We're in Vietnam still and plan on being here until about the 20th. Then we'll start making our way to Phuket ("f*** it" as Peter likes to call it!). The weather here is great, although the ocean is a bit rough because of the typhoons hitting further up the coast. That's partly why I wanted to write--to let you know that we're still okay and we're moving further away from the "danger" areas of Vietnam. No worries about us getting swept away! We did have a bit of an upset earlier tonight though. I was robbed of my beautiful purse that I bought in Mongolia. I'm totally okay, just pretty shaken up. We were walking, looking for a place to buy a fruit smoothie (so good and SO cheap here!) and two guys on a motorbike came driving up behind me. I didn't think much of it, until they grabbed my purse (slung across my body) and took off. The strap snapped easily, which I guess is a good thing. I whipped around because they took off the other way and I friggin' launched my Nalgene water bottle at the guy on the back of the bike. Unfortunately, I missed :( I would have loved to knock him clean off the bike. Joel and I took off after them, but there are so many motorbikes here that they quickly got lost in the crowd. Oh well. Thank god I had moved the iPod and my wallet to my shorts about 5 minutes before this happened! I have no clue why I did it...I'm just glad that I did. Anyhow, they got a book, a nice purse and $5 US. That's pretty much it. Oh, and the USB cords for the iPod and camera. No credit cards or anything else. Pretty lucky. And, like I said, I was just a bit shaken, that's all. We were just commenting on how lucky we've been to not have had anything like this happen to us in 9 months of travel. I guess it had to happen eventually; I'm just glad that they only got $5! Serves them right. Other than that, Vietnam has been great. It's really cheap and should keep us from going too far into debt! If Laura and Eric weren't already planning their wedding for NS, I would totally tell them to do it here! The scenery is gorgeous, there are flower farms everywhere and the people are really friendly (except the b******s that stole my purse). The food here is a million times better than China and things are so much cleaner! By far the biggest highlight was SCUBA DIVING! We went yesterday for 2 dives. I'm pretty sure how we did it was illegal--they gave us a short intro to diving and then suited us up and told us to jump in the ocean! But, the instructor was Aussie, so we felt safe for some reason. We also went with 2 Canadians that had dived lots before and they were confident in the equipment and qualifications of the people. So we went too. It was awesome. Apparently the visibility was bad (according to the CAnucks we were with), but that was fine for us. It meant that we couldn't go too deep, which helped to build up our confidence. Wow, the stuff we saw was so cool! We saw a bunch of angel fish, some Nemo clown fish, and I got to see the things that grow on coral that get shy and retract into the coral when you get too close. Do you know what I'm talking about? I can't describe them too well. At one point, Joel and I got to scuba together holding hands :) My favourite thing to see was the fish diving in and out of the coral. The colours weren't overly bright because of the lack of visibility (because of the storms up the coast). That didn't really matter to Joel and I though. It was really really amazing. I'm just glad I didn't see a shark! I probably would have peed my pants :) It was definitely something we'll do again. Maybe in Thailand, Dad?!? Anyhow, not much more to tell. We're on vacation again, which is nice. We've been lounging on the beach (I got a seaside pedicure for less than $2 today! WAHOO!). We've been drinking lots of Vietnamese coffee, which is sweetened with condensed milk. Looks like we'll gain back all of the weight that we lost being sick in China. yippee. Time is counting down for Christmas. I hope that you guys all have a great time. m & j