Kiteboarding Joys and Tribulations

Teeny crabs all over the beaches here.  His whole body including legs is
about the size of a silver dollar. 

Gavin relaxing at Cham Villas.  Ahhhhh....

Today was our big kiteboarding day with Surfpoint!  We didn’t get many photos because we were both busy with learning how to control the kite, but our first two hours were spent on the beach learning how to move the kite and how to keep it still.  Then we did the same standing in the water.  After the first two hours, we had some lunch at a delicious Indian restaurant nearby, and the we finally got to take our kites out into the water and practice water dragging, where we used the power of the kite to drag our bodies in the water, finally getting to the fun part, as the first two hours weren’t that fun, even though both of us had good instructors.  :)

Gavin learning how to control the kite on shore!

Unfortunately, at the end of my lesson the tides changed into pretty large waves, which I guess brought in a bunch of jellyfish. I got a couple minor stings on my legs, and then I felt one practically wrap itself around my wrist; I think it got stuck for a second in my rash guard.  So I came out with my whole wrist wrapped in several dozen stings.  Ick.  My surf instructor poured vinegar all over them to help nullify the toxin, and then we walked back to our hotel, where I scraped my skin with a credit card to take out the stingers and took a hot shower.

When walking around earlier, we had seen signs for a street food fair a few minutes walk from our resort, so we decided that would be a great place for dinner!  We were a bit surprised to discover this was not local Vietnamese street food; most of the vendors were expats/white people, selling everything from western/European food, to Asian style BBQ, cakes in an actual electric display cooler, to Mexican food.  It was mostly local restaurants who had booths at this street food fair.  We had some tasty empanadas from the Mexican restaurant, and some nice grilled pork and beef plus twice-twice-fried spring rolls at a Vietnamese place, and one of the BEST cocktails I have ever had, made with fresh Vietnamese herbs and gin.  We also had some rolled ice cream made from fresh mangoes and strawberries.

Gavin's delicious fancy cocktail complete with a lily petal.

Our amazing mixologist.  :) 

We found snake wine in a pharmacy near our resort.  Good for what ail's ya. :D

After our wandering dinner, we headed back to Cham Villas to turn in.  We’re looking forward to our next kiteboarding lessons tomorrow!