Our outgoing lunch date

7th century Cham temple and statues in Nha Trang

Modern day Cham temple in in Nha Trang

Hot spring spa just outside of Nha Trang city

We enjoyed a great blind massage in Phang Rang

Phan Rang Beach, no one to the right

Phan Rang Beach, no one to the left

Leaving the little fishing village of Mui Ne (population 12,000) for a five day motor bike trip, we drove north along the coast and stopped in the cities of Phan Rang (two hours from Mui Ne; pop. 160,00) and Nha Trang (four hours from Mui Ne; pop. 500,00). If both cities were siblings, Phan Rang would be the quiet adolescent attempting to find his niche, and Nha Trang would be the outspoken teen who partys all night and drives way too fast. Phan Rang is still in its early stages of development, so there are miles of white sand beach with literally no one in site. Nha Trang, on the other hand, is a booming resort city with a population equal to one third of the State of Hawaii. Things to do include visiting the 7th century Cham temples (the Cham people occupied much of south Vietnam until the 11th century, but are now just one of thirty four ethnic minority groups who inhabit Vietnam), enjoying Vinpearl amusement park (which was unfortunately closed during our visit due to renovations), and attempting to cross the street (motorists in Nha Trang don’t brake for pedestrians, but rather attempt to swirve around them as best they can).
We also had the pleasure of dining with an extremely outgoing two year old, who pulled up a chair at our table and happily posed for photos while wearing his upside down, over sized celebrity sunglasses and lots of bling (a ring, bracelet, and sparkly necklace). Even in its larger cities, the Vietnamese people (both young and old) have a lot of Aloha to offer.

We took a wee road trip an hour out of town to see the reclining Buddha, which at 49 meters long is the largest reclining Buddha in Vietnam. This chill dude lies at the top of Takou Mountain, which is about 700 meters high, and a doozy of a hike since it’s pretty much straight up the mountain.

The mountain is also a nature preserve, and although we didn’t see too much wildlife, we did make the acquaintance of a family of monkeys at the top. The young ones seemed pretty interested in us until Dad decided it was time for us to go, swinging menacingly down from the tree and landing right in front of us. We decided it was time to move along.

At the top, we had a nice relaxing time with the sleeping Buddha, eating our banh mi and taking in the peaceful atmosphere. Afterward, we caught a cable car down and had a nice view of the countryside before returning to the moped and the chaos of the highway.

Our Mui Ne neighborhood on Nguyen Dinh Chieu

Our Mui Ne neighborhood on Nguyen Dinh Chieu

Following two flights, a hectic Hong Kong layover, and a four hour bus ride aboard the lead foot express, and we finally arrived at our first Vietnam destination, Mui Ne.  Mui Ne is located on the hot and sunny southern coast of Vietnam and is widely known for three things:

1.  Great kite surfing
2.  Dramatic red sand dunes
3.  The seasonal home to part time entrepreneur and full time vagabond, Mr. Sky Rama (this fact won’t appear in most travel guides)

With over 68 million annual passengers, Hong Kong International Airport is the third largest passenger airport in the world, as well as the eighth busiest. Due to a flight delay in Guam, we had just 30 minutes to catch our connecting flight to Vietnam in this bustling airport metropllolis. A high energy gate agent escorted us through throngs of other travelers, a busy security check, and two different airport shuttle buses. In the end, we were the last passengers to board, but made the flight. Once onboard, we discovered we were on the exact same plane that we exited just 30 minutes earlier, and were now assigned to seats 20 E and F (we sat in seats 20 A and B on the first flight). Due to a required security formality, we had just circled the entire passenger terminal just to make it back onboard. It’s the first time we almost missed a flight we were already onboard.

Statue at Two Lovers point.

Guam is a lot like Maui! Lots of Shakas from the Chamorros (the indigenous peeps), loco mocos on all the breakfast menus, amazing ocean vistas, and a great deal of friendliness and Aloha to go around. The big differences from Maui: water buffalo, 17th century Spanish forts, and the fact that it only takes about 90 minutes to drive around the whole island (Guam is just one third the size of Maui, but has the same population). Thank you to submarine captain/engineer and tour guide extraordinaire Monroe for showing us the entire island in half a day, and mahalo to Connie for putting us up for three nights. Next stop….. South Vietnam.

PS – Air conditioning is the eternal season in Guam, so bring a long sleeve shirt for the restaurants and malls, whether it’s January or July. Brrrrrrrrr

A BIG thank you to mom for all of the great multicultural pupus at our Friday, March 4th, A Hui Hou Party, especially the Wasabi Salmon and Samosas! A special thank you to Andrew and Brett for the entertainment and live music, and mahalo to everyone who attended the party, both physically and in spirit. Sorry we didn’t take more photos but we were busy eating lots of delicious food and socializing. Promise to make up for it with lots of photos of Vietnam.