Saigon!

Aaaaand...we're in Saigon. Haha. Sorry for the delayed updates, let me start this by going back to my last days in Cat Ba, which were quite eventful. I had a falling out at my hotel over the motorbike we had rented to Butterfly Valley. We could tell on the way that the air was very low in the tire, but by the time we got back it was completely flat. I pointed it out to the girl that rented it to us and she said, 'awwwww, you pay?' To which I laughed and shook my head, explaining that the tire was bad in the first place. Her husband came shortly after and with a big smile on his face tried to get me to pay 200,000 VND[$11]. But I refused on principal that the tire was bad at the start and I didn't cause the damage. Eventually, I just had to turn my back on him and rejoin my friends. The whole episode quite upset me because I was in good standing with the people that worked at the hotel. But then the next day, big attitude shift. The guy smiled at me in the street and, said, 'no problem, bike okay,' and that was that. I was happy enough to here that, but then the hotel staff spent the morning giving me free food and drink to make sure that I was completely content. And I was! People here can be quite petty in matters of business, so I'm glad this had a positive resolution.
We rented again from them that day[checking the tire] and went out for another climbing trip to Butterfly Valley. On the way back we grabbed some beers and decided to drive to the west side of the island in search of a beautiful sunset. We couldn't find the perfect spot, but we settled on a spot overlooking a pond that had palm trees. Although to get there, we had to climb over a bamboo fence. And, it was right next to somebody's grave stone. Audhild looked at Cheung and asked, 'you're the resident Asian. is this a bad idea?' to which Cheung had no response.
But Dominic was already over the fence and had opened his beer so it was settled. We climbed over and as we got to the pond we heard a shout over on the other side. An old man was walking towards us from the left side of the pond. We weighed our options. We could play it off as though we didn't know we weren't supposed to be, we could apologize and run, or...we could pretend like we WERE supposed to be there. We decided to try the latter. We waved at the old man and pointed at the beer and the sunset. We could hear him laughing. Along the other side of the pond walked a girl about 20 and behind us, on the other side of the fence, we heard an older woman yell to them. Basically we were surrounded, waiting to see how it would play out. The man and girl arrived and they joined us to watch the sunset. The girl could speak some English, which was helpful. After the sun had set they invited us up to their house to spend the night. This was very tempting, as we were all quite sick of the loudness that was Cat Ba Town, but unfortunately we had to get return our bikes, climbing gear, and arrange our boat for the next day[more on that in a bit].
So instead we agreed to stop in so we could see their house.
The house:

[Cheung showing his shy side. On the left, Thuan and the right, Hua]

[Dominic chatting with the Vietnam vet, who doesn't know any English]

They were extremely hospitable, an older daughter arrived, who was studying to be a tour guide at university and could also speak some English. They served us tea and mango and lychees and were just extremely hospitable. The old man, it turned out, had served his country in the Vietnam War. But he was completely unfazed by me being an American. Before we left, his wife gave us a giant bag of lychees to take with us.

The next day was my last in Cat Ba. For about $22 each, a small group of us rented a boat for the day so that we could go deep water soloing. This basically means that were going to climb rocks in the bay and we got to the top, or fell, we would be falling into the water below. It was a fantastic trip, and included a amazing lunch that had the best squid I've ever tried. I don't think I'll ever be able to eat seafood some where it isn't fresh again. As we watched the sunset on our boat in the bay, drinking our Tigers, we all agreed that $22 was too cheap for the day we had.

[John spotting Cheung]

[Our shoes dry in the sun as we take lunch]

[Beautiful end to the day]

One busy day of traveling later, and I'm in Ho Chi Minh City. I've been staying with the Couchsurfing ambassador for Vietnam, Natasha, who is letting me stay at her place for two weeks. She's an Australian mother of two and teaches at the school across the street. That is, until the end of today. She's starting her own school for the musical arts for kids. From what I understand it should go well for her, she has so many interested parents that she is thinking about opening two studios at once. This appears to be a trend with many westerners here. I keep reading articles about people just opening businesses and restaurants left and right with ease. This is in part because we are rich in this country, and partly thanks to the booming economy here. The city is in a constant state of construction, and the main district looks a lot like Paris with its designer boutiques and tree lined boulevards.
Natasha helped me arrange the purchase of my first motorbike. That's right, like many Vietnamese I am now an unlicensed motorbike driver. The process of getting it was hectic and took two days. The guy brought the bike yesterday for me to examine. The light switch was broken, the seat didn't lock, and the gear lights didn't work. So he said he'd fix it and be back at 1pm. Four hours late, there's a knock on the door. Natasha and I go down to have a look, she notices that the front brake doesn't work, so away goes the bike. This morning, he brings the bike back for a look, and it gets sent away again because the gear shift doesn't work great. Soooo, finally about an hour ago I have my bike. Price: 4.8 mil VND[$266]. So, now that I have a bike I'm going to have some lunch and head downtown to find a cellphone. Tonight we're going to a Couchsurfer meet-up in Ben Thanh market which should be a good time.