Au Bang Beach, Libra Season….L’Shana Tova

This has been our most relaxing day yet. Even makes Halong Bay Day seem busy…..we seriously did nothing, a real Vacation Day. Morning began with an Olsen family FaceTime. Rachel’s kids are so cute and share whats happening at home and love to hear about their mommy’s adventures. I’m the night owl and Rach the morning GO girl. I love to lay in bed and not have to get out of bed so fast. It was my first leisurely wake up. She went down to have her coffee and wait for me for breakfast. It was another day of the great buffet. We both fell in love with a yummy Almond/ condensed milk danish- Aunt Marlene, you would love this, totally thought of you with each bite. This resort is packed with soooo many families. Kids are everywhere, even unaccompanied at their own tables on phones and I Pads. Mostly Asian families on vacations. After breakfast we got our beach towels, walked down our remote village street to a Mini Mart. I bought some sunblock, yes I deserve some gold stars family 🙂 Strong sun here. As well bottles of water and candy for the beach. We went by the laundromat to thank the lady for washing our clothes so well, they were waiting for us at our hotel when we returned last night and smell so fresh. We negotiated a great price for a ride to airport from her on Tuesday early morning as she had offered cheaper than hotel. This country is all about negotiating and bargaining. We are getting better, gaining confidence and finesse in our style. Lol

The hotel offers a free shuttle to Ao Nang Beach. We met a New Zealand couple while we waited and once again exchanged travel stories. In the shuttle we chat with a Korean mother and daughter. Only the daughter spoke english. She had studied one semester at Harvard in MA. Super smart girl, thought Boston was a boring city as she said everything closed by 9 pm. I inquired if she visited NYC, which she didn’t, as no time due to her studies. That would not had been my answer(lol), but hence why I never went to Harvard ha ha.😂  She was telling us Korea is better than Vietnam and why we should visit. Cant say Korea is on my list although I did tell her I had the best Korean BBQ recently in NYC. Lol We all got dropped off at the beach near the Deck House Restaurant/Bar/ Beach club. 

The beach here has many restaurants all with huts and lounge chairs in front of them on the beach. If you eat/drink at them the chairs are included. We laid here from 10:30am-3:45 pm. My kind of day, and I think Rachel loved this day too. Btw, she is feeling much better to those who inquired 🙂 I had a cocktail in hand by 11am. It was a perfect beach day. I felt transformed to a child-like state as I jumped these waves and did some duck dives when the waves got too big. The water is a jade green color and super clear. You can see your hands and feet when submerged in the water. Its a darker green but a lovely shade that is the most perfect temperature. We laid with no umbrella for a while before melting that we had to put it up. Rach read her book while I played in the water. She ended up joining me and we had so much fun, laughing about silly things. Back and forth from chairs to water after cooling down too much. Rachel had pointed out these 2 girls walking near the water, they were SO super skinny and stood out as they were very pale white complected. I wanted to get more up close to who they were as they looked interesting. Of course I have no problem talking to strangers…. 😉 I went back in the water and started to chat. I asked one of them where they were from, South Africa, near Johannesburg. Rachel ended up coming in too and the other gal had gotten in as well. Long story short, it turns out they are twin sisters. And guess what…….they are here celebrating their 30 th birthdays , so…….they are Libras too!! Omg, this has become a crazy coincidence/ serendipitous funny topic. As its truly Libra season, a time for balance – we keep learning about the yin/yang of life and the new moon is today, set your intentions!  One of them is checking out places to possibly teach English in Vietnam, we all jumped waves chatting about jobs, travels, family, etc. They were lovely and such sweet girls, just with a very Adams Family type interesting look- white skin, black hair, long and lean. 

We had a lovely lunch by the water….shared a seared Tuna greek style Salad and an Australian Beef burger. I collected some shells, which are not in abundance here. I wrote my usual “ Laurie Sue” in the sand. There were some men and woman selling lots of trinkets. We bargained and purchased some things. By the end of the day it got to be breezy and gorgeous. We both read our books and totally relaxed ALL day. 

Home to shower, we actually got dressed up for the holiday dinner. Jumped in a taxi for a 15 min drive to the hotel for Chabad of Hoi An Rosh Hashanah dinner. It was such a lovely warm meaningful evening filled with tradition.  I just love that you can go to anywhere in the world and be connected through Chabad, its truly mind blowing in a very good way. If you can imagine, there were 300 Jewish people attending. The majority of people were Israelis. We only got to meet the Rabbi and the people from our table so not sure how many from elsewhere, or expats? The rabbi leading tonight was from Israel and is here for 2 months. Our table consisted of……. A married couple from Chicago- 30, they quit there jobs and are planning to travel for a year. They have been gone so far for 3 months. I of course told them all about you, Woodley 😉 she was Jewish her husband is not. Ill include her photo, as I really enjoyed her company. There were 3 other couples at our table all Israelis living in Israel. 2 of them are on their honeymoon and the other were 20/21 and traveling for a month. Apparently this is a popular destination for Israelis. The entire evening was spoken in Hebrew, thankfully one of the guys translated and shared with us the stories being told about welcoming in the New Year. Good thing we had been eating for days, as the food was just okay, didn’t eat much tonight which is not a bad thing. I thought how Rachel, my niece would have enjoyed this evening so much, the Israeli guys are all so dark and handsome. A younger group of people were in attendance. The evening ended and we jumped in a taxi back to our hotel. 

Tomorrow is our last full day in Hoi An, we are scheduled for a Spa day in the morning. Rach is getting 3 treatments I’m having 2. We will be at The White Rose Spa. This is related to The White Rose Restaurant on the food tour with the dumplings. They are next to each other, so dumplings for lunch 🙂 Rachel cannot believe how much I plan and think about food, Its the “ Shelton” gene in me. 😋 We plan to shop after and see where the rest of the day takes us. She likes the slower pace and relaxing, once we leave here its back to busy busy busy in Saigon. Crazy that week one is over…..

Until tomorrow……
Love Laurie Sue XO