A Road-trip Worth Remembering

As many of you may remember, we have had some bad road trip experiences in the past (I won't go into detail, but they involve bathroom doors unceremoniously detaching and puking in cars!), ones that were, as Mum likes to say, "all part of the experience!" So when I heard that we were going on ANOTHER 8 hour road trip, it's understandable that at first I was just a bit skeptical! I thought that it would be looooong stretches of boring travel, feeling sick and doing nothing. Boy, was I wrong!

Day#1 Friday 9th August, 2013
We started the day at 4.30am (I love early starts!), dressed, gathered our bags and headed out into the night to meet the bus that would be our only source of transport for the next 3 days. We all climbed in and found seats (Dad, in the process, hitting his head on the disco-light for what would NOT be the last time). We then drove to Dad's workplace to pick up the rest of the gang. We all boarded the SOS express and once settled we were on our way. I thought that the bus ride would be kind of boring, but as it turned out it was the complete opposite! Everyone was very friendly and talkative, always chatting, laughing and smiling. (Vietnamese people will always act 15, even if they are 30!) After numerous breaks for meals and nhà vệ sinh (rest-room), and more Vietnamese stage show movies than I would care to mention, we FINALLY made it to Báo Trùc Resort, Phan Rang.

The minute I stepped into our room I was straight into my togs (swimsuit, for those who aren't familiar with the term) and diving into the pool before you could say hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia, which wouldn't actually be that fast. After the pool I decided to hit the beach, which was only about 50 meters from the pool. A few hours or so of splash fighting with Isaac and a few others later, once we were dry and dressed, we (again) drove in the bus to a restaurant to have dinner. After dinner we all went to karaoke and Dad had the highest score! When we arrived back at the hotel I was utterly exhausted but happy; it had been an awesome day!

                          (me at the beach with Mum and Dad and Moss and Cường in the background)
Day #2
In the morning we ate at the buffet breakfast (Dad was mortified to find that there was no bacon) and then got back on the bus for an hour's drive to Vinh Hy Bay where boarded a boat with a glass bottom. Cương, Isaac, Moss and I went onto the more precarious top deck to enjoy the view. We passed a lot of steep rocky hills that might have been mistaken for cliffs that had a few little houses on them. When we reached our destination we alighted onto a floating platform close to the shore that had a few chairs, hammocks, tables and large containers holding shellfish of every sort.

                        (above) Dad: "you boys are so tiring"! (below) Dad: "that's better, now sit!)

                                   
                                    
                                   

                                     

                                    
                                       
                                   
                                             
                                

                                    

 I, being already in my togs, immediately ran to the edge of the platform and dove right in, instantly awestruck by a stunning array of fish and coral of all sorts of shapes and colors; I even saw a couple of lion fish(Lena was over the moon when she saw them, I myself didn't want to get too close, knowing how venomous they were)! After a few hours of diving off the floating jetty, pushing the guys into the water and exploring the underwater paradise that was Vinh Hy Bay, I joined the others at the table and ate crab with them(Lena had a bit of trouble getting the meat out of the shell).

                                      #1

                                       #2                                   

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Isaac tried to teach Cường how to dive, and, well... not exactly the most graceful I've ever seen!

 Then we drove back (stopping on the way to have lunch) to the resort where I did even more swimming at the beach, then the pool. Once I (finally) went back to my room, I gave Moss a ukulele lesson (afterwards he forgot most of the tune, but it was still fun!)

 We had dinner (same restaurant but no karaoke), and when it was dark and we were all back at the resort we went down to the beach and, after kicking a shuttlecock around a bit, we lit a campfire and sang and played some fun silly games around it. Eventually when the campfire had dwindled down to a few glowing embers, we all wandered back to our rooms. Some people went out to have seafood but I was simply too tired to bother.

Day #3
The next day I got up early, and had breakfast with Moss, Cương and Isaac. After the meal I went back to my room (meeting Mum and Dad on their way to breakfast) and continued to teach Moss the song on the ukulele. All too soon it was time to pile back into the bus for the loooooooooooong trip back home. At one point, near the end, the exhausted bus broke down and it took about an hour for a replacement to get there. On the final leg home I gave up trying to get Moss to remember the chords, and just wrote out the music for him. Once we finally dropped off everyone else and arrived back at the apartment, we were too tired to even bother to have dinner and just went straight to bed. It had most definitely been a road-trip worth remembering!

notice the charming face Isaac is making.