Nam Now

Vietnam is but a memory now. I flew into Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon and still called that by many) and from there directly to the island of Phu Quoc. All of my approximately 8 days were spent on the island - the only time I spent on the mainland was to catch a plane transfer at Ho Chi Minh City. First impression - warm and humid!! Ah, that felt nice! The water was unbelievably warm. I think it rained during the first night I was there, but otherwise no rain. Blue skies and occasional clouds! They were also celebrating the Lunar New Year, so many of the places were closed or only open during limited times. Definitely not crowded. Most of the people I met, who were not local Vietnamese, were Europeans. I only met 2 Americans the whole time - and they were from Oregon! (Ashland).

So I figure the best way to share the pics I took is through Google Picasa. I've uploaded the pics, presently without captions (I'll try to add some later) and they can be browsed at your leisure. I did go scuba diving, and one of the folders is from the underwater camera I took. I had a personal guide underwater, Jyri, from Finland. The water was warm (I could've gone without the wetsuit) but you have to wear one. There were many jellyfish in the water but I didn't see any around us during the dives. I was disappointed in the water visibility - it wasn't very good. We did 2 dives in one day at 2 different locations. Because of the visibility, I decided it was not worth it to do any more dives...

Here are the links to the pics:
https://plus.google.com/photos/102773079683555477704/albums/6119764212916831089
https://plus.google.com/photos/102773079683555477704/albums/6119763000572804753
https://plus.google.com/photos/102773079683555477704/albums/6119760641392656817
https://plus.google.com/photos/102773079683555477704/albums/6122209531031021745

There was one beach that was my favorite, Sao Beach, towards the south of the island.
I rented a motor scooter for 3 of the days. That's really how everyone gets around unless you take a taxi. Very few autos. Thousands of scooters! I was staying on the west coast of the island about in the middle of the island. You could spend an entire day just exploring the north, and then another day exploring the south. Pretty big island. Signage was poor to nonexistent but if you got lost you could just backtrack to a familiar place.

The vacation served its purpose - relaxation and mind clearing. And it's very cheap there too so you don't spend a ton of money. For a week, I was a millionaire ( 1,000,000 Vietnamese Dong = $46.82).

The Lunar New Year festival is winding down. On March 5 is Lantern Day which ends it. I have already sent a few lanterns up into the sky.

School resumes on March 7, but I will be going to an AP Conference in Suzhou March 6-9 so I miss a couple days of school. I'm looking forward to the conference and seeing Suzhou!