A Perfect Getaway

All too familiar too soon.

But good thing, it IS familiar all too soon. I had time to kill before he gets off work so i headed straight to my favourite spa. What i didn't like was the masseur simply latched on to me after my massage (which was very good) and kept pushing that slip of paper (asking for a tip) in my face. I halved what i originally wanted to tip her. Plus she kept going in and out of the room and didn't close the door shut tight during my massage too.

We headed to Pham Ngu Lao, the backpacker's place and hop on the Sleeping Bus that'll take us to our final destination.

It sounds quite like that bus in Harry Potter. We could not sit up in it but could only lie in it. Pity the ang moh beside us though. He's too tall for the sleeping bus!

All moody and grumpy after sleeping only 5 hours. Ok, i made that choice to wake up because the seaside was just beckoning!

Ok, i er..actually bought new bikinis for the occassion. I haven't been out in the sun for so long!

Tut tut tut...we rode away in a scooter, exploring the sights in that small beach town. We were THIS close to being peirced by those long poles carried by another motobike. Vietnamese are very good defensive drivers, so are they at offensive driving. It's always a "me, me, me first". Squeezing their way through, wanting to be ahead. Talk about Singaporean drivers being impatient.At least almost everyone in Vietnam grew up on a bike, so they can drive recklessly rather safely. Quite a contradiction, i know.

We stopped by a tour booking center to check out what they have and i wonder what Pretty Doll Deluxes means.

After snapping a map of the local sights, we cheated and went in search on our own!

The entire town just smells like salted fish. The harbour was a pretty sight.

They looked like land fill really. Initially, i thought they were picking thrash. Upon closer look, they were scallops! Small ones though.

I love this picture the most. After playing around with the colours on Picassa. Seriously, i didn't know what i did to create this effect.

We hung out at the beach the whole day, tried out hand at Kite Boarding. Would have preferred to go diving, but diving wasn't available in Mui Ne. Sea sports using the wind was everywhere though.

It was quite a funny sight with the helmet covering my face and the life jacket hardly holding me up. I simply bobbed around in the sea and clinged on to my instructor and the boyfriend for my dear life.

I have always been an independant girl. My parents weren't there when i entered story-telling competitions or performed on stage in school. I did my own laundry, i earned my own keep. It could also be my own doing. I felt that friends weren't obliged to hear me whine. So i kept mum. No one to depend on, but myself to rely and trust. I picked up martial arts to toughen up myself, i bottled up feelings to avoid showing that vulnerable side. Occassionally, i break down. I felt like Cinderella, sans Prince Charming.

When i was 13, i had my first "love". My Judo captain at 16 was there by my side at every competition. He would tie my belt around my gi, shake my shoulders and tell me i could do it. He would bandage my bruised fingers, coach me on my opponent's weakness. Pat my head when i scored and even did my art homework on compeition grounds! He made me win my medals, 23 of them. He graduated and these remained childhood memories.

I never experienced that "love" again until now. Having that someone else other than family to be intimate with and trust with your secrets. Someone who doesn't judge, someone who is fun and generous with the mind, heart and soul. Sometimes a man just prefers being alone on adventures just so he has no one to protect, to care for.But when i meet a man who protects me and cares for me, i know i am loved.

The nicest beach i have been to is still Perth's. I said my honeymoon destination would be the Carribeans or the Bahamas, but he said "Baby, where you come from (Asia) has the most pristine beaches!"

Mui Ne was...very relaxing. You wake up across from the sea, you eat breakfast, you drink alot of fruit juice and have alot of massages. We went to the blind masseus for 4 USD compared to 12 USD for the others. There isn't a whole lot of activities to do, but enough to explore for 2 days.

There's no shopping to be done. Speaking of that, Vietnamese sales girls are pretty rude with their jostling! If i just stand a bit longer at their stall, they will shove me out of their shop or forbid me from trying on their shoes on display. Furthermore, the nice stuff that i saw starts at a price of SGD 75 (not in fancy shops)! I couldn't be bothered with bargaining. This happened in the city Saigon by the way, not the countryside.

I figured Vietnam was a war torn country and thus not so obliging to foreigners. Thailand, however has always been a happy country. Therfore more welcoming to tourism. The Japanese, although they can't understand English too are very welcoming because it is such a prosperous country and they are generally from a polite culture anyway. There were a few friendlier locals i encountered though. Mostly the tourism "police". The other locals simply give a gruff and point when you ask for directions. Most of them can't speak English and its a pain.

Such a touristy picture! I AM a tourist what.

And we found the sand dunes. This kid sorta spoke with an accent (probably socialised too much with ang mohs). He followed me all around the sand dunes like a puppy, chatting me up. He was trying to solicit my business i guess, wanting to rent me his plastic sheet.

I didn't want to really, i brought my own plastic sheet. But since he looked like he just wanted to make friends, i didn't shoo him away. Later on, i just want to give him a small token (SGD 1), he got angry and said we were giving him too little!! Mixy didn't want to relent in giving more because he felt it wasn't right to give in to that bugger like that. I tipped him SGD 3 in the end. It's not much to us, but perhaps it helps to buy food for the family. But what we both didn't agree on was how we were kind of coerced into his services.

It's like even though you reject a happy ending massage, the girl ignores and continue playing with your ****.

But that didn't spoil our day as we continued gazing at the sunset. I asked him what was romantic to him. He said if a girl takes him to a  relaxing beach town, anything other than a city, she could definitely get him va-vavoom. He don't think snow is romantic, neither are mountains.

To me, romance is whom i am with.