Turning heads as the only girls jumping off this sea-rock, greasy-haired men in Speedos, men lathering women with baby oil (a trend I swear went out with aluminum tanning in the 50s...), beautiful views and Perrin and Bogdan on the bus (I judge a country by its public transportation and so far Italy's is top-notch).

In lieu of religion, I am devoutly American but was surprisingly OK with missing the barbecues and poolside toasts back home yesterday.  Perrin, Bogdan and I are spending the next week in Southern Italy and we celebrated the holiday on a Salerno beach with beers, greasy-haired men in Speedos, 13 year-old make out fiends and women covered in baby oil for extra sun appeal.  This small city at the start of the Amalfi Coast was packed Rehoboth Beach style, but surrounded by stunningly beautiful steep hills that blow away Deleware’s fold-up Boardwalk fairs.

As we reported earlier, our camera was stolen recently.

You can probably imagine that it’s kind of hard to make a show about living abroad without a video camera.

And so much has happened! Laurene quit her job, Ryan and I took a boat ride on a lake named after a guinea pig, Ryan and Freddie went to the coast, I found a job, Laurene started looking for other jobs, Ryan got thrown into a jail on wheels, the boys went on an Indiana Jones adventure in the jungle, the World Cup began. And so on. All those little things like Life.

While the powers-that-be behind Jet Set Zero have been researching every possibility to get us a new camera as soon as possible, they’ve encountered headaches and hurdles like customs, duties paperwork, and exorbitant shipping costs.

Enter creative solution #1: Find a courier to fly down with the camera.

I jumped on the horn (ok, the internet) and contacted my best friend Amy Cao, a food writer and blogger in NYC. Would she be available to fly down to Quito with the camera on a moment’s notice? An email response from her later, it was a done deal.

She arrives tonight into Quito, and the show will go on!

Food writer Amy Cao arriving in Quito soon!

This weekend Ryan and I along with a great new friend took a red eye bus from Quito to the beach town of Atacames in the province of Esmeraldas.  The bus ride was about 6 hours long and we arrived to our destination about 5:45 am and totally bleary eyed and catatonic from our long overnight ride. We boarded a rickshaw taxi and checked into the first hotel listed in our trusty travel guide. We climbed into our bunk beds and proceeded to sleep into about 10 am when we were awoken by the Reggaeton music that is ubiquitous in Atacames.  We started off our day with a bowl of delicious Ceviche de Camaron, which was a refreshing dish consisting of shrimp, onion, and lime juice paired with a bowl of fried banana chips and an appetizing tall glass of chilled coconut milk.  I am a huge fan of breakfast foods and this dish will definitely give llapingachos a run for their money as my current favorite meal in Ecuador.  Atacames is your typical little beach town complete with vendors, thatch roofed huts serving cold drinks, and tour guides offering boat rides to the surrounding beaches.  For only about 1o bucks a person per ride we were able to visit the beaches of Sua and Same, the mangroves and the Island of Birds that was home to dozens of blue footed boobies.  Atacames was a much needed change of pace and is definitely a good time for those visiting the Northern coast of Ecuador.

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(This is the seconde episode of my Xmas series)

December 24th is a normal day in Vietnam. Except for Anhs’s family who is catholic and celebrates Christmas.

Au Viêtnam, le 24 décembre est un jour tout à fait normal. Sauf pour Anh et sa famille, qui sont catholiques et fêtent Noël.

(I have finally found some time to edit all the films I took during my Christmas holidays. This is the first episode of my Xmas series)

On a trip to the beach in Tân Thiên village, Anh tells us what the future holds for the yet preserved seashore.

Lors d’un petit tour à la plage, Anh raconte ce que le futur réserve pour le rivage encore préservé de Tân Thiên.

Man, Vietnam is truly a stunning country. Having been from the far reaches of the north all the way down to the south, I feel qualified to make such a statement. But I feel like I am repeating myself: “THIS is the most beautiful place in Vietnam”. Well, only one more time, I promise. Phu Quoc Island is everything a tropical island should be – white sand, turquoise water, palm trees waving in the breeze, and freshly caught seafood served grilled on the beach every night for dinner. On the other side of the road that lines the beaches there is lush, green jungle. This is one of those that places that you need to be careful about – if you don’t have anywhere to be, you could really get stuck here.

And the amazing thing about it is that it’s not too crowded. The main beach is fairly developed, but with beach-front bungalows rather than high-rise hotels. It’s only an hour flight from Saigon and it cost me $40 one way, and taking the boat back to the mainland is $8 plus the cost of the bus afterwards. I can’t believe more people from Saigon don’t come here for a few days break from the city.

But having said that, the cast from Season 1: Saigon actually did come here for a quick holiday from teaching. You can read about their experience here: http://www.jetsetzero.tv/2008/12/01/sna-phu-quoc/

Suffice it to say, it goes to show that it’s very possible to have two completely different experiences in the same place. The words “gruelling”, “irritating” and “island prison” certainly didn’t enter my vocabulary while here.

Note: the last picture is the series is literally where I wrote this post on my laptop, gazing upon the sun as it went down over the Gulf of Thailand. They will have to drag me kicking and screaming away from here.

Why oh why must some of the European ladies go topless on foreign beaches? Is it that they haven’t taken the time to learn about the culture they’re visiting or is it because they know it’s inappropriate but simply don’t give a shit?

Whatever the reason, it really pisses me off. I’m not personally offended by it, but the look of shock is evident when locals pass by these ignorant women. Vietnam seems fairly liberal in its big cities – visit either Saigon or Hanoi and you’ll see many young women dressed stylishly in revealing dresses and heels, though even this will get clucks of disapproval from the older people. In the smaller towns or at religious sites proper, respectful attire should be donned. And it’s NEVER okay for a woman to take off her top in public. How important is it for you to tan your damn nipples?

Every responsible traveller should educate themselves about where they are going BEFORE they go. Many Aussies don’t realize that we tip in North American restaurants and they spend their vacation stiffing servers wherever they go. That just leaves a server grumbling that they missed out on some potential cash. Exposing yourself in a conservative country has a much longer-lasting effect on the people. It’s no wonder how negative stereotypes of Western women come to be born.

So, what did we decide to do for our Christmas? Go the beach of course. We all figured that if we’re going to spend Christmas away from our friends and family, why not do the complete exact opposite of what everyone imagines Christmas to be. So we hopped on a four hour bus ride, turned 7 hour bus ride, and headed to the small beach town of Mui Ne.

We landed ourselves a resort at about $15/night (!!!!), got massages for $5 on the beach (!!!!), and checked out Mui Ne’s beautiful sand dunes and red canyon. Overall, I’m pretty happy about it. And by happy about it, I mean stoked as all hell at how awesome my life is right now.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! I’m sure I can speak for Jen, Kris, and I when I say although we had a great time, friends and family, you were sorely missed.