Vietnam Day 11:Looking Glass Jeep Tour

Scott went back one final time to try on his suit and bring back all their finished clothes to pack for our trip home. He also stopped back by the shack across the street from BeBe to buy me another Vietnamese farmer hat. I accidentally left all three of our hats in the hotel room in Hanoi and I wanted at least one to take home. Then I left my new hat at breakfast and had to send Layton to go see if it was still there! We packed up for the day and the trip home and met up with our jeep driver Jeremy. He drove us all around Hoi An and Danang and surrounding areas in his Russian army jeep. We got lucky today with a little bit of rain. Just enough to cool us and weather off a bit. Jeremy drove us past China Beach, up to Monkey Mountain (and yes, we did see one monkey!), to see Lady Buddha (as tall as the Statue of Liberty), to visit a 70 year old man that makes bamboo boats and then down some small alley ways to eat the best banh xeo we have had yet! A local store owner didn't like that we parked in front of her storefront. Jeremy said that with so little experience with cars, they just can't grasp the idea of the street being public property and therefore free parking. About 20 minutes after lunch we had to pull over for a flat tire. Turns out there was a screw in it. The extra tire was not sitting right on the axle so Jeremy had to hitch a ride on a motorcycle with his tire to try and get it patched. After about a 30 minute delay, we were on the road again and tossing around the idea that the store owner might had sabotaged his tire. Then when the second tire went flat we knew she was guilty! Yep, another screw in the back tire! We realized how lucky we were that we were forced to patch the first flat so we could use the spar for the second flat. Jeremy felt bad but handled it like a pro and we think it just added to the fun memories of the day! We also got to drive through the 4 mile tunnel and drive up through Hai Van and see old war bunkers and had a beautiful view of the bay's on both sides of the pass at once! We also found three bullets on the ground from the Vietnam war. My favorite part of the day was driving through a small tile and slate village where we got to visit a home and see how they cut they slate by hand and pass out candy to all the local kids playing in the streets. We even saw a dog restaurant - not where dogs eat, but where you eat dogs! Then we took the scenic route around the coast and rice farms and mountains back to the airport for our late flight out of Danang to Seoul, Korea.