Posts Tagged 'travel'



in the bath

One of the best things about staying at the Banburee was the giant bathtub, big enough for the whole family. After our baths, we headed to Lamai Beach – a much more local scene than at Chaweng. We parked ourself in front of a beach shack restaurant and gorged ourselves on som tam, pad thai, cockles, coconuts, beer and cocktails. After a few hours, our beach spot turned into a volleyball court, so we moved out of the way. A serious tournament between the bar girls and the Muslim boys ensued. The girls kicked the boys’ butts.

at the beach

Zoe had a great time at Koh Samui. Our hotel had no beach front itself, but offered transportation to the main beaches. On our first day, we headed to Chaweng Beach, the main tourist area on the island. Way too developed for my tastes, but Zoe occupied herself for hours with her new beach toys.

 

back in hong kong

We packed everything up and headed to Tan Son Nhut airport at 4:30 on Sunday morning. Back home in Hong Kong by noon.

 

ostrich rides

Our final stop in Dalat was Prenn Falls on the way out of town. This place is a real Vietnamese tourist trap: concreted over, smelly, strewn with trash. Once you pay to go inside, there are many attractions in an attempt to part you with more of your money. My favorite was the ostrich rides. (No, I didn’t partake.) As I continued walking, I was so engrossed in the idea of ostrich rides that I didn’t notice as I passed within inches of two full-grown crocodiles on the other side of a three-foot-high chain link fence.

 

birthday spread

The next day, Di Yến, Chú Báu, Di Vân and Trinh threw me a surprise thirty-seventh birthday party. It was an amazing spread: steamed giant prawns, nem nướng Ninh Hòa, chả giò, xà lách trọn thịt bò, a bottle of surprisingly palatable Dalat red wine, and a milk and lá dứa gelatin cake.

 

valley of gold

We quickly escaped the heat with a trip up to Dalat with Di Vân, Clifton and Joy. Our favorite spot there was Thung Lũng Vàng, a sprawling botanical garden run by the water company.

 

I especially enjoyed the orchid garden at Golden Valley.

 

through the jungle

The outlook certainly improved on Wednesday. We all piled into a van and drove back toward the airport, then walked a kilometer or so to Bãi Đầm Trầu. After a couple hours on the beach, the tide ebbed enough for us to crawl over the rocks at the end of the beach. We waded up to our chests through the lagoon and started hiking toward a waterfall. For some reason, our guide veered us through the jungle instead of directly up the stream. There were no paths. We slashed our way through the crawling plants and climbed vines up rock cliffs. After I ended up in the middle of a nest of hornets (ouch!), we elected to find our way back to the stream. And there was the waterfall.

 

prison island

When we awoke on Tuesday morning, the heavy wind had still not died down and the beach was ominously filled with hundreds of dead fish. We elected to rent motorcycles and see the sites around town. We quickly discovered that everything is closed unless accompanied by an official guide. We found that the prison tour is available from the Con Dao Museum for 15,000 dong per person, including a souvenir lapel pin. Con Dao operated as a brutal prison island from 1861 when the French shut in the first political prisoners at Trai Phu Hai, through the American War years, to 1985 when the Vietnamese relocated their prisoners to the mainland in order to turn the island into a sort of a revolutionary theme park.

 

con dao arrival

After gazing down at 100 km of white-capped sea, we landed at Con Dao airport late on Monday afternoon. The island currently has three beach hotels to choose from. We elected to go with the Con Dao Resort, the only to have its own beach. This turned out to be the hot spot for pilgriming party cadres to loudly drink sea snake wine or goat fetus wine and bear bile starting first thing in the morning.

 

trinh’s off

Trinh has left for Saigon. We won’t see each other until I head over there in the middle of November.

 

« Previous PageNext Page »


where

current location

noah’s friend feed

View my FriendFeed

recent music

potkin's Profile Page

recent traffic

blog stats

  • 45,328 hits

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.