Great Big S.E.A feat. Whitsy & Cayra: Ambling Alp

Hello again,

    We've just spent the past two weeks in Vietnam and are leaving today.
    We started off Vietnam by heading to Phu Quoc which is a little island off the south coast. The first thing that went wrong with our trip to Phu Quoc was that the express boats weren't running on the day we were heading over because of the New Year so we were stuck on a slow local fishing boat that took three hours. Afterwords we were reading Lonely Planet and it said "If you value your life do not take the slow boat." Whoops.
   Once we finally made it onto the island every hostel, hotel and guesthouse was booked because of the never-ending Chinese New Year. It took us over two hours to find a place to stay and it wasn't even near the beach. At least that night for dinner we found some great seafood in the night market.
The next morning we found out that all the ferries back to the mainland were booked solid for the next six days so we panicked because that meant over half our stay in Vietnam would be on the god forsaken island of Phu Quoc. We called airlines, went to over five tourist agencies and none of them could get us off the island. Luckily we had a receipt for an agency we used beforehand and called them. Within ten minutes we were running back to the hotel to grab our bags and hopping on two motos which drove us an hour through the jungle to the other side where a local ferry was leaving. We made it with literally 30 seconds to spare. The plus side of the whole thing was that we got to sit with the crew in the air conditioned cabin.
Later that night we took our first night bus to Saigon. It sucked. It was bumpy and the seats didn't fold all the way down so when we arrived at 6:00am we found the first hotel in the backpacker's area and crashed.
Saigon was fun. We randomly bumped into our friend Jane again and went for a few beers with her and her travel buddy Alex. Three jugs of beer costed 2.50$ so that more than made up for all the money we spent on Phu Quoc. The next day we went on a day trip to the Mekong Delta. It was nice to see the way some of the locals lived but you could the tourist industry has taken away from the authenticity of it all. Whitney was feeling ill for the majority of the day so when we were offered snake/bird whiskey she declined. Cayla declined but had no excuse. (There was a dead bird floating in it- gross)
The next day we went to the Palace where Cayla sat in "Do Not Touch" section of the President's war room chair. After that we headed to the War Remnants museum that was filled with tons of brutal information about the Vietnam War. They had old weapons, photos and air crafts that were used in the war. They had a whole floor dedicated to anti-American propaganda.
We decided to splurge on a flight to Hoi An, saving us 24 hours on a bus so it was well worth the extra 20$. Hoi An was a quieter town full of French influence and endless tailor shops! We won't get into details but we spent the next three days supporting the local economy via custom made clothing.
We spent a few hours one day biking out to the beach. It was really fun trying to bicycle with all the local traffic. Walking is hard enough so that was a fun challenge. The beach was gorgeous and we had a nice crab dish for 2$. That night was the lantern festival which happens on the 14th day of the lunar cycle. The whole town makes their way to the river where locals are selling small floating lanterns. Whit and I both bought some and when we found a place to let the go in the river Whitney ended up lighting hers on fire. Smooth.
The next day we caught a flight to Hanoi in Northern Vietnam. It's freezing here (20 degrees). We booked a three day trip to Ha Long Bay which ended up being a bit of a bust. The night before we left a tourist boat sank killing 12 people so the authorities closed parts of the tour which included spending your first night on a junket. Instead we made our way to Castaway Island for two nights. It was so secluded, gorgeous scenery, tons of fun people but freezing cold! Our sleeping arrangements consisted of an open walled bungalow, little mattresses and duvets. Hurray. That night it was also Whitney's birthday. Cayla mentioned it to our tour guides and they took over from there. Whitney was brought onto the table to consume two cups filled with a mixture of 20 people's drinks followed by a trip to the bar for shots. She got off pretty easily considering the following day was an Aussie's birthday and he ended up in his "birthday suit."
We spent the next morning playing beersbie with our tour guides and some Norwegians and in the afternoon Whit did some wake boarding.
Today we are flying to Luang Prabang in Laos. We heard that it's amazing there with cheap oreo shakes and hot weather. We'll be making our way to two waterfalls a little outside L.P and then busing south to Vang Vieng for some tubing and possibly water rafting.We'll try to fill you guys in soon.

Xox Cay and Whit
(We added a few pics to our last post as well)