On the road again

We packed up our stuff and hit the road. However, our rough and tough trip through the countryside of Vietnam is now a luxurious sightseeing vacation of the central provinces. With the tiniest peep of a vacation to Adam's Aunt who works for the big government run tourist agency, we quickly received a complete itinerary with nearly every day planned out for us. She arranged four and five star hotels for us "free of charge" along almost the entire route and booked tours and activities for most of our days. Where did we arrange this tour? At the elegant Caravelle Hotel, of course, over a buffet dinner and rooftop drinks with the director of the hotel "free of charge". Some menu items:

Seafood chowder
Lobster boiled in coconut juice
6" long tiger shrimp in garlic butter white wine sauce
Bacon wrapped pork medallion
Tenderloin Medallion with sauteed onions
Grilled salmon with teriyaki sauce
Broiled tilapia in orange cream mushroom sauce

Lamb Stew
Sushi Bar

Desert: Chocolate Mousse
Lemon Meringue Pie
Dragon Fruit, Lychee, Longan
Creme Brulee
Flan
Strawberries & Real whipped Cream
Ice Cream- Coffee, Mango, Vanilla, Blackberry, Chocolate

And we didn't even touch the Bread and cheese table or the already prepared meat and seafood area.

Now we are in Ninh Chu Resort on the beach. It is a new hotel and we have the place to ourselves. There are maybe eight other guests and we never see them. I asked the front desk if he could unlock the fitness center and he quickly replied that "all of the machines are broken because so many guests are using them." THERE IS NO ONE HERE! I had to turn away because I almost burst out laughing...five minutes later he found me and informed me that the fitness center was now open.

The hotel is beautiful, and the gray weather adds to the fun, eerie, Shiningesque feeling of being the only guests in a huge building in a desolate town. Around every corner I half expect to see twin little girls in blue dresses at the end of the hall.

We went on a tour to visit the Po Klong Cham towers today and climbed around the Tien Waterfalls. The itinerary included monkeys, bears, and hot springs, but none of these actually exist here. The tour was really funny because the guide and driver had never taken anyone on a tour to these areas so they didn't know where to go or what to do when the places weren't open or when there was nothing to see. We got to roll up our pants and cross a river to get to the springs and the climbing was not something that any tourists could have done, but the spot was amazing. The tour director is a nervous, kind man who approached us this morning, apologizing for the goofy tour and the 31/2 hour early return and this evening we get a complimentary massage! I didn't even think the tour was that bad since I got to play with a little baby at a restaurant where we killed time for 21/2 hours and the guide didn't speak English well so I learned a lot of Vietnamese.

Emily-if you were getting jealous about the buffet, here is a picture of the bruschetta at the hotel- it is wonder bread with one slice of American cheese and half of a black olive. Yup- that's it:)

The sign reads " Typical Vietnamese Alcoalic For Sell"

The tour bonus.