Just kidding! There is hardly a moment in Vietnam that isn’t filled with the puttering of a motorbike, the honk from some vehicle, the cries of children, someone talking into a megaphone, someone singing karaoke, someone yelling about something or other. But hey, it seems unescapable so it must just be how it is here, and maybe it’s even kind of charming.

And holy crap is the food ever good. This blew my mind, it’s called Bun Thit Bo, it was $0.75, I got it in an alley way, and it was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. The key, peanut gravy.

I did some cool things recently. I got to bike through rice paddies in the countryside of Vietnam, eating delicious banh Mi’s and drinking sugar cane juice as fuel. I also rented a scooter, rode along the coast, through Danang (a fairly modern city, of about the same population as Calgary) and up the coast to the Hai Van pass, a beautiful, deserted road that I was lucky to have freshly paved, and almost all to myself, on a gorgeously sunny day.

Delicious road on the Hai Van pass:

My loyal steed, 110cc’s of fully automatic power

Obligatory Hai Van pass selfie

Afterwards I made my way to Nha Trang by night train, and I nerded out at the Institute of Oceanography (it was really fucking cool!).

I slept in a 6 person berth on the train, on the very top bunk. Sleeping on the train was much more comfortable then on a bus!

Many cool things at the Institute of Oceanography. Only nerdy tourists and school children would understand.

This is the tip of the ring finger of a humpback whale. It is the size of my hand. Cool

Samples!

Then I made it to Dalat, where the weather is cool (14 degrees at night) and I got to see a surrealistic house, and eat cheese and drink the finest wine in all of Vietnam.

Cheese! Good cheese!