Realizing that this was our last full day on the island, we drove to Long Beach and started the tanning/eating/drinking routine immediately. We hung out at the Thien Hai Son resort admiring the clean water and making a new eager friend – a cute cat wonderfully colored like the golden sand.

In the afternoon, we drove back into town where Kevin taught me how to ride a motorbike! For the first time, I was the one in the driver’s seat going at a raging speed of 20 km/hr! No innocent bystanders were hurt but they all had an amusing time watching me try to shift to 2^nd gear. No, sorry, no video attached.

That was exhausting and I needed some dinner! We drove back to the resort area and chose a great place serving BBQ seafood, it was yum!

Today we woke up at 5:30 to the sound of the town’s public loudspeaker (many Vietnamese cities have news, public information and music pumped out of these speakers at dawn) and a competing rooster. We took a morning stroll to the other side of town and were greeted by many smiling kids and Chau Doc’s very friendly population. We were the only tourists in sight.

By 10am we were ready to roll so we boarded a bus to Ho Chi Minh City where we arrived exactly 6hrs later. We immediately checked into the NY Kim Phuong Hotel in the Don Khoi area of District 1 (where Kevin stayed for 3 weeks last year), bought a new SIM card for our mobile phone and had our first coffee and pho at Pho24 (a relatively new chain of pho restaurants throughout Vietnam and now in Cambodia too!). During an evening walk through Don Khoi we saw that the city was extremely lively and decorated with holiday lights in every direction. Couples, families, tourists and just about everyone was out and what seems like a celebration in the streets is merely a typical beautiful night in Ho Chi Minh City!

Photo: Tamar, Thu, Phuc, Thao, Bao

Every traveler knows that the real reason to see the world is FOOD. Trying new things while guessing the ingredients is half the fun right there. Eating in South East Asia is a real joy, even if it comes at a high price (Imodium, ring a bell?) Many places I remember by dishes: there’s Dalat’s Asparagus crab meat soup, Hanoi’s Pho, Hue’s Bun Bo, Hoi An’s ‘white rose’, Koh Lanta’s crab in beer…..

Vietnamese food has long been a favorite of mine; perhaps it’s the fresh ingredients or French influence but I simply love it! A couple of weeks ago I decided to test my Vietnamese cooking skills and made Pho for the first time with the help of our good friend Thu. It’s a lengthy process that includes a lot of preparation, many ingredients and what seems like a whole herd of cows. Making Pho requires patience but with Thu’s guidance, it came out great!

Three weeks minus one day to go, almost in Hanoi already! This time we are going to start our 5 week journey exactly where I last finished-Hanoi, Vietnam. In Sep 2001, after 6 wonderful weeks of traveling through Thailand and Vietnam, I left Hanoi to go back home to Tel Aviv as school was about to start. Little did I know that within a week all universities around the country will be on strike and I will be sitting at home wishing I could roam the streets of Hanoi.

On Fri we picked up our plane tickets which raised the excitement level yet a bit higher. We have a hotel reservation for Hanoi and can almost taste the pho already!