles just centimeters away from you. Turns are simply slow drifts through oceans of traffic.... anyway, there is one major road that runs through the country and that is what we drove out to the beach on - it took about 4 1/2 hours. We watched DVDs in the computer to entertain us and to avoid watching the road. The train back took about 5 1/2 hours door-to-door. A relatively relaxing bargain at $5/per head. Hal remarked when we arrived home that no one ever looked at or took our tickets! The beach was lovely and it was amazing to watch the kite boarders. It is a sport that takes a lot of strength and coordination - your hands are doing one thing trying to hang on to and control the kite while your feet are trying to stay balanced on the waves or trying to fly up off the waves to do remarkable spins and jumps.
Hello Silas here. Phan Thiet was beautiful, a postcard beach at its best. It's white sand with no sharp seashells because of the huge powerful crashing waves. It's the perfect beach for wind surfing because the water is warm and there is always a strong gale. The pool was giant!!! it had a waterfall and was at least 6 feet deep. During our stay we rented mopeds and me and my dad rode up to sealinks golf course. it was one of the most beautiful golf courses i've ever seen, with a view of the sea and red sanded dunes with grassy fairways. we went up to the top of the plateau it was built on where it's a ghost town of half built condiminiums everywhere. I had a turn on the moped and rode around the hilltop with my dad on the back, It was a BLAST!!!!! After we got back though i got sick and was tossing my cookies all night... not fun. Okay i've shared everything i have to share, now i'm going to watch the inaguration.
ttyl, silas.