Last day in Dalat

The last day in Dalat was pretty much just about making sure we had all our things packed and gathered. We also needed to pick up the video footage that was taped at the photoshoot and our wedding. Hoai was kind enough to accompany us most of the day. Firstly, we needed to get some food to make sure we were set for the first half of the day:

Haoi on her scooter

FUCK YEAH!

Here’s a sample of the breakfast we had:

Some...THING..and cantonese fried rice, you prick

Sasuage, super-overfried egg and a beef with some gunk on top of it

Now we headed on over to a store to pick up our video. We DID get the DVDs etc earlier, but Na was not happy with the result, so she scolded the poor guy and returned it, demanding it be re-edited.
We got 2 copies on DVD and 2 on DV tapes.

Best movie ever?!

Then Na picked up some more clothes and stuff that she wanted to bring back home. The remainder of the day was basically spent packing all our stuff. At most there were 4 people assisting with the packing. I’m still very concerned about the luggage because i’m sure its at least 30+kg over the allowed limit Na says it’ll be fine. I hope she is right!

Remember i told you about that 5 hour bus drive in the last post? Yeah, i didn’t get any sleep at all and i actually felt car sick after 30 minutes. I tried as hard as i could to not pay attention to the incredibly bumpy, dusty and narrow roads. Luckily i had Nas iPhone handy, so i tried to close my eyes while i listened to music. Thanks, Lady Gaga and Amon Amarth.

Ho Chi Minh City – A new phone and a last goodbye

Arriving in Ho Chi Minh City at 0500 in the morning, i was ready to get some much needed sleep. A taxi took us to a hotel in the city. I crashed into the bed, hard, when we entered our room. Think we slept ’til about 1100 or so. Today we wanted to get some last minute shopping done, and i certainly needed a new phone. First off, we went to Diamond Plaza for some breakfast and a little bit of shopping. I just needed to have that Pepperoni Pizza again! Na also had a pizza this time. Good stuff.

Diamond Plaza is a shopping mall with 4 floors. It’s mostly full of designer brand goods and merchandise. There was a video store on the 4th floor, and since i’m a huge movie buff i wanted to check out the selection. Let’s just say the video store probably ain’t legal by any stretch of the imagination. I browsed a bunch of Blu-ray discs (with paper cover, lols). The cost pr Blu-ray disc was 10NKR (that’s $1.50)…yeah..ok. Just for the hell of it, and to check the quality of the video, i bought 2 discs:

Seems totally legal, right???

Also, alarms should be ringing when you find the Star Wars Trilogy and Indiana Jones Trilogy there on Blu-ray . I got a good laugh when i checked the back of the covers for Star Wars….the lines “Commentary by director Paul W.S Anderson” just cracked me up. Hey, maybe people usually won’t notice stuff like that!

When we came back from shopping i wanted to try the two erm…”Blu-ray” discs. The laptop has a BD-rom so shouldn’t be a problem! I inserted the “Leon” disc into the drive..and just as i had thought…it was a regular DVD-9 disc with the DVD version of the movie..i.e total crap. I told Na that the “Blu-rays” were crap and were just regular DVDs. She said “Yeah, that’s what she told me..the lady at the store said they were sold as Blu-rays because they could be played in BD players”…OOOOOOOOOOH OK! Now i see! Totally understandable! Genius marketing.

Back at our hotel room, we just chilled out a bit. I was waiting for Nas brother-in-law to pick me up so we could head out and grab me a new phone. Na had other business to attend to. He showed up a bit over 1600, and hooked us up with a taxi. We arrived at this store called Muabandienthoai. They were mostly pushing HTC, Apple, Samsung and Nokia products. Seemed like a very pro setup and the sellers knew their stuff. They had all phones on display. The prices were relatively cheap compared to what you would have to pay in Norway for an iPhone without subscription. An iPhone 3GS 16GB cost 4500NKR, 32GB at 5100kr. I was thinking about the 16GB version since i couldn’t even make use of 10GB on my recently CRUSHED 32GB.

But before deciding, i wanted to just try the Google Nexus One phone that was staring me in the face from the display panel. That phone runs at about 4100kr (costs roughly 6000NKR in Norway). I tried it for over 10 minutes, checking browser speed, connectivity, specs etc. I didn’t think the choice would be hard, cause i was so used to my iPhone. But this bastard made me think!

Anyways…the result after over an hour in that store was this:

Sorry Steve Jobs..maybe next time

I’m probably get some crap for some of my friends for this choice, but i’ll live with that

Later that night we all went out to eat together..Me, Na, her two sisters, her mother and her brother-in-law. At 2300 we went back to the hotel to get some sleep.

The day of departure

Right now i’m sitting here writing this last post about our trip to Vietnam. Na is lying beside me, talking on the phone while taking care of her sisters baby, Sofia. We’re pretty much done with luggage etc. All that remains are getting some food before our flight, and saying goodbye. The plane from Vietnam leaves at 1900′ish tonight. I like flying, so i look forward to it getting some air time!

I’d like to take this opportunity  to thank everyone who had read the posts, commented and congratulated us on our wedding down here. It was a pure joy to write about all of this, and i hope you found it interesting and exciting to read. And i hope you’ll keep reading in the future, cause like i mentioned before, i will make more out of this website very soon. I also want to thank my parents, Nas parents and my friends and especially my wife for making all this possible, and for giving me and everyone involved a memorable adventure here in Vietnam.

See you soon!

I spent most of the day at the room, just reading different websites and thinking about our future together. We have some exciting things lined up and it’s gonna require a lot of effort from both of us. I start work again on the 29th this month and im really looking forward to that. I’ve also researched the possibilities of getting myself more education..add another year to my IT studies and get a bachelor degree and maybe a masters somewhere down the line etc, but i’m dependant on it being based on e-earling/online studies since i can’t and won’t put work on the sideline. I’m the kind of person who really dislike having things unsettled, and i feel now is the time to start settling all the things i feel are left undone in my life. With effort, help from my wife, family and friends..i’m confident and sure that i can succeed in doing all that i have planned to do. Actually, creating this website/blog is a small, but important step towards achieving some of my goals and needs. I was asked by a friend of mine if i was going to take down the website after i came home from Vietnam. I certainly won’t be doing that. I plan to expand and redesign the website, and im currently playing with some ideas on what content i want to provide and how i want to design the site.

Tomorrow we leave Dalat and head for Ho Chi Minh City, where we will spend our last day before flying back home to Norway. It’s gonna be 5 hour bus ride yet again. I sense lack of sleep in the near future .

Sorry for the lack of pictures or interesting material today. Check up on the next couple of days for our final days and final thoughts from my brain.

Oh, and btw! If anyone had any ideas, thoughts or input regarding further education based on e-learning/online universites etc, please feel free to contact me! It would be greatly appreciated.

We ate a quick breakfast then bolted out the door. Our first order of business was to meet with the photographer who took our wedding photos and discuss payments. We arrived at his house, where Hoai had already arrived, to settle the payment etc. As i had requested i also got 2 copies of the video footage on DV tapes in 1920×1080 resolution, in addtion to 2 edited and compressed DVD versions.

As most of you probably know, we are gonna have another wedding & party in Norway on May 29th. Na had earlier ordered a set of wedding invitations that we are going to send out to our friends and family when we get back home later this week. They were supposed to be ready by now, so we scootered on over to the shop to pick em up. I gotta say they looked pretty fancy. Won’t be much fun writing and sending them out though!.

Na had some other business to take care of, like picking up some tailor-made clothes etc. Most of the afternoon went by pretty fast.

Anyways! The time was around 1800 when Na, me and Hoai headed out to celebrate her birthday. Hoai took us to this restaurant in town. We were gonna be joined by 4 of her friends a bit later. This is the part where i am supposed to post some pictures, but..i’ll let you know in a bit why there aren’t any. Lots of food were ordered. One in particular that caught my eye, but not my appetite, was a a frog dish. I had earlier tried frog, but then then the meat was sliced up in small bits and looked somewhat appealing at least. Not this time…there were, literally, 2 whole super-grilled frogs on the plate, lying on their backs. It looked comical and disgusting at the same time.

We stayed at the restaurant for a while, and the girls seemed like they had a lot to talk about. I think they made fun of me several times during the meal. At least i heard my name mentioned a lot. I’ll get my revenge!

Now for the shittiest part. When driving to our next destination (a nightclub)..my  iphone dropped out of my back-pocket. I just felt that sucker slip out like it slippery eel. I told Na to stop. I got off the scotter and went to pick up my phone….my left eye just started twitching when i saw my phone…

Hnnnnnnnnnnnnnng!

It was disco time now. There is a nightclub called Rain here in Dalat and that was our destination. I hadn’t anything drink for a while, so i decided to a glass or 4 of whiskey if the offered that in this place. The music here wasn’t as ultra loud as the place in Nah Trang, so it was bearable. We got our own little table beside the dance floor, and as i peeked at the menu i noticed they had Chivas Regal. One of those on the rocks, please. We also got a fruit platter served. I dont know if that was customary or something that was ordered, though.

After 40 minutes in that place we decided to call it a night.

When we came back to the house i tried to get my iPhone to power on. No luck at all. The thing was completely dead. Luckily i have a backup of apps, notes etc at home, but photos from that night are gone. What pisses me of more is that there is little to no use repairing it by replacing the glass display and the digitizer, cause it’s broken beyond that. That means it’s gonna be just as expensive to repair as it would be buying a new phone. I’m gonna check in Ho Chi Minh City for a new one.

Still, it was a fun birthday celebration! Happy Birthday, Hoai.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more.

As we waited for the bus, there were several other larger and smaller means of transportation heading in to the bus stop. They never really bothered stopping to check if any passengers wanted a ride. Instead, people just leaned out the window and yelled if anyone wanted a ride. After 10-15 minutes of waiting our bus finally arrived. It was almost full, but at least we managed to get seats next to each other. It was time for a 6 hour bus drive with 3 stops in between. As i’ve mentioned earlier i really hate riding on buses because i get easily sick and i can’t really relax. On the ceiling in front of the bus there was a digital clock staring me right in the face…like it was taunting me, knowing that it would be there to show every long and winding minute that went by, and to remind me how long i had to stay on the bus. I just took Nas hand and closed my eyes as i tried to think of happier places to be at.

We arrived at our first stop. I needed to take a piss so i went ahead to relieve myself. When i came back i bought an icecream, cold water and some bubblegum. We went back on the bus. Another 2 hours passed..i don’t know how, but they did. Stop nr.2 was up. This time we got something to eat. The place seemed filthy and unsanitary..not the kind of place any person would usually order food. But for the Vietnamese people it was a standard they were used to. There were cats and dogs running around on the dining floor. I took a peak towards the kitchen, which was more or less inside the dining room. I started to think about the hygiene, how they maybe prepared their meat, stored it etc. I started getting freaked out. Maybe its just me thats a stuck up snob who desires calm, quiet and clean interiors and a likable atmosphere when i eat..eating is important to me..it’s a small event that i cherish. I easily lose my appetite in the wrong surroundings. I can’t really remember what i ate at this moment.

Back on the bus. I think we were closing in on 4 hours travel time now. I tried to sleep, but it was impossible. I took up my camera and looked at some pictures i’d taken, showed them to Na. Another hour passed. Another short stop, just to fill gas. It was nighttime now. I saw a sign that said Dalat – 110km. That should be a little over an hour i think. The road got bumpy and really narrow. The bus driver started to get on my nerves with his daring overtakes and constant breaking. The bus suddenly slowed down, almost to a complete stop. There was a bunch of cars lined up a head and people outside shouting. Everyone in the bus stood up, except me. Na took a peak outside the left side of the bus. I saw her mouth slightly open. She looked back at me and said “An accident, someone is dead”. I replied “how do you know someone is dead?” “I can see him lying on the ground, lifeless..lots of blood from his head, his helmet beside him, blood from his legs…come and see!”. I didn’t really know what to say, but i told her to sit down and not stare. It took exactly 15 days for us to see a traffic accident in Vietnam…i’m surprised i had to wait that long.

We arrived in Dalat sometime between 2000 and 2100. Upon arrival we changed from our earlier room to a new one, with a bath tub. Wasn’t much time to relax and settle in. Me, Na, her sister and Hoai went out to eat. My appetite wasn’t much, but i managed to chow down some food at least.

It was a weird and trying day. Riding a bus for more than 1 hour makes me cranky and stressed. It was time to get some sleep.

I know this post wasn’t one of the most positive ones, but it wasn’t a very positive day. If i didn’t have my wife beside me, i would have lost my mind. I love her.
Thanks for reading. Next up…Hoais birthday etc.

You actually have to wrap yourself around the door to take a piss

Worst shower ever

You know those showers that barely drip water when you turn em on? This was a fine example of that. It really pisses me off to no end. You have to stand in the shower for 5 hours to get your hair wet enough to use shampoo, then another 5 hours to wash that shit out. I really hate cheap skate hotels like that. Grrrrr!

When you stay  in Ho Chi Minh City don’t expect a moment of silence from the outside unless you book yourself into a good hotel with proper isolation. You could hear constant car horns, scooters and yelling all night. I took this picture from the window on our room during daylight, but it’s a fine presentation of the nighttime activities as well:

Scooooootteeeeeeeer!

Since this was our last day in Ho Chi Minh City we wanted to check out a War Museum and hopefully a proper shopping mall that carried decent goods that weren’t knock offs or cheap imitations. Being hungry as hell, we grabbed a taxi to this place called Diamond Plaza. It was a shopping mall with food court. That meant we could grab breakfast AND do some shopping. We stumbled upon this food court at the 5th floor that had Lotteria, Fresco and some japanese and korean food outetls. I ended up with a medium sized pepperoni pizza from Fresco:

Good pizzas here

Best pizza i've had in a while

The pizza was outstanding! Pepperoni and cheese…REAL god damn cheese! I’m not ever eating a pizza from Dolly Dimples again. Maybe if they start using REAL cheese and not the plant-based, non-cream “cheese” they use, i’ll consider it. This pizza marks the end of my carbohydrate intake for a while now.

We didn’t really find anything exciting to buy at the mall, so we headed directly  to the War Museum. When we arrived there the time was 1200..and guess what? The museum closed at 1200 and opened again at 1330! Good game. We popped into a nearby cafe and sat there to wait it out. I was being quite pissy by now because 1)i had some shit in my right eye that annoyed the hell out of me and 2) i was getting really tired by the amount of pushy sellers and beggers outside the cafe and the musem entrance. This one guy came up to us at the cafe and just stood there with his stolen t-shirts that he wanted to sell. We said “No, we don’t wanna buy anything”. He didn’t move, just pointed his finger towards my father and smiled, continuing to pester us. I just snapped and yelled at him..told him to take his t-shirts and fuck off. He smiled some more before finally going away. Where’s my blood pressure monitor when you need it?

The clock finally hit 1330 and we entered the War Museum. It was 2 floors worth of history and artifacts from the Vietnam war (mostly from the 65-75 era). They had weapons, mines, photographs etc on display accompanied by both vietnamese and english texts. The history was of course told from a pure Vietnamese perspective and tried as hard as possible to make the US seem like heartless and coldblooded child killers. Which, of course, they are…or..were?

Here are some shots from the museum:

Don't let the army fuck over your mind

The second floor of the War Musem had a huge history part where the entire progression of the Vietnamese wars (including the french occupation) were explained in detail, chronologically. It was quite an interesting read. I recommend everyone who visits Ho Chi Minh City to take a peak at this War Museum.

It was time to go to the airport to say goodbye to my parents, Ole-G and Tommy. I joined them for the check-in of the luggage. We came back outside to let Na and her parents say goodbye to them. I already felt that i was gonna miss them. I really wanted Na and me to join them and go home. We said goodbye to them.

Me, Na and her parents were now gonna visit a place that was located about an hours drive outside Ho Chi Minh City. Nas sister and her husband was staying there at the moment, and we were gonna join them for some supper and social togetherness.

We had a good meal together that night with a whole bunch of people. Me and Na retired to a small hotel that night..a SMALL…hotel:

The matress was harder than wood

No comment

I didn’t even bother to try the shower, because taking a look at it i almost popped a brain vessel in my forehead. The AC in the room was located directly above the bed and was noisy as hell. Im surprised i even got a minute of sleep.

The next day..we are going back to Dalat via bus. A 6-7 hour bus ride. Not gonna enjoy that.

Thanks for reading! I’ll be posting more very soon!

The day started off with the usual buffet breakfast routine:

Ole-G at the morning buffet

I was pretty pleased with my choice of breakfast today:

Omelette, sausage, cheese and cold cuts

The omelette (with bacon) was pretty okay. The sausage was nice and the cheese was good. The cold cuts however has got to be some of the worst cold-cuts i have ever eaten. They looked delicious, but they tasted of…fucking soap and perfume! Ah well…

After consuming breakfast we tried to kill some time in the lobby by playing cards. Na decided to entertain us with her knewly purchased hat, and her sisters baby:

A boo boo baba

After messing around with talk, cardplaying and general crap we noticed the time was a bit over 1500. I decided i wanted to get some more food before the departure to the airport, so i headed out the the Beachcomber Restaurant (located at the pool) and ordered me some carbohydrates as a guilty pleasure:

A club sandwhich! When in doubt..the safe choice.

Been ages since i tried a Club Sandwhich. It was pretty good and i’ll probably look forward to the next time i order one, which will be in a year or so..or more.

When i got back to the lobby we were notified that our plane from Nah Trang to Ho Chi Minh City was delayed by 2 hours. Fantastic. Thanks a lot, Vietnam Airlines.
Still, we thought it best to just leave the Resort and cruise around in Nah Trang for a little while, because sitting in that lobby was getting REALLY boring. We hopped in to a Tuc-Tuc that took us to the pier, further on to a speed boat. I looked back and saw the Vinpearl Island become more distant as the speed boat was getting closer to the mainland.

Arriving at the mainland pier i noticed a bunch of fishing boats that seemed to spreading the good word of the socialist republic of Vietnam:

Fishing in the name of communism!

We left our luggage with the Vinpearl pier reception as we hooked a taxi ride in to the city of Nah Trang. Na decided to visit a big market that sold all kinds of stuff.
Upon arrival at the market i instantly noticed an incredibly foul smell… Turns out the taxi dropped us off in the middle of the one spot in the market that sold dried up fish and god knows what else. The market seemed very dirty and worn down. Not exactly my kind of spot, to put it mildly. I can’t stand stressful markets with pushy sellers. To top it all off there were also a bunch of beggers running around asking for money or wanting to sell ridiculous items for a high price.

Here’s a few shots from the place:

Entrance to the market

Be happy you can't smell this picture

What up, dawg! #2

The inside part of the market was pure torture. Not only was there nothing remotely interesting to look at or buy, but the air was so heavy to breathe it almost felt toxic. Not very pleasant for me at least.
My mom picked up some merchandise and so did Ole-G.

Our flight to Ho Chi Minh City was leaving in a few hours now.  We went back to the Vinpearl reception to pick up our luggage and head out to the Cam Ranh Airport.
None of us had flown with Vietnam Airlines before so we were kinda excited (someone was scared, but lets not mention names..). The airport itself wasn’t exactly the busiest i’ve seen:

Heellooooooo?

We checked in all of our luggage before sitting down to have a quick drink prior to the security check.

Let me just say it flat out…the security check at Cam Ranh airport is a disgrace and a god damn disaster! The setup was normal..you have your basic 2 x metal detectors and 1 x carry-on luggage scanner.
When i came up to the carry-on luggage scanner i was told i didn’t need to take my laptop out of the briefcase. Ok, no biggie, i thought. Now comes the good part. I have an ICD (implantable cardioverter defibrillator) implant because i have fucked up heart rythms from time to time. People who have an ICD or a pacemaker are given an ID card that states the specifics and data of the implant, and also functions as a proof that the patient has one. Due to the ICD i am to avoid any kind of metal detectors, strong magnetic fields etc..you get the point. Usually when i arrive at the security checkpoints i state that i have an ICD implant and that i can’t go thru the metal detector. I am then allowed to pass the check without going thru the detector, but i am given a body search by one of the guards. They usually check everything including shoes, waistline, arms, chest, legs etc.

I tell Na to say to the guard that i have an ICD. She tells him. The retard waves at me to come thru the metal detector. I get pissed right away and rip my shirt off like the damn hulk and show him my bulge on my skin that is the ICD. He then tells me to come thru another metal detector that is turned off. I check it myself and walk thru. He doesn’t ask me for an ICD ID card. His body search? He gently pats me on the right side of my arm and right side of my upper thigh..and lets me pass. He didn’t check my shoes, my waistline, my back pockets etc. I could have easily brought a knife or a firearm through that check. This kinda annoys me even more and i start questioning the overall security of the Vietnamese airports and airlines. Maybe i get easily upset over stupid stuff, but that’s just me.

The flight to Ho Chi Minh City took only 20 minutes. It as the first time i flew an Airbus. One positive thing about the whole thing.

When we arrived at the Ho Chi Minh Airport we tried to find a couple of taxis to take us in to the city. We were told by this guy who come running that he had taxis available. An alarm usually goes off in my head when someone is basically trying to push goods or services on you. And hey..i was right! When we arrived, they wanted extra money because we had so much luggage, we refused. When my father paid the taxi fare (which was 150,00 dong) he didn’t get any change back either…the driver just took the money and drove off like he had satan himself chasing him.

It had been a long day of travel and we just wanted to sleep now. Tomorrow, my friends and my parents are going home. I still have one week left here with my wife before i head home. I’m gonna miss having them here, and i wish me and Na could go home with them. I’ll be posting more about my remaining days here. Thanks for reading, as always.

Enough of my snobby food ramblings! Today we all headed to the Water Park!:

The Vinpearl Water Park entrance

The water park is located pretty close to the hotel itself, so it’s roughly a 2-3 minute drive with a Tuc-Tuc (who the hell came up with that name..).
When you arrive you are encouraged to rent a locker to store your belongings. We paid for 2 or 3 lockers so we could store our stuff. Since i’m an intelligent prodigy i was just wearing my bathing shorts and camera, so i didn’t need any damn locker!

I wanted to buy some swimming goggles though, cause last time i was here one of my contact lenses almost popped out. There was a store besides the locker room area that sold swimming wear, so i found a couple for me and Na there. Everyone put their stash in the lockers, and we headed towards the first slide:

The Multislide!

The Multislide was the name of this puppy. You lie face down on a mattress and just hurtle yourself to your waiting doom at the bottom. The first time i took this i couldn’t see shit due to having to close my eyes so my contact lenses wouldn’t be raped into my skull. But guess what? When we got to the top the safety instructor told me i couldn’t wear my goggles because they were a SAFETY HAZARD! What…the…Fuuuuu? So it’s okay to wrap your sandals around your WRISTS but not to wear plastic swimming goggles with a very elastic rubber band on your head? Yeah ok, thanks alot. So much for me seeing anything this time either then.

Here’s an action shot from the multislide:

Ole-G, Tommy and erm..someone in top speed

Good times! After trying out the multislide we went to it’s neighboring slide…the..<cough>slide. Got that? Good. Heres how this baby looks:

The waaaheeey slide!

Pretty okay slide this one, but doesn’t give the “OMFG” feeling when going down. After trying this one out we found some over-sized frogs walking around in the park. Na and her sister thought they were cute and wanted to take a ride on their back…i wasn’t so sure about their intentions but what can you do:

Killer frogs from hell

It was time to go the manliest slide of them all. The amazing U-slide (i just came up with that name)!:

The best slide in the park

It doesn’t look much, does it? But when you get up there, it feels like a free-fall drop straight down, and it’s pretty awesome. You can either ride it solo or as a couple.
Here’s a random shot i took of someone being pwned at the end:

Not the best way to dismount

There is also this relaxing wave pool at the park:

"I'm an ocean of calm waves..."

The park also features a variety of larger and smaller slides for adults and kids alike. Some of the larger tube-slides are pretty fun and gives good speed. This one is pretty cool:

A nice tube-slide

We spent roughly a couple of hours at the park. It’s not a place where you wanna spend your entire day, unless of course you wanna ride the same slides over and over again.

Back at the hotel, we found ourselves back by the pool again. Na has made some really good progress on her swimming and im very proud of her. She can basically swim under water now, she has almost lost her fear of getting water above her head and i see hints of herself being able to keep afloat.

A determined swimmer

When the clock hit 1930 it was time to check out todays buffet disaster yet again. I was hoping there would be something decent to eat at dinner at least, considering how abysmal the breakfast was.
A couple of small spring rolls, chicken in mushroom sauce, pork chops and cheese saved the day, but barely. The chicken was actually quite good and properly cooked with a good mushroom sauce. The pork chop was dry, thin and uninspiring. I really feel sorry for Tommy. He has been struggling with the food almost since we arrived, and i don’t think he’s found many highlights or memorable dishes so far. He usually sticks to bread and butter at the buffet. He keeps talking about coming back home to Norway to get some proper food. I’m personally not THAT troubled by the food, but i’ll be honest and say that the food has been a disappointment overall, especially here at the Vinpearl Resort & Spa.

The night ended with us playing billiards and cards, like the two previous nights. I’ll finish this post of with a night shot of the view from our room. Thanks for reading and stay tuned. Tomorrow we leave Vinpearl and head for Ho Chi Minh City.

Vinpearl pool area by night

So what did we do today? Well, nothing really exciting i’m afraid. Me, Na, Tommy and Ole-G took a trip to the water park to check out the slides and stuff. I regret not bringing my camera to take some photos, but i promise i’ll be doing that tomorrow. I’m hoping i can bring my father along and force him into some of those slides..cause that’s gonna be epic entertainment. I’d also pay alot of money to see my mother rush down one of those slides, but that’ll have to be in my wildest dreams. Anyhows…stay tuned tomorrow..cause hopefully i’ll be posting some pictures from that waterpark then.

Oh yeah. We all changed rooms today. As i mentioned earlier, we all got an offer to move to new rooms with a balcony view for the last 2 days of our stay. We accepted the offer. The view from these new rooms are quite better than the first ones we had:

Pretty decent view from our new room.

 And we also had a view of Tommy & Ole-Gs balcony…

"Out there...across the far winds..."

Today we were joined by Nas parents and her sister. They came here to enjoy a couple of days of relaxation with us.
What was pretty damn funny today was seeing Tommy and Ole-G doing water aerobics. I also recorded that with my camcorder, but i don’t think i’ll be showing that anywhere else than my own livingroom.

I did, however, take some photos of them:

"Work it, boys"

"No pain, no gain!"

One thing i haven’t mentioned yet is the russians! There’s shitloads of russian tourists at this place. They easily make up 70% of the entire tourist population here at Vinpearl. The funny thing about them is that they’re very easy to spot…but i’m not gonna go into that in detail since i don’t wanna become the target of angered russians anytime in the future! Let’s just say it was quite amusing to see this younger russian woman standing by the pool, dancing to the sounds of the aerobics music while her incredibly overweight boyfriend/husband was slapping her ass. That’s entertainment!

All of us had dinner together that night again at the Orchid Restaurant (i.e Buffet Paradise). Again, the food was average with few highlights.
We ended the evening with 4 of us (Me, Na, Tommy and Ole-G) playing cards in the bar. One amusing event that happened there was when we were gonna order drinks. I ordered a glass of Jameson, Ole-G a glass of Jack Daniels, Tommy wanted a chocolate bar (Toblerone) and a pepsi. Na ordered some kind of fruit drink with alcohol in it. After 10-15 minutes..what we got served was 2 cups of hot chocolate, a pepsi and nothing else. After Na talked to the waitress, we got our 2 glasses of whisky (which tasted incredibly watered out and weird). The 2 cups of hot chocolate? poured out by the waitress.

That’s about it for today, folks. Thanks for reading! Check in tomorrow for some waterpark fun.

The smaller-than-AA batteries springrolls weren’t bad. I have stopped eating vegetables however, because everytime i eat them i get the shits. I don’t know why, but i take the hint that my stomach doesn’t approve of it. But hey! That means more meat for me.

We didn’t have any plans for today, so we quickly decided to go to the pool and relax for a bit. Also, we wanted to make Na practice her swimming a bit more. She’s becoming less and less scared of water now, and she is really starting to like it. Here she is in action:

Ole-G, the poor bastard, is having problems with his sun-burned skin. So he was totally chilling out…Na was happy to drive him around in the pool for a bit:

We mostly stayed under the palm trees at the pool today. The temperature was pretty decent there, and also provided some shade for our pale-skinned bodies. It was a nice view as well, and as you can see..it’s not exactly crowded..just the way i like it:

I was being lazy today so i didn’t swim that much. Na, Ole-G and my father played around with a ball in the pool for quite a bit. It looked kinda fun, so i think i’ll join in that action tomorrow!
After hanging out by the pool for some hours, we decided to just cruise down to the shopping area and see if we could find some swimming training equipment for Na. We found one of those bloated things you have on your arms (its for kids..lololol). Hopefully that will help her stay afloat when trying to swim

Before heading back we sat down at this joint to scoop in some icream:

I had an icecream called Gold Strike. Tasted like orange, with chocolate bits in it. Good stuff.

Tommy & Ole-G wanted to watch the first Formula 1 race of the season, so we headed back to the hotel. Me and Na had earlier ordered our complimentary Honeymoon dinner for 1900, so we went to our room to eagerly await that. The doorbell rang a bit over 1900 and in came our dinner!

We managed to interrupt Tommy from his F1 viewing to take a picture of us:

I wish i could have said that the food was amazing, but sadly i thought it was just average..like the rest of the food i have tasted so far at Vinpearl. However, the setting was nice and romantic, and we enjoyed that at least.
We sat for a while and relaxed after (trying) to eat all the food.

Me, Tommy and Ole-G had earlier decided to head down to the hotel bar/lobby area to play some cards. 2100 was the time for that, so we went down. Na was tired so she was sleeping when we went down.
We found a table close by the bar. Also, there were 2 mexicans playing acoustic guitars and singing down in the lobby. It was a nice evening overall:

Well, that’s another day at the Vinpearl resort for us. Tomorrow we’ll be changing to another room with a balcony and a hopefully better view!

Thanks for reading, as always.

Anyways! We started our day with breakfast..we found some weird-ass fruit:

It tasted pretty good..very sour, which is what i like.

After eating breakfast we decided to take our pale, white bodies to the pool area. It’s a pretty decent pool and the area was surprisingly calm and quiet.

I’m not supposed to be writing this..or telling anyone. But since i’m such a bastard i just can’t help myself. Na can’t swim..so we decided to learn her how to swim.
She seemed to be getting the hang of it after a little while, and im sure if she keeps practicing she’ll be able to swim in no time.

Here is Na looking happy that im about to share this picture with you all:

And here is the 3 white nerdy gimps trying to get all cool by the pool:

Na had us beat..she looked more comfortable and presentable than 3 silly and dirty foreigners;

The sun was pretty scorching, so we used 30 strength sunblock. We also went down to the beach and took a swim in the sea. It was quite refreshing. Most of the day was spent by pool. We also went to check out the sea aquarium. I’ll be posting pictures from that in a later post. We wanted to try out the water park as well, but we weren’t allowed since we got there 30 minutes before closing time. Next time!

We decided to head out to the city (Nha Trang) at night for some disco and karaoke. We were gonna meet Hoai there. At about 2030 or so, we got into the Tuc-Tuc that would take us to the pier:

After arriving at the mainland we grabbed a taxi to go and pick up Hoai at her hotel. Afer doing so, the taxi took us to this disco joint called Yakasaka or something along those lines. I was being a party pooper here because the music was so incredibly loud that my ears started to hurt…loud music isn’t a problem for me, but this was just beyond retarded. I just stood there with my fingers plugged into my ears. I prefer being able to actually talk and to hear what other people are saying to me.

Ah well. We went out and found a more quiet place. A bar/restaurant type of thing with live music. We had some drinks here:

We got a free drink when we entered the place. Rum & Coke. Not my type of drink, but hey..it was free! I tried Strawberry Dacquiri for the first time, and it wasn’t all bad. Tommy had his Sex on the Beach.

It was time to try out some Karaoke! We drove to this place that had private rooms for massages, steambaths etc…and…Karaoke! We were taken to a pretty large room that had a large table and a couch going around it.
We got free beer, chips and……bubblegum….what the f. Na and Hoai quickly got into the mood by choosing their songs..while us 3 guys were trying to find songs in English. I ended up on “Nothing Else Matters” by Metallica. Ole-G chose “O holy night” and Tommy…surprise surprise…ended up with “Im too sexy” by Right Said Fred.

Needless to say, we sucked bigtime. But for some odd reason, Ole-G got the highest score with his rendition of “O Holy Night”. WTF CHARLES!

Here are some photos from the Karaoke joint:

I was getting pretty tired by now, so we all went home at about 0100.

It was a nice day. Tomorrow i’ll be posting more about our stay here at Vinpearl, so stay tuned.
Thanks for reading!