Vietnam

Theft, floods, edible dogs and attempted "happy-endings" sums up our experiences in Vietnam. The riding was excellent and the people were friendly. However, we did end up cycling into a major storm where we were forced to take a train to a less saturated area. Turns out that Hue, the area we did escape to was probably one of the worst. We were then forced to wait around for 2 more days until the floods receded.

After the theft in Saigon our spirits were uplifted with a few days hanging out with a couple of other cyclists, Nils(Germany) and George(UK). They were fantastic people and we had a great time visiting the Vietcong tunnels, war museum and a day relaxing by the pool-side. From there we headed up the coast to the town of Nha Trang where we spent a day soaking in the natural mud baths and taking in some of the local sites on a motorbike......then the storm hit.

As soon as it started raining we knew we had to try and get out of this mess, so we booked a train ticket for 2am and tried to find ways to waste the night away. Our solution was to get a massage. I've always heard that the Vietnamese were famous for thier massages and now I know why.

The red lights should have tipped us off, but I thought they were just for the ambiance. They wheeled us in by telling us it was a foot massage. For one hour only $3.50....who can beat that price?? As soon as we were upstairs they shuffled us into seperate rooms where they told us to strip. "STRIP??!! I thought this was a foot massage" "NO! Body massage", she quickly snapped back. Well, i've had massages before where they ask you to remove some clothing so I thought nothing of it and told Julia it was ok just do what they say. The first few minutes were great, very relaxing and normal. But then she started to ruffle my hair and giggle at my chest hair. That's when she made the move for my "goods", thinking that's what I wanted while my wife was 3ft away seperated by a paper-thin partition. I wanted to say to the lady, "hey, my wife is cool but I don't think she's this cool", but all that came out was a very stern..."NO, Bad!". Chafed, the lady continued with her massage but with only a third of her previous enthusiasm. Praying that Julia's masseuse would wrap it up soon, I tried to relax. Fortunately the 2 ladies must have been talking about the awkwardness of our situation and ended sooner rather then later.

Edible dogs...are we missing out?? Everywhere we went we saw these furry little guys all penned up and ready for the Bar-B-Q. For those who don't know; Julia and I have two dogs that are being looked after by friends. It is no secret that the dogs and I don't really get along....they like to relieve themselves anywhere they like, everywhere they go. They are very BAD dogs and I'm sure they will not have changed by the time we return. In Vietnam these dogs would not last 10 minutes and would be the first thing served to guests as an appetizer. What I'm getting at is, before I leave this beautiful country, I will invest in some dog-jerky. When I get back if those little mutts continue with their wrongful ways I will take it upon myself to eat as much jerky as I can stomach and then relieve myself over every inch of their space. So the next time they think of messing up our house, they're going to think....maybe this isn't such a good idea this guy might eat us....and you know what? They'd be right! Hahahaha just joking..........but seriously.

Anyway, I should probably wrap this up. We're 84km from the Laos border and plan to reach it tomorrow. We'll then cycle 3-4 days across Laos and then back into Thailand for some easy cycling to Malaysia. Hope all is well and we'll talk soon!!