Vietnam Highlights

Many of you received this in email form from Jeff, however for those of you we have forgotten, here is our  account (written by Jeff this time) of our Christmas Vacation in Vietnam.  I have added pictures and am in the process of adding some videos.  I apologize in advance for the quality of the videos.  After viewing the two hours of video taken, I now know that I needed to hold the camera much more still and not pan over things so quickly.

Happy New Year Everyone

I'm typically not one for creating a diary of a vacation, but the eight days our family spent in Vietnam were so unique (for us at least) that I felt compelled to share the experience with the people I care about most.  Quick flashback to October when Mary and I delivered the following line to out kids: "We are leaving for Singapore in a matter of weeks and will be gone for six months....yes that means you won't be able to spend your birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, and Easter with your family and friends.  Sorry, but trust us, this will be the journey of a lifetime".  The kids reaction to this prospect was what we expected: screams of pain, a look in their eyes of sheer terror and many stern "NO! I am not going!!!!" statements.  Fortunately all three are under ten years old and it was a matter of two hours before their resolve was broken and they uttered such lines as "ok - so you are promising they have a pool there?".


We made it to Singapore in one piece and the transition could not have gone better for all five of us when we delivered another tough line for our kids to process: "we know you finally feel settled in Singapore and have accepted the fact that we won't be home for the holidays - how about we head to Vietnam for Christmas?"  Again, there were minor protests but at this point all three knew that if we were capable of forcing them to live in South East Asia for six months, we were capable of forcing them to ride in a tiny boat on the Mekong Delta on Christmas day.


Enough with the intro.  Instead of breaking down what we did each day in detail, I thought I would highlight some of the main takeaways from our trip.


Where we went within Vietnam
We landed in Ho Chi Minh (the locals call it Saigon or Ho Chi Minh - I like to call it Saigon) and spent three days in the city.  From there we were driven south three hours to Can Tho which sits on the Mekong Delta.  Here we spent two days on boats up and down various parts of the delta.  Our last leg consisted of being driven back to Saigon where we boarded a plane and headed north to the resort/beach city of Nha Trang.


Admittedly we were spoiled a bit - here are some details about our lodging and facilities
You can easily see Vietnam for very little money.  If you are willing to organize your lodging and transportation, and decide what to see, this is a very cheap place.  With three kids in tow, we went for the full guided tour.  The travel agency we used arranged everything, and I stress everything.  When we got off the plane our guide was waiting for us and quickly led us to our van and driver.  During the entire length of the trip a guide and driver were at our disposal at every moment (heaven).  Having an interpreter with us at all times was indispensable.  Not to mention that they organized various private boats (from a canoe to a 48 person fishing boat), bicycle cabs and motorcycle cabs that would magically be waiting for us whenever a leg of the trip would end.  We had to laugh when they replaced a nine passenger van with a twenty four passenger bus just because the DVD player wouldn't work and we had a four hour drive.  As for the hotels - all very nice and all designed for westerners. If anyone is heading to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam or Laos- use Exotissimo Travel - some of the best service we have ever experienced.


First Impressions
Overwhelmed would probably be a safe word to describe our first impression.  After getting through the airport and being picked up by our guide and driver - we entered Saigon traffic.  Whoa!  What do you do with a city of nine million people with no mass transit and not a lot of money?  Sell them five million motorcycles.  We were in awe of this transportation dance between buses, cars and thousands upon thousands of people on motorcycles.  We could not believe our eyes when we saw a motorcycle with five people on it.  This included the dad driving, a toddler in a wicker high chair in front of him, a child behind the dad, the mom behind the child and an infant in the mom's arms (!).  This wasn't a rare occurrence, families have to travel this way.  Take all of this chaos and mix it with no real traffic system.  For example, if you can drive on the wrong side of the road because it's going to save you 30 seconds - why not?  Guess how many accidents we saw? Zero.  Guess how many arguments we saw among people that had been cut off for the 300th time that day? Zero.  

Living Conditions
Many of you have been to 2nd and 3rd world economies so saying that the living conditions were challenging for the locals isn't terribly insightful.  It is eye opening to see up front and personal though.  We visited numerous families and saw exactly where they ate, worked and slept.  In many cases their homes were made from corrugated siding and we were told that every year a typhoon blows through and they need to rebuild their houses.  Again, every year!  We visited families living on boats (~100 square feet of living conditions for a family of 3 or 4).  Beds? A rarity.  Most people sleep on straw mats.  The one thing that bothered me was how the Vietnamese deal with their trash.  I asked many people where I could find a trash can and they just looked at me funny and told me to throw the trash in the street.  The most glaring example was watching a woman, who's home was right on the river, literally sweep the garbage from her kitchen right into the river.  It's a beautiful country and they really need take more pride in how they deal with trash.

Politics
I had assumed that many people in Vietnam would have held a serious grudge to anyone from America.  Quite the contrary, more than one person told me that "We are a society based on Confucianism so we only look forward".  I found this to be interesting yet kind of hard to believe at first.  I then asked if there were older people that still held a grudge....nope.  It was, however, very evident that many people still hold a grudge against the American government at that time (not the soldiers).  For example - "We are now driving over a bridge named after a Vietnamese hero who attempted to bomb Secretary of Defense Macnamara as he drove from the airport to the embassy".  Though we were in a communist country - it didn't feel like it.  In 1986 the free market was established and the need for the people to wait for hours for a pound of pork was done away with.  This is obviously a healthy economy and we saw no signs of hungry people - score one for capitalism.  We were exposed to a bit of subtle government propaganda but nothing over the top.  


Soccer
While in Nha Trang we stayed directly across from a beautiful beach.  The itinerary was so packed that they only gave us a half day to spend on the beach.  That never happened.  In the morning our guide, Nguyen, says to us "I'm playing soccer at three o'clock - if you want to come and play with all of the guys from my village, you're more than welcome to come".  Forget the beach - I'm playing soccer with the locals.  Mary and the kids were more than excited to come and watch.  This is exactly the kind of experience we were looking for, not just another day sitting on a beach reading a book.  I did not completely embarrass myself but I think they went easy on me.  On the downside I pulled about eight muscles during that game.  Getting old is fun.  After the game Nguyen offered to ride with the kids in a cab and challenged me to ride his motorcycle with Mary on the back and tame the Nha Trang traffic.  I jumped at the chance and really enjoyed playing Motorcycle Frogger with my wife in a death grip behind me.

We all loved watching Jeff play soccer with the locals.

Food
As soon as we get back to San Jose we are going to hunt for the best Vietnamese restaurant among the hundreds that rest in the backyard of the South Bay.  The food is very healthy, fresh and flavorful.  Almost every dish includes some form of rice (grain, noodle, paper), meat, herbs and vegetables.  One of my fondest moments was during a boating excursion on the East Sea where we caught fish and had the crew prepare us lunch while we swam (I reminded Mary on more than one occasion to focus on the fact that this was very temporary and that she would not have a crew at her disposal in the future).  The crew served the fish we caught, squid, shrimp, barbecued oysters and fresh fruit.  We have been playing a game with the kids where they get a point for trying new food - ten points and you get an ice cream.  I will never forget Jake saying "Dad - can you have them make more oysters? They're all gone".  Hearing him say that made me and Mary feel like we had won the battle against the kids staying in their comfort zone and it was heart warming to say the least.  

Elephant Ear Fish

One of these was the fish that Jeff caught...we named him Fred McLunch

People
Far and away the biggest impression that was left on us was how kind, gracious, hospitable and affectionate the people of Vietnam are (side note - we spent all of our time in the south but heard from more than one person that the people in the north are a different breed - not nearly as gracious and much more aggressive to tourists)  Shockingly people don't seem to deal with much conflict.  We didn't see one case of road rage in a driving culture that is aggressive to say the least.  These people are truly proud of their country and, though they work very hard and struggle, seem quite content.  Not to sound down on Americans but boy do we complain about the most trivial things when we have so much.  I heard very little complaining from the Vietnamese about their daily lives.


The American Idols

Walking with the kids at almost any location in Vietnam was like being with celebrities that are hounded by the paparazzi.  All three were stared at, hugged, kissed and asked to have their pictures taken with random people.  But the one person who was literally accosted dozens of times was our five year old Jake.  Boys are clearly revered in this society.  One time, I was walking behind Jake in a market and a woman sitting on a plastic child's chair stuck her arm out, forced him to stop, wrapped her arms around him, brought him in to her and started kissing him on the cheek over and over.  Like I said, this happened dozens of times.  But the most touching instance was when we were in front of Notre Dame Cathedral on Christmas Eve - there had to be 40,000 people milling about and Jake was on my shoulders looking out over the crowd. 

Christmas Eve in front of the Notre Dame Catherdral

 I spotted a woman to my side who was clearly staring at us, she refused to take her eyes off of Jake and I swear she had tears in her eyes.  I beckoned her over and asked her if she wanted to shake his hand.  Jake stuck his hand out and it was like she was finally able to touch the lead singer of her favorite boy band.  Truly bizarre but very genuine and sweet, showing emotion is not looked upon as a weakness here.  Another instance was when we were at the airport checking in to our flight and the girl at the ticket counter commented on how beautiful the kids were.  I responded that many people wanted to take their pictures with our kids over the last week.  She responded that she would want to do the same thing but would be too shy to ask.

We were at the Cao Dai Temple when these women asked to take a picture with the kids.

We were dining at a local restaurant and these men kept coming to our table and wanting to shake our  hands and touch Jake.  When they came over  the third time, they asked for a picture with Jake and Jeff.

We were visiting a thirteen hundred-year-old Cham temple in Nha Trang when these women approached us and asked to take a picture with the kids.

Other highlights

• Floating marketing in Can Tho - every morning people who live on the Mekong Delta load their boats and head to the floating market.  The boats all have a long pole raised with whatever they are selling tied to it - very helpful when there are hundreds of boats in the market.  We boarded the boat/home of a family selling pineapples.  On the roof of the boat a two year old little girl was running up and down, her parents not paying attention to the fact that she was close to falling in at every moment.  I asked the dad if she had ever fallen over....he laughed and said "never".

• Local restaurant that we loved so much we went two nights in a row.  They bring a clay pot with coals and a tiny grill and you bbq whatever fresh meat you choose.  
• Local restaurant that had the best spring rolls for five people for $3 - the food was amazing and we had some left over.  Beers were between fifty cents and a dollar.
• Visited the tunnel system that the Viet Cong devised over a thirty year period.  Chilling to see but eye opening as to how resourceful poor people can be in times of war.
• Visited a coconut farm on the Mekong where Jake fell into a vat of coconut milk and I drank rin tea with an old man.

• Family went to the mineral baths and all five of us got into a mud bath - hilarious.
• There are hundreds and hundreds of brick factories due to an abundance of clay.  We stopped by one to see how they make bricks in kilns that hold 100,000 bricks at a time.  The interesting part of this episode was when we walked into the middle of the brick yard and met three very drunk men.  The guide says "these men want you to drink rice wine with them".  I didn't think twice about knocking back a shot of their moon shine.  Though I did think to myself five minutes later "did I just drink homemade liquor from some guys who were raising roosters for cock fighting?" I then said a quick prayer that I don't start hallucinating and move on with the trip.

Nursing a nasty stomach virus as I write this.  Lesson learned, don't drink moonshine from random Vietnamese guys if you don't want to pay for it later.  Truth is, I would do it again, it's worth a little pain to experience something so unique.  Thanks for reading.
Jeff

Our trip would not have been the same without our wonderful guides:  Oanh and Nguyen.

Nha Trang beach.

This is one of the little islands near Nha Trang.  

View from our hotel in Nha Trang.

View to the side from our hotel in Nha Trang.

Fish/Lobster farms.  The hut is the fisherman's home.