Sumner

OK now I will tell you what I thought of the trip since that’s the number one question that you ask people when they come back from a vacation. It was great, I was able to see the lives of many different people groups, from the Dao (pronounced: Zow) in Sapa to the Cham in the Mekong River Delta. I got to see rice being harvested, planted and rice fields that were already harvested. One of the sad things that I noticed was that much of Vietnamese culture is based on Buddism. Well I have thouroly enjoyed being able to share this wounderful, rich culture in this blog. I hope that one day I can go back to Vietnam to see my wonderful homeland once again. I’ll be sure to keep a blog that trip too.

Sumner

It was about a for hour trip to Shaghai and then we had an eight hour layover. It was long and hard. We ate a meal and shoped and bored ourselfs to death. Finally the gate opened and we checked our bags and went to the plane. It was a ten and a half hour flight to San Fransisco. I slept and worked on my blog for most of it. We had thought that all the movies that they were playing were going to be bad. One of the ones that they showed was Ramona and Besis. I would have watched it but I thought that it was another of those bad movies and nobody told me that I could watch it. We made it to San Fran and had a three hour layover. Then we had another three hour flight to Denver. We bussed out to our car and were a little worried that our car wouldn’t start. It did and we drove to our house. Hannah slept all the way and mom and I dosed off for a minute or so. Dad luckily didn’t dose off and we made it home safe.

Hannah

So, we are back safe in Saigon. No problems on the plane, but the transportation to our hotel was aweful. I guess the guy who was supposed to pick us up, was wrong on the timing, so we waited for about 1 hour, till mom decided to call the guy. After waiting another half hour, the guy FINALLY showed up. He said, wait for 10 minutes, and I will get your ride. But of all things, another guy,( the guy who picked us up at the airport last time,) showed up and said to come with us. So we loaded up the luggage in the taxi, and ALMOST started out agoin, but then, the first guy said to wait another 10 minutes, and he would load us up into a “big” van, the van was the size of the other car, but we FINALLY succeded in getting to our hotel. We got a warm welcome, so that is all to tell you what we did this after noon.

Sumner

Today is our last day in Vietnam. We woke up and ate breakfast. Then we hung out for a fem minutes to find things to do and work on the blog. Then we went shopping for a while. We ate lunch at a place called Wrap and Roll. In this restaurant you were served the food that you ordered with some green vegitables, noodles and rice paper. Then you rooled it all together. It was really good and then we went out and shoped a little more. After that we went back to the hotel and asked if we could have a small room for the night so that we could have a room until we leave at one o clock tomorow morning. They let us and we moved to the other room. Then we went swiming for a while to cool down. After we were refreashed we went to the room and got packed up. Mom and Hannah slept for a while and then I laid down to try to sleep for a while. I never did but my body got to rest. By this time it was about time to fialize out packing and go to the airport. We went down with out bags and got into the car. We made it to the airport but the gate wasn’t opened yet. Some people started to line up and we asked them if they were in line for our flight to Shainghi. They were and so we got in line. I took forever to get up to the desk and when we got there she couldn’t find our tickets! Finally she found ours but she couldn’t find dads! After a while she was able to locate dad’s ticket. Needless to say, we were the last ones at the check in counter. Unfourtunentaly she couldn’t check them to Denver so we would have to spend all of our time in Shanhai with our bags. Then we went to our gate and got onto the plane…(Look at the next post for the rest of the story.)

Hannah

Day… half

Hello, yesterday, arrived on Phu Quoc Island. It will be our 5th  time ever seeing the beach. The ride over to the island was very hard, because we had a 2-3 hour boat ride. The boat went really fast, and was kind of like an airplane, but on the water. mom thought that the ride would be terribly rough, so she took some medicine, but the boat was as smooth as smooth could be. Any way, when we arrived on the island, we had a taxi pick us up, and take us to our REALLY fancy hotel, which is right next to the beach. we can just walk out the door, and go to the beach. Sumner and I played in the beach. It was fun, because both Sumner and I caught a crab. I found a cool shell, and then suddenly a claw stretched out to attempt  pinch me. Though I must say that it was fun seeing it run it’s head of to get to the water. Well we walked a little way to a restaurant on the beach. It was supposed to face the sunset, but it was pitch black all around us, PLUS it was lightning some thing fierce. so we hurried to get to our beach house. I think we will be spoiled here on Phu Quoc, cause we get  a huge house just to our selves. Well goodnight!!

Sumner

Today was our last day on Phu Quoc. We swam in the ocean and in the pool for a couple of hours and then packed up to go back to Saigon. After we were packed up we went to the resorts restaurant for lunch. It came late, thirty miniutes after we ordered. We only had fifteen minutes to finish our meals. After lunch we were picked up to go to the airport. We got onto the plane fine and on the way we had one last view of Cassia Cotages. We knew that it was Cassia because of the houses and a house-boat in th water just outside Cassia Cottages. It was a very short flight. It was only about one hour long, half the length of the trip from Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City. We got to the airport and went outside to find our guy. There must have been some confusion because there wasn’t anyone there. We had to wait for thirty minutes to find anyone. He then took us to the wrong taxi. Another man showed up and said that a big van was coming. Then instead of waiting to get the van they decided to move us to another taxi that was the exact same size as the one before. We made it to the hotel and went to reseption to get our key and go to our room. The told us that we had to pay for the room that we stayed in last time and the room that we are going to stay in this time. We wanted just to pay at the end so that we could use as much Dong (that’s the currency here) as we wanted for shoping and then use the rest to pay the bill. Then if there was any leftover cost we would pay it in dollars. We tried to tell them but they said that we had to pay anyway. We paid some in dong and some in dolars. Then they said that we owed another twenty-eight cents. We asked what that was in Dong and they calculated that for us. It came out to be six thousand Dong so dad pulled out his walet and gave them a five thousand and they said one more. Mom then pulled out a one thousand and put it down, a little violently. Done. We went to our room and got settle in. Then we swam for a minute went out for dinner and went to bed.

Sumner

This morning we hung out at the beach and the swiming pool. Hannah played with her Norwegen friends. Then for the afternoon we decided to go on a motorcycle ride. In Vietnamese you would say that we went on a xe om (say ohm). We went up to reseption and asked for a mortorbike for te afternoon. First we went out to lunch. We went to a german place and had sandwiches. They were good and then we got back on our motorbikes and went south. The road that we took was the one that we went on with Johns Tours but this time we got to enjoy the scenery better because we were going slower. Unfourtunently the motorbike that dad and I were on didn’t work properly. When you tried to accelerate it would go for a second and then putter and die. As soon as you let off it started to work again. Sometimes when we were ahead mom and Hannah would spead up and pass us going “HONK HONK” with their horn. We drove along the beach and then went across a really scary bridge. All it was was a few metal poles suporting wood with sheat metal on top. It looked like they were making another bridge to the side of it. We made it accross and kept going allong the beach. We were hoping that there would be a place that we could turn off and go through the forest but there wasn’t. Mom was getting worried that she would get sunburnt so we turned around and went back to the resort. Or at least tried. We we were supposed to fill up the gas taks of the motorcycles at the end of out trip but dad and I missed the gas station. I looked back and mom looked bewildered. I told dad to stop and pull over so we could figgure out what was wrong. Mom pulled up and asked where we were going. We said that we were looking for the gas station and they replied “it was back there!” So we turrned around and went back. We filled up and then went to the resort. We played in the pool, had dinner and went to bed.

Sumner

Today since we didn’t have much to do I will give you a tour of the resort. If you went in the front gate (opposite the beach) on your right are the staff’s area. On the left is a mortorbike rental place. Walk a little further and on both sides of you are little cottages where you can stay. Walk past the cotages and to you right is the breakfast room, the internet cafe, and reseption. Now walk around the bend in the path and to you left is a beach house. Walk a little further and (on your left again) you see the pool. On you right is the big house with four rooms, one of which was ours for the last four nights of Phu Quoc. Oh I forgot to tell you that on the second day we had to move to another smaller room. Anyway if you go a few steps more you are at an intersection. If you go on the path straight in front of you it will lead you to the beach house that we stayed in the first night of our stay. Turn right and you are facing the room that we stayed in for the lastr few nights of our stay. If you turn left and go down the steps you are in the area of the resorts restaurant and walk a little further and you are on the beach. That’s about all. I decided not to tell you anything about the second room that we stayed in because it wasn’t anything special. All I’ll tell you is that it wasn’t as nice as the first one, it was more like a regular hotel room. OK done with the tour. Durring the moring we played at the pool and the beach with the Norwegen girls Then we went to eat lunch. I forgot what we had, it must not have been very special. Then we hung out at the pool and worked on the blog for a while. Then at around three thirty dad and I got ready to go squid fishing. We were picked up late, fifty miniutes late actually and went to a van at the hotel next door. Two people were already there. Then we waited for two guys from the hotel. Finaly they came but then they went to their rooms for fifteen minutes! Well they got in and they said that they had gotten lost on the island. I can’t immagine how they got lost because the entire island except in the cities have about ten main roads and a few secondary ones. They should have taken a map.  Well we went to another hote and picked up four more people. One boysterous man sat next to us in the van. Then we went to another hotel and picked up two more people. After that we went to the dock. On the way the driver blasted the music and when he stopped the music the man next to us said! Oh! That was good keep it up! So the driver turned it back on. For most of the trip I had one ear smashed on dad’s shoulder and the other ear pluged up with my finger. Well we made it to the dock without being deafened and when we got out some of the local boys who were playing soccer started dancing to the music coming out of the van. After that we got into the boat and went out to where all of the other tourist fishing boats were. We fished for fish for a while with big spools. I got pretty good at casting and I even caught a fish. Then we got a different spool for squid fishing. It didn’t have a bait just a shiny thing that you drew past the squid when you saw it. I didn’t catch any squid, we only got three squid and a few octipi. They squirted ink all over the place. Lucily there were buckets and we put them in those. We even caught two crabs with a net! On of the crabs was caught bu the man that sat next to us on the bus. I saw it and told dad. Then one of the ladys saw it and yelled. Someont handed a net to the guy and he scooped it out of the water. After fishing they grilled them on a little stove thing. They didn’t have very much meat but fourtunently they made some calamari soup for us to eat. The man who caught the crab had one bown and said, “I’ve had enough calamari soup for the next ten years! After the calamari soup which wasn’t my favorite we went back to port and went to a taxi. There was something about us and two other guys going in this taxi because they didn’t want us to walk in the dark. I guess that they didn’t want us to walk down the little road that leads to Cassia Cotages. Well we made it back safely and went to bed.

Sumner

Today we went on a tour of the sothern part of Phu Quoc. We started out and waited for them at the front gate. While we were waiting the owner of Cassia Cotteges came up to us and asked where we were going. We said that we had organised a tour with John’s Tours and were waiting to be picked up. His comment about them was “Oh, go get another cofee, they’re always late.” He obdviously didn’t like the lateness (I don’t think that is a word is it, oh well I’ve made up more that a few words while wrighting this blog) of Johns Tours. We also asked him if they spoke good English and his comment was that “there will be somone that can speak enough to say ’now it’s time to get out to snorkel’ and ‘sorry the coke isn’t cold’ and stuff like that.” Anyway we were picked up by a taxi and went to one of their many offices and got onto a bus. We drove around for a while allong the beach and then stopped to “see how pearls were formed.” Of course the real reason was to let us buy stuff. We did get to see them open a few clams to see if there were any pearls in them. After shopping we got back into the bus and drove to a dock and got onto a boat. We went out for a while and then stopped to do some fishing but the seas were pretty choppy and we moved to another place. Then we went snorkling. Hannah had some problems because her fins didn’t work and so she couldn’t stay up, they were just flaping around not doing anything. So she took off her fins and got a life jacket just in case. We snorkeled to the reef. It wasn’t much of a reef, all of the coral was dead and it seamed like there wasn’t anything alive exept small fish. All of the fish were, well, fished! Much of the reef was gone because of dynamite fishing. That’s when they drop a stick of dynamite into the water and then the shock kills all the fish and makes them rise to the surface so the fisher-men just have to pick them up. Unfourtunently it also ruins the reefs. After the first snorkeling place we sailed to another one close by. The conditoins there were just about the same, dead coral and not many fish. After thirty miniutes there we moved to another one. The first time we stopped for snorkeling all ofthe people got in. The second time about half got in. This third time it was just us and another couple. This one was a little more interesting but just as dead. There were some rocks that made it neat to look at. After that we went back to the dock and went to Sao (pronounced: sow) beach. I was the only one that got into the water. Not even Hannah mom or dad got in. Just me. Then we went back to the resort and swam. Hannah played with her Norwegen friend again and then we went to the room to get ready for dinner. We saw the beautiful sunset on the beach and went down to get pictures. We decided that it would be easiest to eat at the resort’s restaurant. The menu didn’t have very many choices but we ordered and after a while the waiter came back and told us that some of the things that we ordered were not avalible. So we had to re-order some of our dishes. Anyway the food came and we had a pleasant meal. The area had a little stream and some nice trees and vegitation which mada for a pleasant atmosphere.

Sumner

Well today is our first full day on Phu Quoc. We decided that today we would just stay at the resort and enjoy the beach and the swimming pool. We swam for a while in the ocean it was pretty special because this is the maybe fourth or fith time that we have seen the ocean and the beach in our lives. The last time that we really were at the beech was when we went to Hawaii when I was five. We stayed at the beach and at the pool for most of the morning and then we walked into town to see the town and look for some goggles for me because mine broke. On the way we stopped at a little stall for John’s Tours beside the main road into town. We boked a tour for tommorow of the south of the island. Allong with that we booked a tour to go squid fishing the night after tomorrow. Then we walked a little futher and found a shop that looked like it may have goggles. He didn’t have any but he told us where to go buy some. We walked in that direction and looked at some differnt shops until we got to one that sold goggles. We got the goggles and then headed back. The town wasn’t very big, just maybe five to ten main streets. By this time it was about time for lunch. We ate at a pizza place, it was good but we accidentaly got two pizzas. I think that when mom was asking for the size she pointed at one of the choices and the waiter thought that mom wanted to order that. Well we ate the second pizza and then went back to the hotel. We went down to the pool for a while. Mom chatted with a Norwegen man with two daughters. He asked where we were from and we said America. He asked which state we were from and then he said, oh, there’s a university somewhere it starts with a “B.” Of course he was talking about Boulder and when we said that he said that one of his friends was going to school there at Colorado School of Mines. Then another couple came over and said “Boulder? are you from Boulder?” It turned out that they lived in boulder and had come to Vietnam on a buisness trip for Celestial Seasonings. The reason is that all of the cinimon that celestial seasonings uses comes from Cassia Cottages. It just tells you how small the world is, three people metting at one spot all having something in common! Hannah played with the Norwegen girls one was nine and the other one was my age. The younger one had very good English, of course not perfect, but what would you expect from a girl that has oly taken two years of English! It wasn’t just “my name is Ellinor” it was “can you do a hand stand?” and things like that! Of course there were some grammar errors but they were minor. Then we walked down the beach to another place where we had dinner. It was good and then we went back to the hotel and went to bed. ZZZZZ (that’s dad snoring).