yes, i threw that hot dog.... and WHAT?!

hello everyone.

it's been a minute since i've written.. so here goes my longwinded recap of the adventures of mckelton and t-rex.

we spent just over two weeks at the beach in cambodia, doing the typical beach thing. i think we mentioned it was dirty, right? did we also mention how terribly salty the water was? no matter though, sihanoukville grew on us and it was our longest stay in any given location so far, which made it hard to leave but we are now in saigon and loving it.

in the end, the beach was amazing. kelton had $30 taken from her wallet by three little kids.. even as the three of us (with our fabulous friend grace) sat there, talking to them. they surround you, distract you.. and honestly, work some magic. they are so sneaky that they took her wallet, went through all the money (leaving foreign currency) and then put it back in her purse. we noticed before they took off and confronted them about it, but there's really not much to be done.

we went on two booze cruises which were perhaps the most ridiculous experiences from the beach, given that we had to swim out to the boat in the morning and swim back to shore at night in the dark. they can't pull the boats up close enough to shore, so we had to take it upon ourselves. it was quite the adventure, and i imagine seeing 80 drunk people jump ship and swim to shore was quite a site.

kelton and i left cambodia the morning after the last booze cruise, making it our first near miss.. simply for the fact that we had convinced each other along the way the night before that we could extend our visas and stay longer. like i said.. it was hard to leave.

but we did, and the border crossing into vietnam was like trying to cross the street in new zealand... with sheep being people and the street being the customs official, if that makes any sense. i guess living in the western world we become accustomed to a certain order in such matters, with lines and signs leading you to your destination. this was more of a frenzy.. and then everything would calm down and we'd wait. then frenzy again, only to keep waiting. it was long and our packs have become increasingly heavier, (either that our our beer bellies are weighing us down) but we made it into saigon.

this city is incredible. there are more motorbikes on the street than anything else, and they are ruthless in their manuvering through traffic. given the advice from other travelers, and now from first hand experience.. the way to cross streets here is to take a good look around, close your eyes, and dive right in. don't look anywhere but in front, and move your feet like there's a tiger behind you. it's fun in a terrifying sort of way.

the second day we were here we met up with our friend jeremy from south carolina, the only other american we have really kept in touch with along the road. he was leaving the next morning for KL, but couldn't get money out so we helped him out, bought him some beers and sent him on his way.

today we took a walking tour of saigon, which we haven't done in a really long time. got up early.. ish, and just went with our little map to find the post office (check your mail!) which reminded me of union station, or any other big train station i've been in. then we walked by the reunification palace (which doesn't really look like much of a palace at all) and then went to the war museum.. only to find out that it was closing for lunch in 5 minutes.. so we went to watch a movie for some relief from the sweltering heat.

and here we are now.

internet is terribly slow around here, but we'll try to find a good one to load some pictures. yes, finally we have pictures to share.

we love you and miss you all!!