No, I will not ride in your boat

Yes, we did give in and splurge for a resort in Nha Trang. It wasn't because we couldn't deal with not having shower curtain or even the sanitary condition of these other places. When we arrived in Nha TrAng, we realized how commercialized the place has gotten and got frustrated that we couldn't sit on a nice beach without paying. The beaches and islands have been taken over and privatized to cater to foreign travellers and that frustrated us.

It didn't take much convincing for me to agree to the resort. Jamie said it'd be my birthday gift and when else are we going to be able to afford something this nice? We had our own bungalow with a front porch, an outdoor shower/jacuzzi, two swimming pools, and a private beach to lay on! Yes, we do realize our hypocrisy as we basked in our luxury!

We were sad to leave our resort but were excited to head to Hoi An; which were said to be a "heritage site." It was an 11hr overnight ride where about half of the passengers on board were white. It was entertaining to be someone who could understand everything that were being said while watching the charade unfolding in front of me. The ride was pretty crazy and I feared that our bus would flip every time it turned. The only thing that got me through it was my need to sleep.

Hoi An was disappointing as well. It was filled with a lot of tourist and everything that was sold were cliche touristy things. All the vendor spoke some sort of English and we were constantly harassed to buy some lanterns or ride in someone's boat. We felt like we were walking through new york chinatown, and that wasnt the experience we wanted.

We are now en-route to Hue and the rain set in. Just one day in Hue and we will fly to Hanoi where we has one connection. Hopefully the next few places we go will be more interesting. During these past four days, Jamie has picked up the Vietnamese card game of "tieng ten" most commonly played during "nhau" sessions. Pictures of nha trang n hoi an in next post