Ha Tien & Around

Ha Tien in the southwestern most corner of Vietnam is a beautiful little town right next to the border of Cambodia. Colourful buildings and markets on the edge of a river, and just a stones throw from the ocean. We took the bus from Can Tho, switched buses in Rach Gia, onto a public bus, very crowded and falling apart at the seams, and arrived in Ha Tien about 2.5 hours later. A great experience on it's own. After checking in, we headed to a place highly recommended on the lonely planet etc. called the Oasis. Owned by an English chap, Andy, and his Vietnamese wife. They are fantastic people on top of providing a wealth of good information. It was a pleasure to speak to someone in unbroken English for a spell and they also provide real English breakfasts! It truly is a small Oasis from Vietnamese norms, not that we are complaining. Andy also introduced us to Mr. Trinh, a fantastic Vietnamese man whom provides transportation, maps, information etc. all pertaining to travel in and out of Cambodia and to and from Phu Quoc island. ( where we are heading tomorrow). Mr. Trinh has made things very easy for us indeed. We rented a scooter from him and spent the day exploring. Visited a pagoda in a cave, rested in hammocks in a cafe on the beach and visited with locals. The visiting is hilarious due to the language barrier but we make due with our small Vietnamese book and translator on the iPhone. This one old couple came up and we tried to talk with them, they spoke absolutely no English, they thought we had funny noses and were touching Alanna's nose and pulling her eyelashes. Funny! Everyone is concerned over us burning our white skin too, since here in Vietnam it is much more fashionable to have light skin, so tanning is a foreign concept to them. What else? Mmmmh. We saw lots of fresh peppercorns being dried on the side of the roads, smelled incredible. The cleanest beaches so far have been still fairly dirty by our standards, but Phu Quoc island is supposed to be very nice. The ocean water is ridiculously warm here, absolutely nothing refreshing about it. Heavily enjoyed by the locals though. Tried to get good pictures in the cave but it was hard to do those justice. Alanna was a sissy and didn't come in, ha. She went in the first small cave. Snapping a few shots of Vietnamese houses both lower and higher end so as to give a little bit of an idea as to what they are like. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to neighbourhoods here as far as rich or poor, there are big fancy places amongst the shacks and straw huts. We'll keep you posted!