Day 4, 3/23/06

We awoke even earlier than usual in order to pack our things and eat a decent breakfast before the lengthy ride to our new hotel on the beach. After we had crammed all of our luggage into the back of a van, we were finally off. We were ready with fully charged laptops and ipods.

A one-dollar DVD from the streets of Saigon was first to play on Fizz’s computer. After the battery died two hours into the drive, things started to dull down. Peter slept on the floor just below Fizz, who was sleeping across the seat. Camille was content listening to her ipod and reading a book in the back seat next to the luggage that wouldn’t fit in the back. For the rest of us, listening to ipods and gazing out the windows seemed to pass the time well.

After about four hours of nonstop driving, we reached a Buddhist orphanage. We were greeted by a cluster of small children and a few female monks while we unloaded five suitcases full of clothes, toys, medical supplies, and school supplies. They greeted us with a grand lunch of assorted vegetable dishes, bread, water, pho noodles, and a
mildly spicy soup filled with all sorts of things from mushrooms to vegetables we didn’t know. When we had our fill, the head monk gave us a short tour of the sleeping facilities which consisted of two rooms filled with bunk beds. The children were not at all shy when it came time for picture taking. They absolutely loved being videotaped and seeing their pictures on the screens of digital cameras. As we packed up and departed, we waved to the happy little children who had followed
us out.

Another two hours down the road brought us to our destination at the Bien Xian resort. Exhausted from the long hours of cramped quarters, we all checked in and enjoyed five hours of free time. The first things we did was take a look at the beach (for safety precautions). We were startled to see a cart pulled by two oxen trudging only meters from the water. A few hours later, we all met up again at the pool. We sat at the bar which hung over into the pool, allowing us to sit on
our underwater stools and order from there.

At eight o’clock we crossed the street and walked a couple stores down to a restaurant. Dinner was a fun one as there were plenty of shakes, sodas, and an open-flame stove for Peter’s fish fondue. When we arrived back at the hotel, it didn’t take long for Peter and me to crawl into our comfortable beds and fall asleep while watching “Top Gun”.

Reporting from Vietnam, Stephen Kwong