Chasing Sunsets

Let's try this thing. Best I can tell I'm facing due west at 1742 and the sun is about to set. Well. In an hour or so.  I love sunsets, so much better than sunrises. If only because a sunrise means I've spent an excessive amount of time awake.  But sunset, that when the fun starts. Truly I am a creature of the night.

I'm back on the solo road again, after a quick rest in Ho Chi Minh.  Let's see what's happened since last I wrote.  I've traded on tropical island for another.  After that all night party in Ko Phangan that resulted in me coming home drunk and arms covered in neon glowing body paint with the sun, I sent the next few days there relaxing.  The little resort there was great and the owners highly amusing, especially when the sun went down and the bar opened.  

After much internal debating, I made a plan to leave the island and head to Bangkok and then on to Saigon.  After a 12 hour ferry and bus ride, I met Adam in the side of an alley for beers and proceeded to drink the night away.  Again, coming home with the sun.  And the fun n Khaosan Road was still going. As I stumbled back to my guesthouse, others were just arriving or departing for parts unknown. After sleeping till about 3 in th afternoon, I was out and about,  having been to Bangkok before I was in no mood to see reclining Buddha's and palaces.  But I did to book some tickets.  Which, thanks to Visa and Bank of America proved to be a real pain inn the ass.  Luckily, Grace was able to work it out for me.

After meeting up with a Brit and spending the night taking in the sights that come alive in the Bangkok night, I finally hit the bed, albeit reluctantly about 5 AM. The street party still going, but morning was co,ing and it brought a plane ride to Saigon.

Saigon was as steamy as I remember it.  This time I cleared customs and was out side climbing into a cab before my scheduled arrival time,  I guess there's a plush to flying a premium Middle East based airline instead of and American one.  

The next few days in Saigon I holed up in the TanJoe condo.  We went out for Irish festivities to celebrate St Patrick's Day complete with Guinness and "car bombs". And we found the best kabob place.  It was zoo good drunk we went back the next day to confirm it was still tasty.  It was.

Sunday found me and TanJoe heading north out of the sity to the Cu Chi tunnels.  These are tunnels cared out by the Vietnamese during the war. There's a park set up to sort of show you the tunnels and traps they devised.  It was quite inventive, and the tunnels that you can climb through are incredibly clausterphobic.  Given the ones are are bored out for foreigners, it really shows how much a bithc it had to be for Americans to get in the systems and find them.  

We returned to Saigon early in the afternoon and met up with Grace and some other Mekong people for late lunch/early dinner.  From there the night really took off.  A Czech beer pub, a bar of Vietnamese bar girls with cleavage (who knew such existed?), a filipino cover band, and bottle service of Jack Daniels...  Pretty much tells you how Monday morning went....

Today I took to the air with Joe and flew down to Phu Quoc. And after a fruitless attempt to find a waterfall, I resigned myself to spending the afternoon sitting on e beach drinking beer. It's tough

Now the sun is going down and I think it's time to forage for food.  Hasta.