Vietnam has been good, good, good to us. After two action-packed nights (water puppets, anyone?) in Hanoi and a day cruise on Halong Bay, we booked a flight south to Nha Trang, where we did almost nothing but sit on the beach and decide whether to swim now or later or both. We also spent a lot time deciding if we needed another smoothie or not. Our hotel room had satellite television, and it worked out that by the time we finished dinner every night, the day’s Wimbeldon matches were just getting started half way around the world in London. I stayed up late every night watching tennis and slept it off at the beach the next day. Perfection.
Barb also didn’t hold back on the rummy front. She has only let me win two games on the entire tour — one of those games took place at a Starbucks clone today in Saigon. Yeah, we’re getting homesick. We were so excited to find a place that had the kind of coffee we’re used to that we went completely overboard and spent a ridiculous amount of money on iced and otherwise artificially flavored coffee drinks.
Tonight we leave for our last port of call, Hong Kong. We’re sad the trip is coming to an end, but we’re also looking forward to getting back to San Francisco and everything that’s familiar (in a moment of weakness, we broke down and ate dinner at a Bennigan’s-like joint in Hanoi called Al Fresco’s; great ribs, actually). Hong Kong, here we come!
The first of two haircuts I got in Vietnam. The result here was something resembling a flat-top that wouldn’t have been out of place in the movie Top Gun starring Tom Cruise.
The mystical Halong Bay.
We stopped mid-cruise for a little turn in a kayak amidst the islands here.
We also explored the largest cave in the bay. This was the largest “room” in a series of many very large and spectacular spaces. One even had its own little pond. Stunning.
Believe it or not, this was part of the process to book a flight from Hanoi to Nha Trang. Barb got to hang back and sit behind the counter of the travel agency.
To swim or not to swim…
Eat more pho!!!
Full inventory, for the record: 1 cappuccino chiller, one strawberry smoothie, one glorious coffee, two lattes (with skim milk, of course), one almond fudge brownie and one piece of chocolate cake. We had to take a five-hour walk after this to come down from all the caffeine and sugar.
We’ve never felt more under-dressed. I went home and watched Wimbeldon after this photo was taken. I have no idea what Barb ended up doing…
