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Garden walk
last stopThe floating market is our last stop of the cruise. Basically it is a wholesale market where the local vendors come to buy the veggies they resell I'm their shops.
A total Bourdain momentIt is our first night and I went down to just get a couple bottles of water before bed. It is now 2 hours later and Chesney and I are both overfed and drunk as skunks. Upon entering the kitchen, I found the crew shirtless, doing shots of a local bannana/rice whiskey and starting up a hotpot for dinner. Before I knew what was up I was seat with a shot in front of me and a steaming bowl of shrimp, fish balls and greens. Smiling I downed the shot to an encouraging round of cheers. The southern style of drinking shots is to share one glass and pass it to the person next to you after you drink. All too quickly it was my turn again. Stuff was not half bad actually. At this point the asked if Chesne would like to join and our guide raced upstairs to get her. We found out that it was the 1 year birthday o the boat that they were celebrating. We were already stuffed to the gills from our 4 course dinner but had little success resisting the very friendly offer to share dinner and drinks with the crew. We escaped after about and hour - having killed the entire bottle of local brew and a few rounds of beer.
the river boat cruise
If you want to checkout the boat - search the web for 'le cochinchine'. To say the it is a beautiful boat is an understatement. It is amazing! All wood, beautiful staterooms and a crew of 5 to wait on your every desire. Funny thing is - we are the only two passengers! Yupe - a boat and crew for 10 and we have it all to ourselves for the entire trip. A personal guide, a personal chef (who is damn good) and an amazingly fun crew. It is like being the stars in some crazy adventure movie!
River Front Lunch
Marking TerritoryMore to come about the market - let's just say the local cats are good about marking territory and fresh veggies are considered territory.
Nyi Nyi hotel in Hoi AnHoi An is a cute town with a historic old town that we are staying a couple blocks from. The staff at our hotel are so amazingly friendly.
dang angLanded safely - next we get a cab to Hoi An.
aborted boat tripWe awoke late Wednesday evening having both fallen under the curse of the giant squid. A long, tourmented night of ... well ... unpleasantness. Waking early the next morning we decided to cancel our planned snorkeling/fishing trip. Some fates should simply not be tempted and the omnious rumbling from my lower gut suggested we stay within dashing distance to a water closet. So a beautiful morning was spent on the beach partaking of drink and swimming. It seemed that the Curse of the Giant Squid passed some sort time after a lunch of cha ba. Dr. Chesney decided that we should rent a motorbike and tour the island. So for the outragious sum of $7 we rented an automatic motorbike (for those of you that have never toured through SE Asia, a motor bike is a cross btwn what we would call a scooter and a small motorcycle). After a short driving lesson (the contraption was an automatic and thus totally conflicting with my motorcycle back home), we were off on our grand adventure. The roads were red dirt, rough, muddy and in everyway the experience one imagines when driving a motorbike across Vietnam. Cows, dogs, small villages, fires burning along the road and a complete lack of any traffic laws. The later was rarely a problem since everyone drove around 20km/hr or less and the road was more or less empty. We drove along kilometers of amazing white sand beaches - often having the entire road to ourselves. Along the way we stopped at an Australian run pearl farm which was interesting. Somehow we resisted the urge to drop $1500 on a sinlw pearl the size of an eyeball. We got lost of course but after a few missed turns we finally found our way to South Beach. Along the was we passed several vans full of tourist and experienced the exhilleranting feeling of freedom. It wa glorious roaming around and getting lost on our own and nit being packed in and shuffled about like bipedal cattle. The road dead-ended at a small establishment that was closing up for the day. We inquired about a meal and was informed that the fish stew would be an excellent choice. It was terribly rough having the entire place to ourselves - a table meters from the waves crashing against the beach. The locals started a game of soccer in the main courtyard and an occasional overlly excited kick would send the ball past us into the breaking waves. Before long our stew arrived and we were stunned at how amazing it was. Easily the best fish we've had so far and possibly one of the best fish stews I have ever had. After our relaxing dinner, watching the ocean turn golden as the sun set, we mounted up and headed home. Alone, on a quiet dirt road through rural Vietnam - it is trip I will not soon forget.
the great squid hunt2 nights ago Garth convinced me to go night squid fishing. We had a gorgeous sunset and full moon on the boat before take off and watched the local fishermen bringing in their nets for the day. Once out on the water we were taught how to drop our lines to the bottom, pull them up a few feet and attempted to immitate fish darting behavior. I caught one little sqid and Garth caught a huge cuttle fish. The crew then cooked em up and we ate them in a yummy pepper sauce. Delish! The night before last we agree upon to embark upon an most dangerous adventure - the hunt for giant squid! Sadly we were unable to procure RPGs or dynamite for the expedition so we resorted to the ancient method of line fishing with hand lines. Even boarding our boat was a bit of an adventure - we clambered through at least three different boats - hoppin from rail to rail just to reach our boat. A more perfect evening we could not have wished for - a picture perfect sunset silloetting fishermen casting nets and traditional fishing boats returning from a day on the water. A 20 minute ride and we arrived at the secret location - home of the giant squid. We are all warned repeatedly the dangers of such a fishing trip and taught how to scream properly when one the giant tentacles grabbed us. Given our lines we wasted no time and quickly had our lines in the water. I keenly observed our guide for his instructions were a bit vague. Clearly we was hoping to claim all the glory himself. Soon he caugt a small one then the fast German man pulled in one no bitter that the lure. Feeling the pressure, I murmered a fisherman's prayer to my grandfather and no sooner had I finished the last incantations, I felt a great strike in my line. Bracing myself I started hauling the beast in from the murky depths. Fear rose like a delicate soufflé I'm the back of my throat. Rising ever so slightly, promising to rise into a full bodied terror yet threatening to collapse into torrid disapointmrnt at any momment. With a scream of pure terror it broke the surface. Tentacles of an Ancient One ensnared my lure - 12 inches of pure pure pure..... What the fuck did I just catch? It is most definitely not like the other squid that people have been catching. It looked much more like a cuddlefish but not exactly (I will have to do some research upon returning to the states). In it's vile contempt for all thing dry and non-squiggly - it spewed black ink across the dec of the boat. A poor sailor was also hit by the vile black ichor. Sadly we ha to throw him overboard before he contaminated the rest of us. Dr. Chesney soon ensnared a squid of her own and then we feasted upon the terrors of the deep that we had hauled into the fluorescent light of civilization.
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A final walk through a lovely garden before the 4 hour drive to HCMC - if we are lucky we'll be able to get our passports back. Oh ya - I think I forgot to mention that we left our passports at the dodgy backpackers hotel in HCMC. It has been a bit stressful working out how we are going to get them back. 
Sometimes you think that perhaps in a past life you just might have lived a good life. We booked a 3 day trip on a rather fancy river boat - it was our big spend for the trip. A 3 day guided tour of the Mekong river on a restored and converted traditional trade boat. 
A high end, fancy food tourist place that is simply amazin so far (as it should be since we are paying American prices). The flooding has gone down enough so that they can seat people on the river front (it was a foot underwater last night). The street outside is still flooded.