Border Crossings by Land Are Hilarious and Awesome

We had a GREAT Christmas--my sister Meli and mom Janet came to visit in Vietnam. Lucky us! It was such a treat to see them. We had a beautiful 3.5 beach days in Phu Quoc Island--sharing Tiger Beers at sunset over the ocean, eating yummy seafood, and just hanging out--it was dreamy.

We had a crazy trip through Cambodia to get to the island, which is claimed by both Cambodia and Vietnam, right off the coast at the border. It's 90% national forest and has a long, lovely beach down the western side. We were coming in from Siem Reap (Angkor Wat--amazingly beautiful!) and Phenom Penh. From Phenom Penh, we took a 4 hour bus to Kep on the southern Cambodian coast. On the way, we stopped at road stops where little kids were selling their usual wares--pineapple and mango and cheap bracelets--but also the Cambodian culinary specialty--deep fried spiders! Like huge, tarantula style spiders. Yuck. We did not eat them, even though I think we're pretty adventurous eaters.

Kep has the best "bus station" in the world--the road just kind of peters out at the ocean, and on the side of the road is an open air restauant that serves grilled crabs with a spicy hot sauce for dipping. Now we're pretty seasoned crab eaters and will always love Chesapeake Bay crabs--but I have to say, these were the most meaty, unbelievably delicious crabs I've ever had. Yum. Helped us forget about those spiders! At Kep, we hired a tuk tuk (basically a motorcycle driver that pulls a cart with you in it) to drive us to the Cambodia/Vietnam border. We pretty quickly ran out of pavement and found ourselves on dirt roads, bouncing like crazy among water buffalo, salt farms (where the farmers spread ocean water in thin layers over the ground and let the sun bake off the water--then they use big rakes to comb the salt into big piles) and a million little kids. The kids' favorite thing was to see us and our blonde heads and shriek "HELLO!" and then laugh hysterically and run away when we said hello back. It felt like we were celebrities for about an hour and a half of driving through the countryside--no other cars, no pavement, only kids who were VERY excited to see us, and water buffalo up to their noses in mud.

When the road got too bad, we got on the back of two motorbikes--the drivers put our packs up on the handlebars and gave us helmets and we held on tight in the back--bouncing over crazy dirt roads all the way to the border. We were grinning ear to ear--a very memorable way to enter Vietnam--and we didn't even have to bribe anyone at the border! We already had our visas so it was smooth sailing getting in.

We spent the night in a nowhere town called Ha Tien and got the morning boat to Phu Quoc. Ha Tien did have the distinction of offering us our cheapest lodging yet, at less than $5. Then, as you know, we had some great days with mom and Meli and we were very sad to see them go. They are intrepid travellers and really great beachgoers.

The central coast of Vietnam was amazing and we had a great time working our way up-the marble mountains rise up right out of the ocean at China Beach--and we spent a few days in this crazily picturesque town called Hoi An, which I really recommend. It sits right on a river and there are these beautiful colored fishing boats that come in and out--this is where the photos of us on the boat below with the smiling lady were taken--and old wooden houses with balconies (think "The Quiet American"--delicious food, beautiful local fabrics.