Nha Trang

Hello again!

Here we are almost a week after vacation and I am finally getting around to telling you about the last leg of my wondrous vacation, Nha Trang!

After our not-so-awesome-train ride we were more than excited to finally arrive at our destination! Before going to Nha Trang, I had heard it was a touristy beach town and I wasn't really sure how impressed I would be. However, I LOVED it! Nha Trang was gorgeous. The second we arrived I couldn't wait to hit the beach. The water was so blue and the beaches were so quite... the perfect place to catch up on sleep while working on my tan!

We quickly found a taxi and left the train station in the dust only to find out that our hotel was slightly less amazing than our hotel in Hoi An. I mean what could we really expect for $15/night? I just would have appreciated a shower curtain in the bathroom, but you can't have it all. What we did have were three big beds and a balcony.. oh and the South China Sea right across the street. We unloaded some of our stuff, got changed, and headed down the street to grab some breakfast and a drink (it's vacation, no judging!). We found an amazing breakfast place right outside of our hotel. They had the best hash-browns, just like McDonald's breakfast, and really yummy fresh pineapple juice. It was even more fantastic with a splash of vodka! After eating it was finally time to get on the beach! I couldn't even tell you how long we spent laying on the beach, but it must have been quite a while. I think I slept the entire day and it felt amazing!

 

First things, first. A picture of all my custom made clothing. No, I do not have a problem.

 

The crowded beach...

 

Time for relaxing!

 

and a free sample of hair threading... glad I remembered to shave that day!

After our day on the beach we got ready (remember, shower with no shower curtain.....not so fun) and headed out to get some din din. All the restaurants in Nha Trang were quite similar, but we finally chose one and tiredly sat down to eat. The food was soooo good. I had the best fish and what made it even better was that I wasn't spitting out bones! Since our dinner was good we were feeling a little more lively and decided to go out for a couple of drinks. Before hitting the backpackers bars, we had a nice drink on the beach. It was awesome listening to the waves crash and reminiscing on our vacation so far. 

 

Clearly happy.

Once we had finished our Larue's, we headed out only to see about all of the same backpackers we had just seen in Hoi An, including our French friends. We had yet another fun night of drinking and playing cards outside with cheap drinks and fun people. And while the night life was more than amazing, it made for a not so fun early morning. 

On Thursday we had to wake up early for a boat tour of three of the islands around Nha Trang. We signed up for this all day excursion on Thursday for the low price of 7USD. The package included: snorkeling, a Vietnamese lunch, stopping at three islands, a music and dance party and a floating bar with free cocktails (if you can call them that!). The day started off a bit rough. We were picked up at 8:30. Right away we hopped onto a boat and set sail for island number one, which as it turns out, was quite disappointing. The only thing on this island was an "aquarium." Being hungover did not help, but the aquarium was quite disappointing. Really not much to see and very very hot! The next stop was a bit further away, but a lot more fun and absolutely gorgeous! The second island had the most beautiful blue water and it is where we got to snorkel! We spent a good hour and a half on the island in the water and relaxing on the beach. The snorkeling was a lot of fun, but I'd have to say Puerto Rico was still my favorite. I was hoping to see some sea turtle, but no luck!

 

A couple pearls chillin' at the aquarium! 

 

Where we got to snorkel! Picture unedited, it was amazing!

After snorkeling came the best part of the day; lunch, dance party and floating bar! While I say this was the best part of the day I should first inform you, I thought there was no way it could be that fun. Our hotel had told us it was like a big party boat, however we were stuck on a boat with no other English speaking people. Lots of Russians and some Vietnamese people. Luckily for us we hooked up with another boat full of young, fun-loving travelers from all around the world. We had a huge lunch and then spent an hour singing and dancing and floating around in the water. It was so much fun!! The crew on the boats were hilarious and the other backpackers were so fun! After the party we stopped at the last island. On this island we had the chance to rent jet skis which we took full advantage of! Jet skiing was super fun! I had never done it before, but can't wait to do it again. Amber and I shared a jet ski and Michelle was off on her own. After the jet skiing fun was over we had a some more time to just sit around and be lazy on the beach. It was amazing. I will definitely be going back to Nha Trang to do the boat tour again!

 

The lunch spread. The only picture I took during this part of the day, sadly. 

We were pretty tired after such a fun filled ay, so Thursday day night was an early night for us. We grabbed some food and we were off to bed. Friday was another long, lazy beach day, although, we went to a snazzy place that had super nice chairs, a pool, super yummy food and terrible service! But it was a perfect day for being lazy. Friday night we enjoyed one last night out in the backpackers area and ended at the Sailing Club, my new favorite place to go out! It was a beach bar and there was tons of fun people dancing and just having fun. Knowing that Saturday we had to wake up and check out early, Friday night was not too crazy!

Saturday, our last day of vacation. It was a sad day! We were a little slow moving and not wanting to go home. We woke up and packed all of our stuff back up, about twice as much as we started vacation with, and checked out of our hotel. From there we headed to see some rocks that Amber had found in Lonely Planet. Sounds pretty lame right? Some rocks. But it was pretty amazing. Right on the beach there we just huge rock formations. They were gorgeous! After seeing the rocks we spent yet another lazy day on the beach. I think if I could sit on a beach the rest of my life, I would be a happy person!

 

Michelle looooves playing in the ocean! 

 

weeeeee!

 

My Vietnam besties, last day!

 

ROCK.

 

Gorgeous!

That pretty wraps up my awesome vacation. I got a bit lazy with details tonight, but Nha Trang really was all about the beach and it was fantastic! We were more than sad to leave, but coming back to this crazy city was comforting in a strange way. I really felt like I was at home when the taxi pulled up to my apartment. 

 

Sad to be leaving...

It was fun getting back to school and seeing my kids. I definitely missed them! And now I face my first parent/teacher conferences tomorrow. It is times like these I am so thankful that I only have twelve students! I can't imagine having any more conferences than that! 

Hope everyone is staying warm back home. I have heard it's snowing, so you'll be glad to know I am sweating my booty off while I write this blog. Saigon is getting hotter and hotter!

With love,

Michelle

Hoi An: Part Deux

Hello there!

Here we are one week after I wrote my last blog back in Hoi An! It is hard to believe break is over and I am back in the hustle and bustle of Ho Chi Minh City. This vacation was probably the best of my life (okay... it comes in at a close second behind New Zealand.. but I was working there too so it wasn't all a vacation right??). Anyways, I give credit to my travel buddies and the places we went along the way. This trip definitely would not have been the same without Amber and Michelle by my side. I think three has become my new favorite number!

Now where did I leave off? Ah yes, our night at the spa! Monday we all woke up feeling obviously refreshed and ready for the day. We started off by going back to the tailors for fittings and picking up our clothes that were finished. I loved all of my clothes! We also picked up our shoes. Hmm. I want to keep this post upbeat so let's just say I won't be getting tailor made shoes again. It was one of the many, many lessons we learned over holiday. After clothes and shoes we met up with the Fancy Clancy's, rented some motorbikes and drove off to Marble Mountains. Marble Mountains is a Buddhist Sanctuary built inside the mountains and in caves. It is absolutely breathtaking! It was amazing to think how they built these huge statues inside the dark caves. I can't think of the words to describe it, so here are just a few of the pictures I took!

 

Walking through the tiny town. You can see the tall building in the mountain where we were headed. 

 

Our group up at the top before we began exploring. 

 

One of the scary places we had to crawl through. (Amber)

 

I looooved all the incense. It was everywhere!

 

This was my favorite of all the caves. It was literally the most amazing place I have ever walked into. I find it amazing this is where people come to worship. 

 

This is the same cave. The only light sources were where the sun came in naturally at the top. It was so gorgeous! 

 

Another huge, amazing statue. 

 

Yet another place to worship. This one was gorgeous but there were a lot of people outside trying to get you to buy incense and whatnot which was a bit annoying, but pretty typical. 

 

Gahhhh, I told you this place was amazing!!

After our day of amazement we went back to Danie and Mike's hotel to enjoy the pool for a while before going out to din din. That night we ate a local restaurant called Streets. It was a really cool restaurant where Vietnamese kids (I say this meaning older kids.. like teenagers) go through an 18 month program and learn all about the restaurant industry. By the time they have completed the program they are able to go find jobs with the skills needed to work in a five star restaurant. Since I am allll about helping kids in need, I was really excited to eat at this place. Plus the food was really amazing. So it was a double win! After dinner we took our bicycles down to the night market and then went out for a few drinks. We ended up a backpackers bar which of course had some of drink deals. For example... 

 

Yes that says wishky. And while the menu was funny, the drinks were indeed strong and came in large buckets. After a couple of drinks, being the friendly folks we are, we met some fellow travelers who happened to be a hilarious group of four guys from France traveling through Vietnam. We had fun having a few drinks with them, but soon enough the bar decided to close (even though the flyer said open till the last customer.. which was us... and it was still pretty early in the night). This is where we learned the lesson that the French love to argue. So after a short round of arguments we hopped on our bicycles with the boys on the back, Vietnamese style, and headed to the next bar. Our favorite bar. Why Not? (Really, that is what the bar is called..) At this bar we were less then disappointed by the bumping music and numerous people dancing on the pool table. When you're having so much fun it's hard to go home early.... which of course meant that Tuesday, our last day in Hoi An, was another difficult day for our terrific trio!

On Tuesday we had a lazy lunch and then headed to Da Nang to the Cham Sculpture museum with five hours to kill before heading to the train station. Let me take a break to say that I am all for museums. I think they can be great and interesting and you can learn loads of things. However, when I am hungover and I have no clue what Cham Sculptures are and it is hot and the museum doesn't have air con... I don't like them. So here is what I can now tell you about the Cham people. They were a group of people who lived in Vietnam hundreds of years ago. They no longer exist, but when they did, they made amazing sculptures. Well now these sculptures are being preserved in a museum in Central Vietnam. It was cool at first, but after a while it just felt like you were looking at the same thing over and over again. Now I don't want you feeling left out, so here are some of the cool sculptures they had....

 

This is my favorite for obvious reasons. Amber fits right in! 

The museum took us much less time then we expected so soon enough we were outside looking for transportation, aka a taxi, to the train station. Well we weren't finding any taxis and since we had some extra time to kill we decided to do the touristy thing and hope onto some cyclos. A cyclo is a bike (more like a tricycle really) that has a nice comfy chair for you to sit in while a guy pushes you around. In Saigon the cyclo drivers are constantly trying to get you to hop on for a ride and we are always saying no. However, since we were on vacation we wanted to do the touristy thing, so we said yes!

 

One poor guy had both Amber and I, plus all of our luggage. 

 

After about twenty-five minutes of riding around the streets of Da Nang we arrived at the train station with five hours to spare. Nothing like being timely! We found a cafe with a friendly mouse (oh how I hate those mice!) to sit at for a couple of hours. Then we spent a few hours in the train station. Luckily we went and got some snacks and beer to tide us over and within no time (insert sarcasm) we were the on the train headed for Nha Trang! 

Our train ride was interesting to say the least. I have definitely not been started at so much since moving here, and the people on the train were less then enthusiastic to help us find our cabin. Eventually we got there and climbed into our tiny, not so comfy beds to enjoy a long nine hours of laying horizontally and not being able to sit up. In our 'cabin' there were six beds and five Vietnamese people. That's right the bed bellow me had THREE people sleeping in it. I'm not sure how they pulled it off when I could barely get situated in mine and there was only one of me. Nine hours later, after getting minimal sleep, we arrived in Nha Trang ready for the final leg of our amazing vacation!

Ahhh, once again another long blog post and I am still not done with our vacation! We still have all of Nha Trang to cover. Luckily for you, I am tired and I can't type anymore. So, Nha Trang will have to wait for another day! I hope you have enjoyed the pictures and the stories of my vacation. I feel like I have left out so many details, but if I included them all I would be typing for weeks to come! I loved every second of my time in Hoi An and can't wait to go back again soon. (And get more clothes made....)

Until Next Time,

Michelle

Three Girls, One Cockroach

Hello All!

Holiday has arrived!! I have survived my first quarter as a real teacher and turned in my first report cards, and to celebrate I am on a week long vacation with two of my favorite teachers.

Late Friday night Michelle, Amber and I arrived in Hoi An after almost missing our flight out of the city. I am pretty sure we hopped into the worst cab in all of Saigon. Our driver was not only slow, but took the longest route, plus there was construction holding up the 800 million billion people in traffic. (Maybe a bit of an exaggeration....) However, all is well that ends well; we made it on to our flight, and less than an hour after taking off, landed in Da Nang. From there we took about a half hour cab ride and made it to our hotel the Phuoc An (recommended by another teacher and the Lonely Planet). Our hotel is great! We have one big bed, a single bed, a computer, two TV's, a small balcony, and a breakfast nook all for a whooping $30 a night! Plus to put the icing on the cake, when we arrived we had two towels made into swans and flowers on the big bed, it was quite romantic. Oh and we get free breakfast everyday. Not too shabby!

Friday night we took it easy. We were all starved after our hour and a half cab ride and hour flight so we went and got some food at the small restaurant in our hotel then we called it a night. Saturday morning we woke up to coffee in bed, compliments of Michelle, and hit the streets to explore a bit. Right away we were BOMBARDED with tailors. There are over 200 tailor made clothes and shoe shops in Hoi An and they all want your business. Right away we each got a pair of shoes. How much did they cost you wonder? $20. That's right, $20! Some how I managed to walk away with only one pair. Finding a tailor was a bit more tricky. There were SO many to choose from. We probably walked into 15 shops before settling on a couple to get clothes from. Some of the tailors had really great designs and samples in there shops while others didn't. Some of them also had great fabric with really cool prints, while others didn't have much to choose from.

So now it's confession time.... I went a little crazy. You see it's sooooo cheap to get clothes made here. And really I've been here for three months have only bought a few shirts. I shopped way more back home! Plus all this stuff is costume made.. no one else has it. (I'm making myself feel better about it already) In total, I had three dresses made (two for work, one for fun), two skirts (both for work AND fun), four tank tops (to match the skirts), and two pairs of shorts made. Oh yea, and the shoes. And a pearl necklace for $7. Want to know my grand total?? Less than $200! Looks like I won't need to go shopping for a while!

Besides the awesome clothes here, and they are awesome, Hoi An has a really great atmosphere. It's so quite which is a welcome change from the fast pace city. There are tons of yummy places to eat and it's right along a river filled with colorful boats. At night there is a gorgeous night market on the bridge across the river. Everyone selling things says "looking is free," or "open your hearts, open your wallets." It's pretty entertaining.

We have also found out the night life is pretty fun and filled with backpackers. (None from America so far, although there were a few Canadians last night) Michelle takes the cake for most entertaining last night. After a few cocktails she was feeling good.. and friendly. After talking to many of the backpackers and finding out they would be stopping in Saigon in the near future, she was giving out her business cards like it was no one's business! The bars were quite fun, but I think coming home was the most fun part! We learned that xe om's are expensive here.. like five times as much than at home, but they are also more entertaining. We also found out our hotel is locked at night and to get in, you have to wake up the sleeping security guard. And not that it's anything new, but Michelle and Amber found out just how much I love dogs. There is dog (I am assuming the hotel owner's dog) who is always sitting downstairs. He is a friendly little guy who always greets us and sometimes take naps on the motorbikes in the garage. Last night I made even better friends with him. Amber and I sat and 'talked' to him a while before letting him in our room. Yes, just this little random dog in our room. (Probably not one of my better decisions, but I miss my little Huey back home!) We thought it was hilarious, but for some reason Michelle did not. Maybe it's the fact that three weeks ago a dog bit her on the street and she had some awesome experiences getting shots at the doctors after. Either way Michelle was half passed out, then freaking out and the dog did not want to leave. I think he gets lonely downstairs all the time. But wait, it doesn't end there. Our night got even more entertaining when Michelle came home about an hour ahead of Amber and I (I think she was out of business cards...) and decided to eat the only snack in the room. The whole way home all Amber and I could think about were the oreos in our room and how hungry we were. Imagine our dismay when we got home to see that they were gone. We were none to pleased. How did we handle the situation? We thought it would be a good idea to draw on Michelle's face with eyeliner. That is usually what reasonable adults do. Unfortunately, she woke up right away. She wasn't to keen on being drawn on, so instead Amber drew on herself. Then on me. Finally, Michelle gave in... or we just finally overpowered her. By the end of the night we all looked like fools with eyeliner everywhere and our room was a mess. I think I have found my new favorite traveling buddies!

This morning we were all off to rough start. After breakfast we spent another hour in bed, then at ten we were back off to the tailors. Seeing our clothes made us all feel better. I loooove the clothes I got. So much in fact, I ordered more right away. Hoi An will definitely be a favorite spot of mine in Vietnam! Then we spent a nice long day on the beach. I slept almost the whole time and it felt amazing! After the beach we got showered up and went to dinner before hitting up the spa. Holy amazing. This spa was so cheap, but pretty nice and the owner was the sweetest lady. We each got an hour massage, an hour facial, and a free hour pedicure. It was by far the best pedicure I have gotten in Vietnam. The massage and facial were amazing as well. I think it was a well deserved gift after finishing the first quarter of school. Oh and all of that only cost $35 including tip. That's right $35 for three hours in a spa! Ahhhh, life is good here!

So by now you're probably wondering why is this blog called three girls, one cockroach? Well mostly it was because I didn't know what to call it, so Michelle told me to call it that. Also because Amber had just found a cockroach in our bathroom and had no idea what it was. Oh and all three of us are terrified of bugs. We pretty much left it up to Amber to get rid of the little guy because she found him and he was on her lotion. We were all screaming and freaking out and it was probably the most ridiculous sight anyone has ever seen, but that is what you get when traveling with three girls.

I feel like so much has happened and it's only the second day of vacation. We have two more days here before we head off to Na Trang. I am sure we will have plenty more crazy stories by the end of this week, but we will have a blast. I can't think of anyone more fun to be here with. We are having the time of a life right now! There will be plenty more to come, but for now that is all I have. Thank goodness for the computer in our room. I would have been sad to miss blogging over the weekend. Hope you're all well back home and staying warm. I'll send warm thoughts your way!

Until later,
Michelle

It's Not Always Rainbows and Butterflies!

Hello again,

It's Saturday and I am up blogging at 7:00am... oh how I wish I had the ability to sleep in more! Last week was both physically and mentally exhausting. Usually when I blog it's because I am in a happy mood and life is lovely with no complaints. However, we all know that is not always the case in anyone's life. So, here I am to fill you in on why last week there weren't so many rainbows or butterflies.

Last week started out pretty normal with the exception that I am sick yet again. (This would be a good time to point out for future reference, we have been without internet at home since September 18. Yes, nearly four weeks ago now. This of course has played a role in my not-so-fabulous week.) Rainy season has also reached a new level of terrible. It storms almost everyday and when it rains, it pours. I mean there might as well be someone dumping buckets of water out of the sky. And when I am teaching and it starts raining? Forget it. It is so loud I can't even hear myself talk, let alone my kids. And it floods. The streets become shallow rivers it seems like at least once a week. On Monday it had been raining so badly that I could not even go tutor because the family was worried I would not make it home at 5:30. So I came home and ordered some food and was pretty unproductive. Then over course, I stayed up too late because for some reason I can never go to bed at a decent time anymore.

Tuesday I was already tired when I woke up. Besides being tired, it was a normal day and I was in better spirits when I found out someone was coming to fix our internet. It was exciting because they said they would fix it on Sunday, but surprise, surprise, no one ever showed up. After school I made up my tutoring session from Monday. I was excited to get home and get online.. maybe even Skype with someone for the first time in three weeks, but no. No one showed up to fix it. Again.

Wednesday, I felt terrible half the day. When I got to school, I tired to call mom on viber. Having no internet and living in a high rise, cement box where 3G rarely works, it had been a while since we were able to talk. Of course viber wouldn't work at school either and I was getting MORE than frustrated and I was being unfair to mom and was extremely grumpy. I didn't/don't understand why on earth the internet has to suck so bad here sometimes?! So, we got about two minutes of a broken conversation in. Then, during school the kids had MAP testing and after walking around watching them take these tests for an hour, I felt even more exhausted (it was sooo boring, I much rather be teaching them). After school we had clubs. Then, Krystal and I were going to go to a travel agent to purchase our plane tickets for Christmas break (no luck) and pick up the clothes we had made last weekend (something to make me smile). Of course, before we left to run our errands, the internet people were suppose to come. YAY! (<-- that was sarcasm) Would you like to guess what happened? Don't strain yourself too much, I'll give you a clue. When I went to bed Wednesday, still no internet.

Thursday. The week was almost over, it was going to be a better day. I just knew it. When I got to school I called mom and.... WE COULD TALK! We had a nice long chat and viber didn't cut out even once! (Until it cut out at the end and then I couldn't call her back.... but we had still had a nice long convo before any of that.) But of course, not all days that start well, end well. After a stressful morning the bell rang and up came my kids. (Yes that's right, things turned around quickly.. I was ready to be done before the day started. No details as to why need to be shared.) By lunch time, my stress level was so high I was on the verge of tears and barely holding back. I had a nice long break in the middle of the day so I was able to relax a little by working on some report card comments. (<-- insert sarcasm, again.) After school we had a meeting with all of the teachers, (turns out, I'm not the only one stressing out around report card time.. what?!) and afterwards, I found out when I got home, we WOULD have internet. Krystal had talked to our realtor (who is still amazing and helps us with any translations we need) and she expressed to the internet company that we were not happy with them for now showing up THREE times and needed internet. So, as I left for tutoring, I left with lifted spirits because I am an optimist. Yes, they may have cancelled on us three times already, but my golly, they will come! Annnnnd, they did! YAY! (<-- not sarcasm) When I got home from tutoring I jumped online right away, I checked email and facebook and it worked! I text mom right away and we planned a skype date for two hours later. I went to eat and when I got home I turned on my computer five minutes before our date. I was online and just about to pull up Skype when.... everything. went. black. My whole computer just died. Turned off, didn't want to turn back on. WHY?????????

I Skyped mom from my phone which of course sucked because she couldn't hear me. I was frustrated and mad and sick of technology failing me. I had my first mental break down. To say I was tearing up is an understatement, so I'll let you use your imagination to picture me crying on Skype to my poor mother. (Thank you for putting up with my break down, mom!) After my phone stopped working, I got my computer and took the battery out for a while. Once I put it back in, it was working again. (Seems like a simple fix looking back...) However, my computer has been breaking down little by little, so I'm not sure how long it will last. It could die again now. In the middle of this blog. Or the keyboard could stop working again. Maybe the mouse. Anything is possible now. But, back to Thursday. I called mom again from my computer this time, and while everything should have been fine now, I was still upset and mad at the world. I didn't have anything to talk about anymore, but I didn't want to hang up. I just sat there like a lump on a log. Then dad came into the screen and I lost it. Again. Needless to say we couldn't talk. It turns out, I miss my family much more than I thought. (This makes it sound like I don't miss them, but trust me, I do. I just didn't think it was to the point where I would cry just by seeing one of them...) Shortly after my last break down, I hung up with mom and decided it was time for bed. Sleep was all I needed after this long day.

Whew, glad that is all off my chest! Friday was a good day. My kids were good and my internet was still working and so was my computer (for now.. I am in the process of finding a new computer). To end my quiet day and stressful week I stayed in all night. We ordered food (big American cheese burger and fries) and then Michelle and I watched a movie complete with snacks from the real movie theater downstairs. Then before going to bed, I called mom, and I am happy to say I was in a happy mood when we talked!

I can see next week being stressful still as report cards are due on Friday. However, after that things will be back to rainbows and butterflies as we have a whole week off school! So I am going to explore Vietnam with Michelle and Amber and be vegetable on the beach for a whole week. I love this city, but it time we took a break... Sorry Ho Chi Minh.

Thank you for letting me vent, hope you've had a better week then mine. If not, I feel your pain.. call me and we can complain together!

As always,
Michelle