Clark's in Taiwan

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted... Vacation Happy To Get Away...

For any of you who remember that old Go-G0's song, start humming and you'll get a good sense of what our recent holiday was like...

We've just returned from our somewhat spur of the moment family vacation to Mui Ne beach in Vietnam where we had it all - good weather, beach, pool, friendly people, good food, opportunities for rest - and lots of it... 14 days to be exact!!!

It was a three and a half hour flight from Taipei to Saigon, but another 4 hour drive north to Mui Ne which is just outside of Phan Thiet. We considered the drive as part of a 'scenic tour' of the 'real' Vietnam because once we got to the Coco Beach Resort we were pretty much living in a bubble with the other tourists from around the world.

Helpful Hunter was really excited to be on holiday!

Helena did pretty well for her first plane ride at 4 months old.

Of course Hunter loved having his own entertainment system on the flight over

On the way home our plane was an older model so he had to opt for more conventional forms of entertainment.

Our 'scenic tour'

We thought Taiwan had lots of scooters... well, Vietnam is even more densely populated so there were even more! But in Vietnam what rode on the scooters was much more interesting than what we see on a daily basis in Taipei. Here's a guy carrying a large pane of glass between him & the driver! We also saw riders carrying a large mirror, a bookshelf, even a refrigerator (I'm not exaggerating either)... we saw the standard 4-5 person families as well as the family pets...

A rideable Chia Pet? A few of these passed by where you couldn't hardly see the driver through all the vegetation - the scooter surprises made the drive so much more fun and bearable.

And of course the classic 'woman wearing traditional dress on bike' photo that you've probably seen on a postcard somewhere... there really were lots of schoolgirls dressed like this traveling by bike - they looked so cool!

And then we arrived at Coco Beach Resort - a piece of paradise!!!

The Challenges of a Typical Day in Paradise

Considering the fact that all four of us shared a one room bungalow, we managed to start most days at the reasonable time of 6.30 or 7.00. Thankfully breakfast was included in the accommodation package so each morning we would enjoy a leisurely meal before facing the challenges of the day.

Who has time for a pot of South African Red Bush tea each morning?? I did... it was a real luxury to sit and enjoy breakfast with Tony since most days at home we're inhaling cereal before he runs out to work.

Than, our breakfast buddy

What a beautiful start to the day - beach views, good food and fun neighbors.

Breakfast was the easy part. The rest of the day was full of difficult decision-making exercises:

What do we do next? Beach or Pool?

Once he got in there, Hunter really enjoyed the splashing waves and sandy coastline.

Brave little Helena preferred the warmer pool to the salty sea.

What are we going to eat today? Something conventional... or something more exotic? div>

The resort restaurants had tasty treats - twice the going rate out on the street, but sometimes convenience wins over frugality (we're only talking US$4.50 for the burger compared to $3.00 elsewhere - food there was really cheap)

Two friends we met at the resort caught a snake while out on a tour so Tony joined them for an evening of snake dishes!! Snake curry was the favored dish.

Pressing questions like where are we going to take a nap?

How will we fit in a workout?

What are we going to play???

Hunter loved the big wooden swing...

actually, he loved everything - who are we kidding - he had the time of his life so far!!!

Future Olympian?

The only time there weren't many options was story-time as we could only pack a few books for the trip... even then the question remained - "more"?!?

So yep... we spent two weeks making some pretty major decisions... just the kind you want to be making on a holiday!!!!

Classic Highlights

ICE - the new mealtime distraction!!! He even asks for it by name.

After the kids went to sleep (sometime around 7.45) the sofa on the balcony/veranda was where we spent each evening minus two talking, reading, playing cribbage or enjoying some kind of 'room service' snack. Two nights we hired a babysitter to literally sit, while we ate dinner uninterrupted, shopped quietly and walked around holding hands instead of pushing the stroller... what a treat!

Within the first two days Hunter's cute, red Mickey Mouse hat went missing... so being the responsible anti-sunburn parents we are we had to buy a new one. Tony discovered the best way to ensure that Hunter will wear a hat is to let him pick it out. So we gave him a choice of three and this is what he chose (the picking's were slim to begin with) - the UGLIEST hat of the lot! We laughed the rest of the week at his ugly hat but thankfully he didn't know what we were laughing at and he wore it faithfully the whole time!

We took two trips to Fairy Stream where we walked along a muddy river for a change of scenery... Hunter wasn't sure what to make of the mud squishing between his toes.

Intended to rinse off sandy feet, Hunter found other things to do with the water pot.

Walking on the beach is a luxury we don't get in Taipei - we tried to get in as much of it as possible.

Helena's view of the pool...

Coco Beach Resort Infomercial

Tony said it best - "We took a holiday to Coco Beach Resort. It just happened to be in Vietnam." The place was great... they've only got bungalows and villas so it feels like a sophisticated summer camp with relaxation as the main activity. There was grass!!! For city-slickers like ourselves we would've been satisfied just with the grass, but the beach and pool were nice additions, as well as the coconut trees, views of the beach from each bungalow and the friendly staff. Mui Ne beach itself was fun for body surfing (well, getting body-slammed onshore), jogging and frolicking with the kids. Had we been a bit more prepared we could've even tried kite-surfing - but the wind wasn't strong enough most of the time we were there. We'd definitely recommend Mui Ne and Coco Beach to anyone living over on this side of the planet... http://www.cocobeach.net/

This one's the "villa" - it's got 2 rooms and 2 bathrooms

The Clark's brought a real 'family' feel to the whole resort... actually, once we moved up to the beach front we started drying our clothes inside so as not to inhibit the view for ourselves nor devalue it for our neighbors.