More kiteboarding

Today we lounged around the resort until our next session of kiteboarding at 11:30am.  We were both happy to note we hadn’t forgotten everything in our two day absence.  :)  After a quick review, my instructor Katya turned me loose by myself with the kite in the water!  It was much more fun doing body drags without her hanging on behind me, as the kite had more power to pull me!  :)  I got so excited I went WAY too far, and I guess Katya was waving at me to come to shore and I didn’t notice.  :)  I successfully maneuvered around another lesson and avoided getting tangled in their kite, and I also avoided crashing into the swim zone buoys.  :)  I am feeling pretty confident about controlling the kite so far, so Katya introduced me to the board.  I learned how to use the kite to pull me away from shore while also holding the board, and then how to use a power stroke to stand up on the board.  I was able to stand up a couple times, but not actually keep going and actually board.  She’s still hanging on to the back of my harness, so I couldn’t go anywhere anyway.  :)  We ended the lesson there, so I will try one more time tomorrow!

That's me in the helmet, walking the kite to shore with my instructor Katya
behind me.

Me and the kite, Katya carrying the board.

We ate a late lunch at the same Indian restaurant from a few days ago, then came back to the resort to read, rest, jump in the pool, and generally lounge.  We pretty much exhausted all the tourist sites of Mui Ne yesterday, so there is not much to do.  :)

We were still full from lunch, so we looked up a place to have drinks and appetizers on the oecan, and settled on Villa Aria, recommended by Lonely Planet.  The deck overlooking the ocean was lovely, but that’s the only good I can say about the restaurant.  Our appetizers were gross, and our drinks tasted watered down.  The staff completely ignored us - we were one of two people in the restaurant, and we had to go fetch them anytime we wanted something!  Luckily we weren’t super hungry.

Villa Aria.  Lovely place, abysmal food.

We headed back to Cham Villas to turn in.  Tomorrow is our last chance to kiteboard!

Sunset at Cham Villas.

Me at sunset.

Gavin told me to "look wistfully out into the ocean." I was just watching a
kite boarder.  :D

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!