My last hours in Ho Chi Minh City

I am sitting at Highlands Coffee with Jason. It's very similar to Starbucks, but much cheaper. There are several people "deep cleaning" Jason and Rachel's apartment, so we went out for breakfast. There is free WIFI, which is wireless Internet, so now we are just chilling out in the cafe.

Yesterday I was watching the Travel and Living television channel when a travel show about Vietnam came on. I was excited to see it since I am here and curious to see which parts of Ho Chi Minh City they would highlight. After less than a couple of minutes, the entire show cut out for its duration. I assumed it was censored, and when I questioned Rachel about it later, she agreed. They censor all travel shows about Vietnam. I would think they would want to promote tourism in their country. It's weird to be somewhere where there is so much censorship. There are censored newspapers, television shows, and it's against the law to speak out against the government. Imagine if no one could oppose or disagree with George Bush! Or other politicians... There are also propaganda posters all over the country. They are stuck to the sides of buildings, on large billboard signs, etc.; they are even in the countryside. Most of them are anti-American, pro-independence, and celebrating a liberated, communist government. I can't really read most of them, but Rachel and Jason can usually get the gist. Most are accompanied by large, colorful pictures of planes being shot down, Uncle Ho hugging children, or other images. Some are funny. They have to do with elderly people doing exercise and traffic. There are a few propaganda stores that sell the posters with the English translations at the bottom of them. I visited a couple out of curiosity but didn't purchase anything.

I have about 6 hours before I need to start heading to the airport. Unfortunately Rachel can't meet us for lunch because she is in charge of hosting someone special today and can't get away. She said goodbye to me early this morning before she left for work. I was still not really awake...

Last night for my last night in Ho Chi Minh City, Rachel and I went to the V Spa near their apartment for one last massage. We got a 75 minute aromatherapy massage, which was nice and relaxing. When we returned home, Jason heated up a spinach and mozzarella pizza the cook had made; Rachel got some wine; and we all played more of American Idol karaoke. Jason and Rachel asked if I wanted to go out, but I was really tired, and everyone was getting up early today.

I'm certainly not looking forward to the long flights ahead, but it will be nice to be back in the states. I am also looking forward to visiting my sister in Los Angeles for a couple of nights on the way back.

The Mekong Delta

Yesterday Jason and I took our second and final day-trip to the Mekong Delta. After a couple hours of driving in a bus, we arrived at My Tho in the Ben Tre province. I was gagging when we descended the bus because the smell from the nearby fish sauce factory was really potent. They have large vats of rotting fish fermenting or something like that. But after walking about 100 feet, the smell began to fade.

From the tourist office, we boarded a boat that took us around parts of the delta. I could observe many of the houses and shacks up on stilts, boats, local fishing traps, and a lot of banana and cork trees. The water as a shade of milk chocolate, and the shores were lined with jungle. It was really pretty. There were four main islands we went around: Phoenix Island, Unicorn Island, Tortoise Island, and Dragon Island. Those are four important animals to the Vietnamese people. We actually stopped at Phoenix Island.

The tour was pretty well organized. At Phoenix Island, we got off the boat and walked down a small, narrow, bridge that looked like it didn't have many years left standing. We walked though the jungle and observed a rice paper making hut. At first Jason and I thought they meant stationary paper, but we soon learned that it was the rice paper wraps for cooking. They baked some of them into a mild tasting snack, which was for sale of course. We made many of these cultural "pit stops," where we had a brief introduction and then conveniently 10-15 minutes of "free time" to shop. From there, we had lunch. The lunch was included, but it was terrible. They recommended trying the Mekong's famous elephant ear fish, which was not included and, of course, the most expensive thing on the menu.

After lunch we taken to a bee farm. By this point it was raining pretty hard, so we weren't able to observe many of the bees before they descended upon the tables where we were sitting. The locals made us some honey, citrus tea and allowed us to try some honeycomb and a strong coconut wine. The wine was really strong and not very good. Our guide told us it was 35% alcohol. It tasted like straight vodka. Next we took an "ox cart" through the village. We expected a yak or water buffalo, but instead there were tiny ponies with feathers and fake flowers tied into their manes.

We arrived at another thatched hut with tables. Outside there were a couple of cages. Inside one was a huge python, and the other housed a small squirrel. Our guide called us over to the tables. We sat down and were given some fruit while we listened to traditional music played by some of the local people. A couple of the women sang, and three men sat on stools, each playing a different instrument. Our guide kept reinforcing that they were not professionals, but he hoped that we enjoyed listening. The fruit plate was filled with different fruits: watermelon, pineapple, dragon fruit, rambutan, longan, etc. I ate some pineapple and dragon fruit before biting into my rambutan and finding a white worming crawling around in the shell. I quickly spit it out and that was the end of the fruit plate.

Two local woman in the traditional hats took us back to our boat in small wooden boats, paddling us down a small stream in the estuary. Our final stop was the coconut candy factory. We observed the local people making the candy, drying and cutting it, wrapping it, and packaging it all by hand! It was pretty amazing, and the wrapping looked like a boring, monotonous job. There were about five women sitting in chairs around a larger table. They grabbed one of the tiny cut candies that were constantly tossed into the center of the table. They then wrapped them in tiny rice paper and then regular paper. When Jason asked, our guide said they probably made about 700,000 dong (42-45 US dollars) a month. I can't imagine!

Cao Dai Temple & the Cu Chi Tunnels

It’s a little before 7 a.m., and in about 30-45 minutes, Jason and I will leave for our second day-trip to the Mekong Delta. Yesterday we went to Cao Dai Temple and the Cu Chi Tunnels. Caodaism, which is a unique religion that began in the 1920s combining the teachings of Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism, Christianity, Islam and other religions into one religion to promote peace, is the religion practiced at the temple. Imagine that! We were able to observe a mass at 12 noon, which was beautiful. Upon removing our shoes and leaving them outside, we entered the colorful temple. At the front, in the center, is the main alter, which has a large painted eye in the center of a ball. The people come to worship the eye of god, looking down upon them.

The religion is a mix of the east and the west. The organizational structure roughly follows that of the Roman Catholic Church with a pope, cardinals, bishops, and priests. There are several colors present in the temple. The common people, who come to worship, wear white. Women use one hallway/stairway, and the men use the other. Some of the worshippers had white scarves on their heads, others had black, and there were others who didn’t use any scarves at all. There are three main colors (other than white) represented by members. Red robes signify Catholicism, Christianity, and Islam. Yellow robes are worn by Buddhists, and Taoists and Confusionists wear blue robes. French writer, Victor Hugo, is one of their famous saints. At least that is what I got out of our guide’s information. It was sometimes a little hard to understand his English. We were able to walk around the temple about 15 minutes before the mass began and then observed about 20 minutes of their rituals, which consisted of a lot of chanting.

The next stop after lunch was the Cu Chi Tunnels. These tunnels were essentially an underground village used by the Viet Cong and one of the most famous battlegrounds during the Vietnam War. The Cu Chi Tunnels were an underground city with living areas, kitchens, storage, weapons factories, field hospitals, and command centres. In places, it was even three stories deep and housed up to 10,000 people who virtually lived underground for years.... getting married, giving birth, going to school. They only came out at night to tend their crops. Parts of the tunnels have been renovated and restored; it’s a major tourist attraction today. We arrived and watched a 15 minute black and white propaganda video. It was of very poor quality and difficult to hear any of the narration or dialogue, but the sounds of the bombs were amplified. It was more anti-American sentiment, and by the end, you got the point. The guide then showed us a map of the grounds and a model of the tunnels, which went down several levels into the ground, consisting of short, narrow hallways, weaving underground, connecting bedrooms, kitchens, and even a complicated chimney system to release the smoke slowly into the air to avoid bombing by the Americans.

We observed several of the pit traps, booby traps, gruesome bamboo spike door traps, and window traps the Viet Cong set throughout the jungles. The American soldiers fell through beds of nails. These traps were usually covered by leaves. It was even hard to find the entrances of the tunnels without our guide pointing them out. I really can’t imagine how horrifying it must have been to have been here during the 1960s and 70s. Today there are thatched roofs so tourists can see the structure of the kitchens, hospitals, and bomb/ landmine making rooms (which are all underground), but during the war, all the soldiers would have been able to see was dense jungle. The Viet Cong had camouflaged the air holes in large termite mounds. There were also ditches all along the path today where Viet Cong soldiers hid to fire at the enemy. There are rooms holding four soldiers, one at each corner, where there were small holes in the ground. The soldiers would fire at the enemy from there.

You could see a couple large holes where bombs were dropped. As we continued the tour, the experience became even more horrifying as we neared the shooting range. For a little more than a dollar a bullet, tourists can fire M 16s and AK 47s. The guns themselves appeared to be bolted down, but the sounds were deafening. I had to hold my ears even near the range. Most tourists, who chose to participate, fired a bullet at a time, but every once in a while, we’d hear a string of 5-10 bullets. It was one of the scariest feelings I have ever felt.

Toward the end of the tour, we were able to go through a part of the Cu Chi Tunnels with one of the guards working at the site. There are now steps to help people down, and at first it was hard to really see how small the actual tunnels are. But soon enough, I was on my feet, crouched as low as I could possibly go, waddling through 3 or 3 ½ by 2 foot tunnels. Parts had a small light on the floor, but most of them were pitch black. It was terrifying. It was hard to see the person in front of my and parts came to a Y. About halfway through, a little claustrophobia set in, and I was ready to be out. I can’t imagine how the families lived in these tunnels. They were so hot and tiny. The Viet Cong stayed in them all day and only came out at night when the Americans were sleeping.

After exiting the tunnels, we were fed some tapioca. Because a bowl of rice can only sustain a person for a couple of hours, the Viet Cong primarily ate boiled tapioca, dipped in chopped peanut. It was pretty good. The tapioca didn’t have much of a taste; it was much like eating a boiled, peeled potato. I’m sure the peanut helped give it some flavor.

A Farewell to Ted, and We're Back in Saigon

Ted left last night from Hanoi, and Rachel, Jason, and I have returned to Ho Chi Minh City on a long, noisy two hour domestic flight. Our last day in Hanoi was as hot as all of the other days in the north. We woke up early to have breakfast before taking a taxi to view Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum, which is supposed to be free.

The Vietnamese take great pride in their “Uncle Ho,” who helped reunite them against the Americans and reunify the country into the communist, I mean “socialist” republic it is today. People from the countryside make the pilgrimage regularly. There are thousands of Vietnamese, and even a few tourists here and there, in a long line, winding around the streets. Luckily it moves continuously. Once you reach the front entrance, everyone is supposed to check their purses, bags, cameras, etc. There is counter for Vietnamese, though I think these rules weren’t really enforced with the locals. It is strictly enforced with the tourists; there is even a separate counter to leave behind all of your things. One woman at the counter tried to sell Jason brochures. He was confused and pointed to the sign that said the mausoleum and luggage/ bag check was free. She then proceeded to tell him that those were free, but he should buy the brochure. She seemed offended when he told her we didn’t want the brochures. But, we were in…

There are a lot of strict rules. For starters, there are armed guards in bright white attire everywhere watching the crowd. The public must follow a strict dress code, no shorts or short skirts and no tank tops. You aren’t allowed to take any pictures, talk, or even put your hands in your pocket. There can be no disrespect for Uncle Ho. After walking sometime on concrete, under blue tented walkways, we approached the rubbery red carpet that led up to the mausoleum. We were still moving at a pretty steady pace, and we finally entered. We continued around a couple corners and up a few steps until we had finally reached the room where his embalmed corpse lay in a glass box lit up in the center of the room. Uncle Ho is surrounded by 4 motionless bodyguards at all times. He looked almost too perfect with his wispy, white beard and arms crossed. Apparently his body is returned to Russia a few months each year for touch-ups, but there is also some discussion and doubt as to whether it is really him or some wax figure. The old, Vietnamese woman in front of me couldn’t get enough. She stopped dead in her tracks, staring at Ho Chi Minh. One of the guards on our level had to eventually shuffle her along in the line.

Upon leaving, we were ushered to a yellow house, fishing pond, the house on stilts that Ho Chi Minh supposedly spent some time in, and a one-column pagoda. This was free for all Vietnamese, but 10,000 dong (about 70 cents) for tourists. We were irritated to pay -- not because it was super expensive, but because the visit was supposed to be free. And we were getting nickel and dimed to continue the tour to get out. It was just another of many scams. After that we went into the Ho Chi Minh Museum, which was another 5,000 dong (about 35 cents). The museum was strange. It had more anti-American, pro-Communism sentiment, and weird lighting. There were some paintings of Ho Chi Minh on the wall, and Ted and I saw other old, Vietnamese ladies rubbing the hands and touching one of the paintings of Uncle Ho.

We spent the rest of the morning relaxing at the air-conditioned hotel before we had to check-out. After lunch, we did some shopping and met some of Rachel’s friends at a nearby café.

It’s nice to be back in Ho Chi Minh City. It’s been an exciting and tiring two weeks. We did a bit of American Idol karaoke on Playstation 2 last night, and I hope to return a bit to the spas. Tomorrow and Tuesday Jason and I will take some day trips if the weather holds up. It’s sunny today!

Good Morning Vietnam!

I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City last night after traveling for over 24 hours. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. My Thai Airlines flight from New York to Bangkok had an on demand entertainment system on the back of the seat in front of you. You could select from about 25 different movies, watch episodes of popular television shows, play video games, or listen to music. I watched 4 movies on the way over and played a little video blackjack to pass the time. With all the entertainment and the food they kept bringing, the flight really didn’t seem that long. When I finally arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, I made my way through customs and headed outside of the airport to find Courtney, Rachel, and Jason waiting for me. We all climbed into a taxi and headed off for Rachel and Jason’s apartment.

The cab ride provided my first look at all the moterbikes on the streets. They’re everywhere, and they seem to be coming from all directions. The cab we were in was being passed by bikes on both sides and the driver seemed to just be constantly honking the horn so the motercycle drivers knew he was there. There were bikes even coming at us down the “wrong” side of the road. I guess in Vietnam there is no wrong side of the road though.

Within about 10 to 15 minutes, we arrived at Rachel and Jason’s apartment building. I had to check in at the front desk and let them make a copy of my passport. Then we stepped into the convenience store located in the lobby of their building, and Courtney and Rachel bought three bottles of red wine. I guess the store was having a special – buy two bottles get one free. They had a hard time finding three bottles of red because they had taken advantage of the same deal the day before. Rachel managed to find one hidden behind one of the other bottles, and we headed upstairs. We spent the night enjoying some of the wine, and much to Courtney’s delight, playing a Karaoke game on their Playstation 2. I had my first taste of Dragon fruit. Its pink on the outside and shaped somewhat like an oversized pear with parts curving off of the sides of it. Inside it’s white with black seeds running throughout and looks somewhat like Cookies n’ Cream ice cream. It was good. It sort of tasted like a less sweet version of watermelon. At some point I actually went to bed.

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM! This morning I was the last one to wake up. I probably could of slept all day if Courtney hadn’t woken me up. The plan for the day was to see the Reunification Palace and the War Remnants Museum. We got ready and headed off for breakfast. Before we left the apartment building I exchanged some US money for the local currency. I changed out $60 and thought I had won the lottery when she gave me the Vietnamese money. It was over 900000 Dong!

For breakfast we went to a nice little restaurant that served crepes. It was quite good. I had one stuffed with mozzerella, tomatoes, spinich, and mushrooms in a cream sauce with my morning dose of caffiene. After breakfast we decided to take a taxi over to the Jade Emperor Pagoda.



I’m still not sure what this place was. I’ll have to look it up in one of the guide books when I have a free moment. From what I can gather though it was some sort of Buddhist temple. I was feeling kind of sick, though, as we made our way through it. It was filled with the smoke from incense that was burning in every one of the rooms. We went through it fairly quickly and snapped off a bunch of pictures along the way. Outside there was a pond filled with turtles some of which were dead and floating on the surface. We had seen a lady outside selling baby turtles and figured that people bought the turtles and tossed them into the pond as some kind of offering.

After the Jade Emperor Pagoda, we took a taxi to one of the markets to get a little shopping in before the Reunification Palace reopened after lunch. The market was huge. It reminded me of the ones I saw in Sydney and Melbourne. Vendors were setup selling anything you could imagine and some things you could never imagine. I’m not even sure what many of the food items for sale were, but I can assure you they wouldn’t ever be entering my mouth.

From the market we walked over to the Reunification Palace. Over the years, the building was occupied by the French, South Vietnamese, the French again, then again by South Vietnamese with the US, and in 1975 it was taken over by the North. I think that’s how it all happened. I was having trouble following our guide. Now it stands as a tourist attraction. On the lawn of the palace they have the two tanks the North used to break down the gates in 1975. Inside it was a bunch of rooms with chairs and tables in them. One room was a conference room, another a dining hall, upstairs there were more of the same. There was a movie theater, a library, and the President’s office. It felt a little like going to Graceland. The President’s office was decorated with stuffed Cheetahs and Jaguars or other such animals. They give you pretty much free regin of the place though, and we wandered around all four floors and the basement.

The next stop was the War Remnants Museum. I didn’t really know what to expect here. I had read the short blurb about the place in one of the guide books and knew that it was fairly anti-American, but I wasn’t sure how it would be depicted. The museum consisted primarily of photographs and military vehicles. There were six different areas filled with photographs, and by the end, I had seen enough. It was kind of hard to follow as well because all of the information written in English was printed in small type below the larger Vietnamese information. I think I stopped reading about halfway through and just looked at the photos, many of which were very graphic scenes from the war.
After the museum, we went back to Rachel and Jason’s apartment and took a little break before heading out again to dinner. Rachel and Jason took us to an all you can eat Brazilian barbeque restaurant called Au Lac do Brazil. They advertised 17 meats or some ridiculous number like that. The food was really good. The wait staff just kept coming up to our table with giant hunks of meat on skewers and cutting it off on to our plates. I ate at least 5 different animals tonight, but I think my favorite was actually the fried bananas and some green leafy vegetable sauteed with garlic. Following dinner we stopped for a drink at I-Box, one of the bars nearby Rachel and Jason’s apartment. It was the perfect ending to a great first day in Vietnam!

2 Days at the Spa, and Ted has arrived!

The big news is that Ted arrived last night. Yay! He hasn't really had much of a chance to see a lot of Ho Chi Minh City, but he observed all of the motorbikes from the taxi on our way home from the airport. Last night we played some “American Idol Karaoke” on Jason’s Playstation 2. It was so fun! I think Rachel and Jason are getting a little sick of karaoke; they said they played more in the past two days than they have since they got the game. But I LOVE karaoke, so I have been pleading with everyone to bust of the mics.

Rachel and I have been testing out more of the spas for the past 2 days. On Saturday, we decided to try the Regency Health & Leisure Club Luxury Spa recommended from her Asia Life magazine. It was advertised as “everything you could ever want in jacuzzis, saunas, Chinese back rub, face masks, haircuts, ear cleaning and massage… They’ve taken service to a new level. For $14.95, you get sauna, steambath, gym access, Chinese back scrub, jacuzzi, hair wash, face mask, face massage, ear cleaning, haircut, foot massage, a free light meal, free cigarettes and iced tea, and an all over body massage,” all in one sitting of about 4-5 hours. Believe me, it was NOT luxurious. Jason was laughing when we told him about it. What did we expect; it was a 5 hour spa treatment for less than $15?!

After the taxi got lost and drove the wrong way down a 4-lane road, we made it to the Regency Health & Leisure Club. It was really hard to find because the hotel it is in has a different name and is under some major construction. After climbing through boards and sawhorses to the half renovated elevator, we were taken to the spa. We tried to confirm the price with the ladies at the counter, but no one really spoke English. They grabbed their brochure, which had pictures of many of the services, and it listed the $14.95 price. We were on our way. The beginning of the experience felt a little similar to the Korean mogyoktang (bathhouse) , which I desperately miss. You enter a small room with lockers where you changed out of your clothes and into a towel. We were first taken into the sauna. It looked like a small plastic space station, with built-in seventies looking seats, a lot like the furniture in the dorms from our freshmen year of college. There were two small, plastic baskets of lemongrass, and I immediately saw a huge live cockroach in one of them. I pointed to it and told the lady when we were all inside. She came in and started spraying it, chasing it all of the floor. Finally it managed to crawl back in the crack of one of the seats, and she said in her meek, light-pitched voice, “It’s okay now. Don’t worry. He die.” We were underway. We climbed onto the chairs and waited for the steam to fill the room. It smelled wonderful and very invigorating with the lemongrass. Luckily the cockroach never made a second appearance.

After that, we were taken over to these interesting looking, shallow bathtubs with built-in blue foam, where we were told to take the towel off and lie there naked. Two women then wrapped their hands with washcloths, and rubbed as hard as they could to exfoliate our skin. It hurt so bad! It was similar to the exfoliating rubs at the Korean bathhouse, but without the specialized cloth, and much, much more painful. My skin was turning red and hurting everywhere. After they rubbed both sides of us, front and back, we were led to the showers to wash off all of the dead skin. We sat a while in the “steambath” and watched MTV Rewind to the 80s, which was probably one of the highlights of the spa. The steambath was more like a hot tub, and the water smelled a little off, but it was okay. Some time later, one of the ladies asked if we were ready for our facial. We looked at each other and decided why not? So we were given some light clothing (like Korean jimjjilbang), and taken through the first of many dingy staircases to the next level. On the second floor, no one spoke any English. They seemed really confused but finally took us to lie down. They rubbed some cream into our faces for a while and then laid long, thin cucumbers slices on our face. It was freezing! We were laying there a long time when Rachel suspected they forgot about us, so she removed a section of the cucumber and motioned one of the ladies over to us. They had forgotten about us, but finally they took off the cucumber slices and sent us on our way. It wasn’t much of a facial, but what could we have expected? Everyone expected a tip after we left each station, and the face ladies were screaming at us as we walked to the shampooing ladies.

Next we were shuffled across the hair salon to get our hair washed. This lady was pretty good, but I felt like she was never going to stop washing my hair. Not to mention I had already washed it that morning at Rachel and Jason’s apartment. After what felt like 30 minutes of shampooing, she dried my hair, and then she showed me to another hidden staircase to the next level. This one had lighted strips along the floor like in the movie theaters. I met Rachel in the foot massage chairs.

Two men brought us tea and gave us a foot massage. That was probably the highlight of the spa treatment. It actually felt pretty good. There you could order the free light meal, which was ramen noodles. We skipped it. The lounge was terribly smoky, though, because it was also where you were given all of the free cigarettes. Jason was laughing when he heard that the spa was giving out free cigarettes. It does seem a little ironic.

The final part of the experience was the full body massage, which we could rename “Hell on Earth.” It was awful. As we were taken back through more scary, hidden staircases, we were brought into an old, wooden paneled 70’s looking room. The air conditioner was so loud Rachel asked them to turn it off. No one understood, so they turned it up louder and positioned us on the tables. One women climbed on my butt and started kneeing me everywhere. It really felt like she was doing the splits or some dance routine on my back. There were bars on the ceiling, and sometimes she was standing up, doing ballet or something across my back. Rachel asked her lady to lighten it up, but no one really understood. They were pinching, twisting, bending, and slapping us everywhere as they moved about the tables. The final treat was getting my hair pulled over and over and over. There was nothing relaxing about it. Rachel described it as if these women made no adjustments than if we were 300 pound men. After about an hour, the torture ended. At the end of each service, we had to sign a slip of paper, and these women were really pissed off we weren’t giving them an automatic tip. Rachel tried to explain to everyone that we were tipping downstairs at the end of everything, but these women we pulling our arms, and shouting, “TIP! Madam, TIP!” and pointing to the paper. We ran out and somehow found our way through the maze of staircases back to the front desk. We paid a full $18.75 each, including tip, and then left. I would agree with Asia Life; the Regency was taking the service to a different level, a painful one!

Yesterday, we went to a much better, up-scale, French spa that Rachel and Jason had previously been to. We are no longer trusting the Asia Life magazine and only returning to the spas Rachel has tried out previously. If the Regency was “Hell on Earth,” the L’Apothiquaire was as close to a slice of Heaven that we may find in Vietnam. We got the Half Day Relaxation package, which lasted about 4 hours, all $82.50, including tax. We were taken to a station to fill out a skin questionnaire for the facial. Then we changed into the robes, and the relaxation began. We had a one hour foot massage, one hour full-body massage, and then a 45 minute to one hour facial. It was amazing! I never wanted it to end. When it finally did, we had lunch (included) and tea in the garden. The day was incredible, and although there were some customer service issues when we paid (we were supposed to receive a 15% promotional discount but no one spoke enough English to fully understand what was going on, and there was a huge communication breakdown), it was worth every penny.

Other than going to the different spas, we have been trying out some of the restaurants, doing a bit of shopping, and playing a lot of Playstation 2 karaoke. Woo hoo! Well, now that Ted is here, I image we’ll be sight-seeing a lot more.

Oh, the other big, exciting news! I’ve moved to a new level. I crossed the street by myself 4 times! At first I was terrified. It was raining, so Rachel and Jason didn’t want to walk across the street to the ATM. I looked at them with the sad eyes of a child, “You won’t help me cross the street?” But then I did it! And I feel so proud. It’s a very liberating feeling.

Walking, Massages, and Tapas, Oh My!

This morning Jason and I explored Ho Chi Minh City by foot. We are saving the museums, pagodas, and other really touristy things to see for Monday when Ted is here, so we aren’t seeing everything twice. We walked by the famous post office with a huge painting of Ho Chi Minh, the Notre Dame Cathedral, the opera house, and some famous sights from the Vietnam War, like the Hotel Rex. There are statues and pictures of Ho Chi Minh throughout the city. I’ve been told that the war is referred to here as the “American War.” We plan to tour the anti-American War Remnants Museum with Ted on Monday.

We walked down Le Loi street, seeing more famous buildings and eventually ending at the big marketplace, which had a bit of everything. We saw many of the cyclo drivers camping out on their bicycle rickshaws. Jason told me that many of them are men who fought in the war on the side of the south and were punished and stripped of their citizenship and all rights at the end of the war. They wear tattered clothing and search for tourists to drive around the town. The Lonely Planet guidebook stated that many were former doctors, teachers, and journalists that were punished for siding with the Americans. It’s really sad. Actually there was a family sitting next to me on the airplane that was returning to Vietnam to see long lost relatives. I sat next to a Vietnamese-Canadian girl about my age, and she was telling me that her mother is returning for the first time since 1975 to see the siblings she left during the war, and she and her siblings are meeting aunts, uncles, cousins, and other family members for the first time. Tears filled their eyes when the plane landed in Ho Chi Minh City. What an emotional reunion!

The local market was beautiful but hot. It looked similar to other markets I’ve been to in Asia with fresh, live seafood; beautifully stacked tables of fruits, herbs, and vegetables; and bags of rice and grains. There were also trinkets, clothing, hairclips, a ton of shoes. You name it, it probably was sold somewhere in the market.

We met Rachel again for lunch at a French restaurant and then went back to the cute coffee shop called Nirvana, but unfortunately the power was out there. Rachel and Jason have a really luxurious set-up. Their apartment comes with a built-in cleaning/ maid service, so the towels are changed daily, beds made, and even the floors are cleaned. They also have a cook who comes three days a week. She does the grocery shopping, prepares the meals, and even cleans up and does the dishes! She packs all of the food into nice, plastic, microwavable containers and places them in the refrigerator, so all they need to do is reheat their food in the microwave. She even washes and cuts up the fruit for them!

When Rachel returned from work, we went for a foot massage at the Qing Dong Du Salon, recommended in her Asia Life magazine. The Vietnamese women looked small and frail in their orange shirts, but these women were strong and intense! It was actually a little painful. I felt like they were rubbing the skin off of my legs, but the massage on the soles of my feet felt great. They finish the massage with arms, shoulders, neck, back, and head – bending, twisting, slapping your body. I am not sure if I liked this one that much or not. I prefer the one from yesterday.

We went out to dinner with some of Rachel’s friends and co-workers to a Spanish tapas place called Pacharan. We had a couple of pitchers of sangria and the tapas were pretty tasty. Although I can’t say I had an extremely busy day, I do feel exhausted. I’m looking forward to the weekend. I hope the sun comes out. It’s been overcast with a sprinkle here and there. And tonight it poured for hours. But then again, it is the rainy season!

Unexpected Adventures and a Warm Welcome from Vietnam

After an unexpected adventure, I finally arrived safely in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly named Saigon). My original flight plan out of Reagan National was abruptly changed when the first of my four flights to Asia was delayed significantly. I would have been stuck without a hotel in Dallas at least overnight, so I was in panic-mode. After pleading with the airline, I finally found someone to help me. Rather than fly west via Los Angeles, I was rerouted east through Frankfurt, Germany from Dulles. I called Ted in a state of panic, and after reclaiming my baggage, he picked me up and rushed me to Dulles. Thank you, Ted! I ended up making all of the flights, which ended up turning out better in the long run. So now I will have truly flown around the world on this trip! (I am returning via Los Angeles across the Pacific Ocean.)

After many, long hours and nearly 2 days of traveling, I arrived this morning at the airport in Ho Chi Minh City. I cleared customs rather quickly, and Jason was waiting for me near the baggage claim. Thank you, Jason! We went back to his and Rachel’s place, which is really nice. After a nice long, hot shower, Rachel met us for lunch. I had a delicious glass of freshly squeezed pineapple juice and a Vitenamese dish with shrimp, noodles, and veggies. It was delicious.

The motorcyclists are definitely out of control here! The cab ride from the airport would have been a lot scarier had I not been mentally prepared for the chaos of the streets. To my surprise, there aren’t really any tuk-tuks here. The streets are littered with cabs, a few brave drivers of cars and vans, and more than 6 billion motorcycles! Seriously, every time you attempt to cross the street, you are likely to be hit by about 10 of them coming from all directions! People don’t really seem to follow any rules of the road, and I haven’t even really seen that many traffic lights. Needless-to-say, pedestrians definitely do NOT have the right-of-way. Drivers and motorcyclists don’t even slow down at cross walks. I have been ducking behind Rachel or Jason for every attempt at crossing the street so far. You have to start walking out into the street amidst the heavy flow of traffic, usually in both directions. Jason warned me to walk slow because just as we don’t want to be hit, the motorcyclists don’t want to plow over any pedestrians either. As long as they aren’t looking down, text messaging, or talking on their cell phones, and the motorcyclists actually see you, they will more than likely turn their bikes to avoid hitting you. The pedestrian’s important job is to make eye contact with all high speed oncoming bikes, so you can see if the drivers are paying attention and will (hopefully) avoid hitting you. Cars and trucks apparently do not slow down, stop, or swerve, so they must be outrun in a game of leapfrog at all costs. Apparently people making left turns have the right away because they just drive out in the middle of traffic, and people are forced to stop. And no one wears any helmets.

Jason and I went to this adorable coffee shop this afternoon to sift through some guidebooks and spa information while the rain drizzled. Rachel and I are planning to go spa hopping every day I am here in Ho Chi Minh City. When she finished work, we began with our first, the Sen Trang White Lotus Spa, just down the street. We treated ourselves to a 90 minute aromatherapy treatment massage with lava stones for less than $25. Some of the stones were really hot, but it was so relaxing, I nearly fell asleep. Tomorrow we plan to enjoy a foot massage at another one of Rachel’s favorite spas.

After the spa, we met Jason back at the apartment and made our way to dinner at the Com Nieu Saigon restaurant for dinner. There were locals as well as tourists sprinkled throughout the restaurant, and it is notable for entertaining the guests with a rather unique delivery of com dap, or smashed, rice paddies (looking a bit like pancakes). Once the rice has been baked in a clay pot, one of the men from the kitchen stands in the doorway to the dining area, smashes the claypot, and then throws the remains on the ground, where they shatter into a pile of clay rubble. Next he tosses the rice paddies one by one more than 15 feet across the restaurant to another waiter standing near our table, who catches the rice paddies on a plate and tosses them into the air a couple of times (which made me think of the pizza dough tossed in restaurants in Italy) before serving them to the customers. Tonight they were ours. I wonder what happens the ones the man doesn’t catch… I also ordered some tofu with lemongrass and chili, and Rachel and Jason ordered some steamed veggies, a pork dish, and a traditional southern Vietnamese fish soup. The food is really cheap; entrees were about $2 each. The food was pretty good until our meal ended rather abruptly.

There seem to be geckos everywhere. They were all over the walls of the restaurant. Toward the end of our meal I saw a look of panic on Jason’s face as he lifted his feet. I immediately asked what it was and worried it may have been a rat. He tried to play it off by telling Rachel and me it was a gecko, but I knew it wasn’t. He finally admitted that a huge 7-8 inch rat was running around behind our table, which he spotted only looking more closely at the dead cockroach lying on its back underneath the table next to us. Rachel soon spotted the rat, too, and started screaming. I glanced down; it was now only inches away from our table, and I was wearing sandals! After a few screams and fingers pointing toward where the rat was last spotted, some of the men working in the restaurant came over with the bill laughing. They didn’t really seem at all bothered by this. We quickly paid and ran out of the restaurant and into a cab. It’s been a pretty interesting first day. Welcome to Vietnam!