Sunny and 85 - nice!

My immediate problem is dealing with the pinched nerve I gave myself last week picking up a rowing shell. I saw a chiropractor for 3 sessions before I left, but I am having a fair amount of pain in my left hip (along with numbness in my left leg) and it doesn?t like me to walk. I feel like I'm in prison not being able to walk. Today I have cooled my heels at the hotel, reading and lying in the sun, plus swimming. We have another event tonight, which is mostly sitting so I should be okay.

Wrap up

I recently received a couple of pictures from a classmate who shared the wonderful cooking class I took in Hoi An, Vietnam. One picture shows our instructor with us in the market, talking to us about the different fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices we will be using. In the second picture I am enjoying the fruits (and meats) of my labor--a wonderfully marinated piece of barbequed chicken and a mango salad. I'm in the process of sorting through our pictures from Vietnam, so this is a nice reminder of that trip and the good food we enjoyed both there and in the Philippines.

Next trip coming up is to Mexico, for me, at the end of March. I'll be participating in a food and wine festival in Ixtapa, then spending a couple of nights in Zihuatenejo, with my friend Pat Owen, whom I have visited in Mexico, and several of her friends. Looking forward to more great food!

Farewell to the beach

These last two pictures are our goodbye to the beach. Yesterday we took bicycles and rode down the only road, towards the fishing village of Mui Ne. Our intent was to go to the village and have lunch there, but I gave out before we had covered the 7 km. It proved to be surprising hard work pedaling on even ground but into a 20 knot wind, in 90 degree weather. So we stopped short of that goal and found a nice seaside restaurant where we enjoyed some good fish.

Fish is the order of the day here. Every morning we see the fishermen out in their boats, just off the shore. There are white fish, lobsters, squid, prawns, and crabs plus more we probably don't know about. So we've had seafood at lunch and dinner for the last several days.

Now we're headed back to Saigon for our last day in Vietnam. We'll be celebrating the Tet New Year's eve there--though we'll be in bed long before the New Year begins. It's the year of the cat here and the year of the rabbit everywhere else in Asia.

Enforced relaxation at the beach

We are in Mui Ne, an extended beach resort on the east coast of Vietnam, about a third of the way up the coast. There are wall to wall resorts along this stretch, and the atmosphere reminds us of a mix of Surfers in Queensland, Australia (nice sandy beach to walk on and warm water, though less upscale and no high rises), and the Oregon Coast (lots of cheap souvenir shops).

We have a lovely room, and this picture shows me on our balcony, with the beach behind. It was great sleeping to the surf. There was quite a wind in the afternoon - about 20 mph or more, and the kitesurfers were having a holiday. The wind disappears to a gentle breeze in the morning. This morning we're going to explore some interesting sand dunes.

The strangest thing was to find nearly all the signs posted in Vietnamese, English and Russian. There are even permanent and neon signs in Russian. And, no surprise after seeing that, there are LOTS of Russian tourists here. We have no idea how this corner of Vietnam came to be so popular with Russians. Elsewhere we have seen a mix of Aussie, British, American and quite a number of French tourists. But no Russians.
Just a puzzle.

Traveling home for Tet

Yesterday we came by car from Saigon to our beach resort on the coast at Mui Ne, about a 5 hour drive. One of the most entertaining sights was watching the loaded motorcycles of families heading home for the Tet holidays. Here are a couple of our favorites. Note the luggage piled whereever you can fit it. Everyone here typically wears masks while riding, in addition to the helmets that are required for everyone six and older. Women often also wear long sleeves and gloves, because here having dark skin is a sign that you work outdoors and of the lower classes. So keeping your skin as light as possible is the goal. The theory is the same for us, just the method is reversed--we like to be tanned because that shows we have the leisure to do it.

Can Tho, biggest city in the Mekong Delta

We are staying this evening in Can Tho, the largest city in the Mekong Delta. A large branch of the Mekong River runs through the middle of the city. Our hotel is situated right near the river with a beautiful view of the river and all its traffic. Life is very lively now, because the upswing to the Tet holiday has begun. Children are out of school, people are shopping for gifts and for the flowers and food they will take home and share. We're told that Tet is like Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Year's rolled into one holiday. We walked to a restaurant down the street to night and the streets are jammed full of individuals and families, out looking at the many flower vendors with chrysanthemums, bonsai of various sorts, and little apricot and mandarin orange trees, among others.

If it will load, I'm sharing the view from our hotel window, plus a picture of some river boats with a somewhat challenging gangplank to get on one of the boats.

Mekong Delta Day 1

Today we headed southwest of Saigon to see the Mekong Delta. We went to the first of the two very wide branches of the river to take a boat trip out onto the river, exploring the floating markets (which were closed down by the time we got there, so we just saw the boats) and then more of the river. The primary boat we used was a long, narrow boat with an inboard engine. We were the only people on board along with our guide. Midway through the trip we transferred to a smaller dugout style boat propelled by a woman using two oars, rowing standing up and looking forward. This picture shows Phil sitting in the boat with the rower behind him. For this part of the trip we donned the local hat, which we learned is quite practical. Gives you a good view from underneath, is very light and stays on the head easily. It can be also be upended to put fruit, vegetables or even water in.

I am on a rather slow computer so will try to load only one picture. If it works, I'll do a second posting with a picture from Can Tho, where we are spending the night before heading back to Saigon.