I continue to sweat more than all of Vietnam combined

We have finally made our way to Saigon / Ho Chi Minh city and let me say it's HOT as balls. I am pretty sure I have not stopped sweating for the last 34 hrs since arriving in this city. I am still waiting for my body to adjust to the climate...but for some reason I don't think its going to happen. For the previous five nights Pete and I were in the city of Mui Ne, which is a smaller city of about 80,000 that is located right on the ocean, and might have been my favorite place thus far. We found a great hotel for 12$ a night that was literally on the water! Our hotel was smashed between a few 4 star hotels these of course were a bit out of our price range, but we had no problem enjoying their luxeries such as their pools! Many tourist come here for the great kiteboarding, which can be found just about everywhere. It was a bit tempting to give it a shot, but we both decided to save our money and put it towards a diving certificate in Thailand. After waking up to rain on the 5th day we decided it was about time to move on south.

Besides Saigon being immensely hot, its a great place. It feels a bit more relaxed then other large cities in Asia. Yesterday we went to the War Reminents Museum, and I had very mixed feelings towards it. Firstly, it had photos of mostly American things taken by Americans. Don't get me wrong the photos were terrific, but the whole presentation of the exhibts seemed a bit off. It seemed like a real mish mash of different ideas and themes. They did make sure to show how Americans screwed up here, and that was also evident once more when we attended the CuChi tunnels today. These tunnels was where many Vietcong hid during the war. They showed us two different holes one in which the Vietcong actually used, then another for tourist to go through. This is required due to the slight size differential between the Vietnamese and us.

So recently we have acquired a new friend from London who has been traveling with us for the last week or so. Her name is Manmeet and she is terrific! She has added much to our conversations even though at times she finds only herself talking, especially in the early morning after a night of drinking. She has slowly learned not to take offense when we do not participate in these conversations! It has been great to have a new face to spice things up! We will have to part ways soon because she needs to meet back up with her friend in Laos, while Peter and I will continue to Cambodia then up to Laos a bit later.

While in Nha Trang we picked up a new hobbie: conconut hunting. We first must search the beach for the lowest tree, then I usually will stand with my back against the tree while Pete uses my hands for a boost and stands on my shoulders attempting to tear down as many before he comes down with them. We were also taught by a local boy how to properly tear open one of these nuts using just a stone. A very useful skill for later in life I am sure! We also celebrated Holloween in Nha Trang, and I would like to say that we both had wonderful costumes. I bicked my head with a razor and was Mr. Clean (Mr. Muscle according to the English), and Pete had his face painted as a ferocious "Tiger". It was great fun until the facepaint found its way to both of our clothes which we didn't discover until the next morning.


We are off to Cambodia in a few days and maybe I'll stop sweating by then...