Here is our dear Vietnam again!!!

Well, it took me some days to adapt to the new place in Vietnam and make some shots to post to the blog. But firstly, I'd like to tell you about the area of Vietnam we're staying in. It's exactly the closest to Ho Chi Min (Saigon)seashore spot. It took us some 3,5 hours to get here by car from Saigon; the Stanislav's colleagues met us at the airport and drove us here. We even used a ferry boat on our way to cross a river. But it was a really quick transfer as everything was well organized. Then we drove through absolutely rural areas, the weather was quite dull and I even got a bit disappointed. But when we eventually arrived at the hotel "Anoasis", I found it really lovely with a breathtaking view over the ocean from the hill where the hotel is situated. Next pleasant surprise was to find that the hotel was almost uninhabitable:only 8-10 families lived there. The people were mostly French and Italian. Though the hotel area is pretty large, there are only a few bungalows, 2 villas and 3 pavillions.But on weekend, there were many more guests from a busy (7million people) Saigon as people come here for a weekend. Most guests left on Monday so the place got deserted again. This situation is really new to me as I'm used to seeing lots of holidaymakers wherever I go.
Just a few words about the area itself; it's not only exceptionally beautiful but also with great Vietnamese and Indian food (the chef is Indian). The only drawback is that there is no civilization around; I mean no shopping centres, no beauty saloons etc. But it's not bad as we're swimming, playing tennis and really enjoying the food. For some basic shopping we go to the nearest village - 10 min by bicycle. Local kids shout out "Hello" whenever they see us. But if I want to go on talking to them, they just smile and say nothing. We were told that not until recently the locals had thought that rural work was the only way to survive and illiteracy was very common. Now, that many foreign investors are looking at Vietnam as a country with great potential and their money is already working out there, local parents have realized that kids shoud be educated.

Another thing is that when we arrived, we lived in a bungalow, but it was awful as Stas started coughing madly. The place was rather humid for him and we decided to move to a pavillion.It's much more comfortable and dry. We love it and we also can watch the Olympics in our room. Now, have a look at some photos I made. You can't see tall buildings there as the place used to be the Vietnamise's emperors residence. By the way, many famous people from all over the world have stayed here. None of them Russian!!!. Stas and I are a kind of explorers of this exclusive place. We're lucky!!!