Apocalypse OW

Much like John McCain, Sneaky is unable to raise his arms above his shoulders. His injuries, however, were not sustained at the Hanoi Hilton, but instead are due to a debilitating sunburn on his back and shoulders acquired during yesterday's island-hopping booze cruise.

Today, after our mudbaths at the mineral spas and more than a few beers, Sneaky mustered up the courage to pop the giant sunburn blister that had formed on one of his arms. There is video of this entire debacle, which I will one day share with you. For now, you'll have to be satisfied with a photo of the absolutely heinous-looking thing he had on his arm up until a few hours ago:


Moms, please take comfort in the fact that this minor surgery was performed in as sterile an environment as possible; The needle was put through a flame, and--despite the major stinging and wincing on Sneaky's part--I used an alcohol swab before stabilizing the wound with Neosporin and a Band-Aid. I could have been a great triage nurse...

We're on a boat!

Today we decided to hop a party boat around some islands in the vicinity this beach town, and party it up Spring Break Nha Trang style. We were extremely skeptical upon boarding the bus to the dock. Despite Lonely Planet's warning that this was not family-friendly fun, it didn't really seem to be a party-happy crowd, and Sneaky was coping with a debilitating sunburn from our previous day at the beach. Nonetheless, we hopped on the boat, watched it fill up with tourists from all over, and prayed it wouldn't be a totally miserable six-hour tour (a six-hour tour.)

It turned out to be just about the most fun we've had yet on this trip (apart from crossing the street in HCMC, which is an adrenaline rush unlike anything else.) We found some cool Aussies, a group of Eastern Europeans (from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia), and a few others to join our ragtag group of maritime hooligans. Together, we drank all the beer they had onboard, had swim races around the boat, and floated around in life preservers drinking some kind of sticky-sweet rice wine.

By far the most hilarious thing about this boat ride was that they blasted music from some old speakers, which seemed cool at first, until it became apparent that they only seemed to have two songs: "Dangerous" by Akon and "Right Round" by Flo Rida. By the third time repeat, we were all just about ready to jump overboard.

It was great to meet some other people doing the North-South or South-North Vietnam coast. Everyone seems to be in love with Hoi An (our next stop) and we got some great recommendations for boat trips in Halong Bay and restaurants in Hanoi. After we all went our merry ways to shower and rest, we had a reunion at the Sailing Club for one last hurrah together before the BulCzechKians hopped their bus north and the Melbourne chicks took their train to HCMC. We grabbed dinner with the hilarious Sydney couple--they are headed to Hoi An next as well, so we hope to go on more crazy adventures together in the next few days.

"Dude! They have flat screens!!"

[Editor's Note: This post was written aboard the HCMC to Nha Trang yesterday evening.]

This afternoon, when we decided we should take the train from HCMC up to Nha Trang, we acknowledged that this attempt at budget travel could be a fun and convenient way to get to our next destination, or that it could be a colossal failure resulting in a miserable god-knows-how-long trip inside a tiny shoebox of a sleeping car. After hearing the disappointing news that the Golden Express luxury train was not an option (it only runs during the high season) and examining five different train schedules where each train took anywhere from seven to eleven hours to run the same exact route, we took a leap of faith and purchased three berths in an overnight train departing HCMC at 9:40 p.m.

To be completely accurate, we actually purchased four berths in the event that our friend, Cecilia, wanted to join us. Fine, in the interest of complete disclosure, in the event that she did not join us, we wanted to ensure we didn’t wind up with some rando sleeping next to us (or on top of us, as it were.)

We arrived at the train station a little on edge. We knew the moment of truth would soon be upon us. Would the train be a plush and romantic way to travel the up Vietnamese coast? Or would it be a flea-invested, smoky, broke-down, no A/C nightmare of an overnight ride? Regardless, we all agreed that it couldn’t possibly be worse than Amtrak.

You can imagine the look on our faces and the delight in our hearts when we caught our first glimpse of the sleeping car through the train window and saw wood paneling and brand-new LG flat screen televisions. The downside is that it’s an overnight train, so we won’t really see anything. The upside is that we will wake up tomorrow on one of the world’s best snorkeling and SCUBA beaches.

And for all of USD $96, we have our very own, cedar-scented, 5 x 7, double-bunk bed box. Con flat screen. Score.

The television, by the way, is tuned to some kind of celebration in honor of Ho Chi Minh’s 119th birthday, in case you were wondering. There appears to be no way to change the channel.



7:42 p.m.-- And we’re off! On time!!

7:45 p.m.-- A lady conductor in a very smart uniform just came by to give us bottled water and a refreshing towelette. Awesome.



7:56 p.m.-- Another conductor knocked on our compartment door, said hello, then left.

8:25 p.m.-- We are stopped. Haven’t moved an inch in the last 10 minutes. Rethinking how great an idea this was…

9:00 p.m.-- I'm nodding off thanks to the gentle rocking of the train. G'night!

6:00 a.m.-- Fritz just went to grab us some water from the bar car and returned very flustered. Apparently he put his hand through a glass panel in one of the intra-car doors and the conductor is after him. This whole experience suddenly feels like something out of the Darjeeling Limited.

6:30 a.m.-- It was unclear exactly at what time we were scheduled to arrive, but we appear to have made it! Time for some fun in the sun.