This girl hiked up behind the rice wine & petrol stop to the falls with us, because she wanted her photo taken with them. I later mailed a photo to Tam to give her, hopefully it works out. Couples come here on weekends from the city, its not far, though seems farther on motobike. Apparently, no westerners had been out here in months, which I could believe based on the stares I got driving by on the back of the motobike.

The mysterious valley we rode up, doubled on the white motobike, not another farang to be seen, much curious almost shocked gazes as I unsuccessfully tried to pull down my cap and pass unnoticed, a few scary looks too, as we got further up I got a bit unnerved being so far off the beaten track, but my friend convinced me that she wanted me to see this hill tribe village not far from where this photo was taken, so we continued to the village, stayed an hour or so then made are way back before it began to get dark. The road apparently not long ago was very bad.

When going to a hill tribe village, I suppose one should first meet the headman/men, I took this first photo then showed it to them on the digital camera and then much excitement ensued, actually they ran away when I pointed it at first, till we sat down for rice wine.

a woman with interesting face chewing betel nut

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30 SEC VIDEO #2

i wanted to take a photo of this girl on the right, as this was a montagnard/'ethnic minority' village, and the jewellery she was wearing was as much that looked native as i saw, but she was shy, eventually they let me come in to their ?home(it had a bed i believe to the right), this was her mother on the left, they told me the wild pigs ruin their crops, and it gets cold in the hills, vs. the vietnamese lowlands, i've tried to find a way to support the village without luck so far. though, i'm told tam(my friend/driver) has brought some clothes

back in danang city, on the market street, don't see so many peddle cyclos there except it seems as a vehicle for loads of things that won't fit on motos/mopeds

A good friend of my friend in Danang City, my last night there we drank beer lauru, the official beer of Danang it seems, quite cheap, but not bad, this guy would eat those little red peppers like candy and challenge me too, of course I tried and suffered, but this guy was so fun, I gave him my tried and true sunglasses I had bought in BKK and he rode off wearing them on this motobike, I hope to see him again someday, didn't spend much time with him, he is a great cook.

Back in Bangkok & I started hearing rumours in the shops that there was some big festival tonight, turns out it was a Hindu festival that has something to do with body piercing and Shiva, apparently the local Bangkokians are a superstitious lot and participate in Hindu festivals as well as Buddhists ones, So there were men dressed wildly with needles through both cheeks that were then attached to headresses who danced down the closed streets to the Hindu Gopuram/Temple while Hindu gods rode on palaquins pulled by 10-15 people per rope, garlands were strewn and blessings by the piercee were give,, I then snapped this intriguing looking photo.

After barely sleeping, getting up at 3am to get to the BKK airport, and luckily the night before, blindly inputting my PIN into a local bank's ATM to cover the taxi fare to get $20 or so, whew, I then took the 6 hour flight to Tokyo/Narita, had the 8 hour layover, then the 4-5 hour ride to Guam to arrive after midnight and my kind friend Julie was there, so nice to be back on Guam I changed plans from flying direct to Honolulu 3 days later, stayed a week at Julie's and at her suggestion, changed to the "island hopper" which I could do since my flight was paid for using frequent flyer mileage, ironically enough that I had compiled from when 4 years before I had lived there. This is Asan Beach, another place along with Danang where Marines landed, albeit in WWII.

Rob and Scratchy on quiet Tumon beach, drinking miller lite, nice sunsets there.

Where they get the name 'Micronesia'