Day 15, 16, and 17

Gaaah! I'm slowly realizing that my trip is coming to an end...

Day 15 - Getting to Tuy Hoa
I got up early as usual for my swim at the beach. After that, I came back to make sure that Jess got up and that I had all of my stuff packed. While Jess was finishing up getting ready and packing, I got breakfast with my uncle and his family. When I got back, I lit some incense for my grandfather and everyone hung out while we waited for Jess's auntie to arrive.

When she does arrive, we load up and head over to the train station, which looks pretty normal. Everyone just hangs out until the train arrives. When the train arrives, I think we're going to leave pretty quickly, so I say my goodbyes and get all of our stuff on the train. Cau Hai helps get our stuff into our room before he gets off the train, and we sit in our room waving. Then Auntie Diep asks "why aren't you hanging out with your family?" Of course, I respond by saying, "because we're leaving." She explains that the train is not leaving yet, so I had time to run back outside. I hung out with everyone for a few more minutes before the call comes for the train to leave and rush back inside. Instead of doing the dramatic goodbye wave with people chasing the train, I made faces at my cousins, which made them laugh, and we all left happy (I hope).

The next 10 hours is pretty crappy. The train itself is old. Our room is okay because it has electricity and AC, but roaches kept popping up outta nowhere. The bathroom was nearly unusable because it smelled so bad, and the train was so rocky that I felt like I was reliving the loma prieta earthquake for 10 hours. I don't normally get motion sickness, but even I was getting lightheaded. We did have a chance to buy food, but honestly, the happy cow cheese and raisin bread that jess bought before hand was better than anything the train folks or the folks selling food at the rest stops had to offer. On the bright side, I got a lot of studying done.

We get into Tuy Hoa aruond 7:30pm and start looking for hotels. We settle on this nice 4-star place called Kaya and after settling in, had pho with some of Jess's relatives. After dinner, we knocked out.

Day 16 - Tuy Hoa
So the plan was to hit Tuy Hoa hard for a day, since we were only going to be here for a day and a half, but to be honest, it wasn't as hard as we thought we were going to hit it, since it was HELLA HOT. When I say hella hot, I mean like I was getting a tan in the shade. I spent this entire trip in VN without a hat, with the exception of borrowing my little cousin's non la at Ba Na, but that was because we were a mile in the air. Today, we had to buy non las for ourselves because the sun was almost unbearable.

The morning was spent with Jess's family at their matriarch's grave and her house. It was a solemn experience, but a good one to observe because it reminded me of our tradition of ancestor worship. It was also interesting to see because this was the first time I saw people light incense for their relatives, and then place incense at the graves of people surrounding the grave where the ceremony was performed. It was an interesting communal ceremony. It was also interesting because I got a chance to see some of Jess's family and get to know more about her roots.

With the morning being so hot though, we had to get back to the hotel and get some rest. Jess's relatives went back to their house, while we had lunch in the hotel and took a nap. At 4, we met up with everyone again and hit the beach. We didn't swim, we just walked through it and enjoyed the cool weather.

As it got close to dinner, we headed back from the beach to the street to look for a place to eat. There's no place that really looks all that exciting, so we head back to the taxis. We make one stop at this lady who was barbequing bits of steak and tiny fish eggrolls, so we buy a bunch to eat as a snack.

We end up over at this corner of Tuy Hoa that is all owned by one lady who turned it into a 5-star hotel and an entertainment area, with karaoke, an event hall, a club, and different restaurants. It looks like this lady is trying to Walmart the town, but the 5-star hotel is dead, since none of the locals can afford it, and Tuy Hoa isn't known enough yet to attract tourists, and the entertainment area doesn't appear to have much people at all.

We go to the seafood restaurant that has a gorgeous layout. We walk across this pond into a floating gazebo with tables and chairs. We wanted to get one of hte private rooms on the other side, but none of them were big enough to accommodate us (and the biggest room was taken up by local officials). We sit outside and ask for every fan they have to keep the mosquitoes from eating us alive.

Dinner was a lot of everything! We had caramelized fish, sour fish soup, crab in tamarind sauce, and some other stuff that I forgot. I also had quite a few beers. The guys in Jess's family like to cheers a lot.

After dinner, we hung out for a bit with everyone and then headed back to the hotel.

Day 17 - More Tuy Hoa and the road to Nha Trang
Today, Jess's relatives were going to have breakfast with us at the hotel, since they offered a buffet. It's not bad. There was banh cuon, banh beo, and cha. There was also an eggs/pho station, where the pho had macaroni instead of noodles, and a few other items. After that, we headed to nuoi ngan, which is temple that has turned into the make-out spot for local high school kids. As we were exploring the hill, I came upon a small shrine where a lady was praying. There was a very good view from the shrine, so I took off my slippers and walked through it to take pictures of the city. I felt a bit bad because I think I may have interrupted her, but I swear I was only there for less then a minute.

After Nuoi Ngan, we head back to the beach to simply relax. We drank juice out of coconuts and leaned back into lawn chairs. A lot of us propped up our legs on the table, but that was partly because there were a bunch of fire ants around.

We head back to the hotel again to get out of the heat again. Jess and I hit the pool, where we discovered that this hotel also had private karaoke rooms, a poolside bar, and a pool hall. Boo to the late discovery, but whatevs. After packing, we check out and meet up Jess's relatives for lunch at the grill restaurant over at the lady's corner. It was a late lunch, since we were planning to head to Nha Trang right afterward. We had different kinds of grilled beef, snails, and salad, along with a hot pot.

We said goodbye to Jess's family, who were all very nice (one of her cousins is learning how to make beer and we had a good talk about the good stuff here). They even sent their regards to my folks, which was really nice. Experiencing all of this family time with my relatives and Jess's relatives enlightened me as to what is missing in the states that is really needed - humility.

So we hit the road to Nha Trang. The way there is absolutely beautiful, since a big chunk runs along the coast. We pass up a lot of little fishing towns along the way and the occasional resort. I fall asleep at some point, but it was more because I ate so much then that I was bored of what I was looking at.

We get to Nha Trang and it is PACKED because of the Miss Vietnam Universe Pageant. We tried 4 or 5 hotels, all of which were completely full until we finally hit Lamy, which is a new 3-star hotel that was literally just completed a month ago (we can still smell some of the sawdust). It's a nice place though. We're so tired that we just kinda crash. Tomorrow we'll be touring the city, and I think Jess is going to try to get tickets to the pageant (of course).

It's storming right now.