Me love you forever long time.

Wrapping up our stay in Vung Tau, we are heading toward the middle of
VN to Dalat where I was born and lived for the first 7 years of my
life. My sister (thanh) still lives in the 1br house that I grew up in
with her 3 children, sleeping in the attic. The reasoning for that is,
her children age 15, 18, and 20 still prefer the warmth and company of
sleeping next to their mother. The room is too small to fit 4. More on
the home and my memories on next post.

Our last day in vung tau was a mellow but splendid one. Thanh and I
did some shopping while Jamie spent time at the resort to catch up on
some reading and Jamie Time. 2hrs of light shopping left me w/ 2 pairs
of pants and a shirt, all for $40! And that's boutique shopping! So
that you could see how much $40 is, a minimun-waged job for someone w
education is about $200 salary a month. Of course there are extremes,
and I do mean EXTREME, on both end of that spectrum. Without getting
into too much of the politics here, there are rich people here who
could out spend a lot of us in America, by far.

At night, we had dinner at a faux french bistro that targets
foreigners. The food was horrible, and I found a piece of metal from
a dish scrubber in my food; fried chicken, french fries, and a side of
salad. Ironically enough, we had a few ants w our meal at lunch from
another restaurant! It was an amazing meal though, with seafood for
about $25. We then moved onto some drinking and then snuck into the
closed pool of our resort to wade in the water. At this time, thanh
has had 3 heineken and was on her 4th. She started to get emmotional
and shared more stories of her life after the family has left. Being a
good hairdresser - a faux therapist, I listened. Timing couldn't have
worked out better, we got kicked out by the security as we were
finishing our beer. Thanh got sick and threw up the remainder of the
night. "This is the first time this is happening in my 44 years of
life. You must think I'm a horrible sister. Jamie is probably judging
me and our family" was repeated over and over again in between every
vomitting session.

The pictures are of our experience on the bus ride to Dalat right now.
Sorry for the blurriness of the first, but that is our "waiting area"
before we board our bus behind. We are travelling in luxury on a "bed
bus" where we had to remove our footwear, place in a plastic bag,
before entering. Sitting upright, Jamie is the only one having trouble
fitting. All the short/small jokes I experienced in America, now can
be turn around on him. The bus is quite comfortable beside the slight
feeling of clausophobia and the various stops to pick up passengers.
Signing out to escape this 7hr bus ride.

P.s. I feel like I'm forgetting English. My translations for Jamie has
gone down hill and an "Asian" accent is coming out as I speak. Though,
my Vietnamese is improving.

Caged for transport

We arrived back to Saigon around 730 after a tired bus ride from Can Tho. The fatigue of a 7 hour boat ride weighed heavily on us, but the prospect of soft sand on our feet and the sound of the sea kept us optimistic.

The last official bus from Saigon to Vung Tau left at 7 and we were posed with the question of staying the night in Saigon or making our way to a non-official van that would leave at 9. Well, why would we want to waste money on a night in Saigon when we've already spent more than enough time here?

We rushed in a cab to the location told to us by a random worker at the bus depot. The location was at a random gas station on the other side of town. In front of the gas station were about 10 people, seemly normal looking. What a relief, this will be great!

The man in "charge" explained that we would leave in about 45 minutes once all passengers had arrived. Ngoc and I took the 3 seats in the first row of the 12-14 person van. The van was old, beat up, and smelled of fish sauce. No worries though, we would make it to the beach by 11.

After about 45 minutes we felt as if we may be leaving. After filling the van up to the max (including carrying a drunk and disabled man into the seat behind us), we braced for departure. Wait... Why aren't we leaving?

10 more minutes, 20... Doors shut, doors open, can we fit more people in here?

"She gets motion sickness", they say as a young lady is seated next to ngoc sister while holding her head and a bottle of water. One more!

Finally the engine starts and the doors close. Whew! The van pulls slowly forward and then turns into the gas station and up to the pumps. Why couldn't we fill it earlier??? Oh, now we pay and then the gas station gets their cut... That makes sense...

The "man in charge" is now aggravated. He is being told to wait for one more, they are on the way! At this point we have about 20 of us in the van and have no idea how more can fit. This doesn't stop our fearless and greedy operators.

After much cursing and yelling we finally leave. On the road we feel a relief that we may actually be going somewhere. We cross over a long bridge and feel that we have weathered the storm.

Suddenly the van screeches to a halt! The driver and operator get out and open the hood. Is it broken down? Nope! This is just so the cops don't bother us while we are pulled over with no shoulder on a "highway".

A motor bike pulls up and drops off two more men. They open the back door and get squeezed in to sit on the luggage. And we're off! This repeats it self 2 more times before we are at "capacity"

I turned to look back in disbelief that we may have nearly 30 people in this van. What I saw was eyes everywhere. Packed in like sardines, everyone was silent, just waiting patiently for their stop . Some were younger seeming to be making it back home after work in the city, some where old, but all of them kept quiet and only spoke up when something was worth laughing at. The Vietnamese seem to be very good at this, they find humor in many things and share it together. Whether a laugh with friends or a group of 30 strangers (and one white guy), they take full advantage of the endorphins created with a shared laugh.

The road continued on, with bumps, giant pot holes, un-marked construction areas, motor bikes speeding, and all while our van honking constantly. This horn, it sounded ver similar to Peter griffins laugh on family guy. A rapid higher pitched, obnoxious cackle scared every vehicle we came with in 1 foot of.

An hour in now, we are settling into this for sure. We've been through it all...

Not quite all. Remember that girl that gets motion sickness? She's heaving and ready to burst! The operator quickly grabs for a plastic bag and offers it to her. Not a peep from the passengers, just windows opening and the sound of her vomiting. We pass tissue and the operator holds her hair. This repeats it's self another time or so. Just par for the course!

Now the idea that this van would be an express trip was not what I should have expected. We learned quickly that we would have numerous stops. Sometimes in the middle of nowhere with no street lights, sometimes in towns. We stopped to let someone out every 5 minutes it seemed. Imagine taking a bus from NYC to Philly and stopping 15-20 times. Who would agree to take that trip? Well, we did.

At last, we are seeing signs for Vung Tau. Where will we stay? Where is the beach? What is this "bus depot" our demonic driver will drop us off at? It's almost midnight! Leave that up to ngocs sister!

With great relief we exited the van and grabbed a taxi in seconds. He brought us to the beach front and we waived him to keep going when he slowed at the fancy resorts. We decided to get out at a row of seemly decent hotels right on the beach in front of a bustling night market. The hotel owner rushed out and showed us a room.

Terrace, large beds, ac, and for $15 a night...OK!

We made it, our journey was complete! The sad part was that with all of the exhaustion, the complete obsurity of what we just had endured, and the atmosphere of mayhem with the market left me feeling as if it was not reality. How could it be? This must be how people cope with strenuous events in their life, things become so unreal and push you to a point that you can't believe is even happening, then pushes even beyond that. All that is left after is you catching your breath, no other thoughts, just complete emptiness and the hope for the next mornings bounties. These are the sacrifices that must be made...

Vung tau seafood dinner on the beach and sunset

The other night we had an amazing dinner right on the beach. We sat down near this vendor and ngocs sis painstakingly chose which seafood they would cook for us. We drank cold beer while they cooked the food. About 20 feet away there were some men fishing for crabs at the waters edge. Once they had a fresh batch we had them steam 2 large ones for us. Can you say local? We sat laughing and joking in the fluorescent light of the vendors while eating our crabs and getting drunk. What a beautiful way to end a long hot day in the sun.

After the food we realized that we didn't bring much money for the rest of the night. No problem, we will make the money last! We bargained with 2 "huggy" bikes for a ride to a spot for dessert. We jumped on the back of their motor bikes and had the ride of a lifetime! For less that $3 we got a 15 minute motor bike ride, four servings of jaa (rice puddingish with beans or tapioca), and a ride home!

Teaser

We just checked into our new hotel resort in Vung Tau. Here is our view!

Mekong in photographs

1. Picture of the sunrise from our balcony on the river. It was a
magnificent sight to wake up to and slowly see its progression.

2. This is our little boat. It was comfortable for about 5 hrs, the
rest of the two brought on lower back pain as complained about from
Jamie.

3. People live in these sheds on the river. They'd do their laundry,
bathe, and whatever other businesses in this water. These run along
the river and they have a very humble life. A good Some run businneses
out of them, like a noodle stand.

4. This house/farm/zoo we stopped at apparently also make rice
noodles. We got a brief intro at the process here, while lil dogs run
around at our feet!

5. Jamie found a jackfruit tree and checked it for ripeness.

We have been in vung tau for 2 days now and the adventure keeps
getting crazier. We will post about that soon. You wouldn't believe
how we got here and what we have been doing for the last 2 days!

Xoxoxo from the both of us. We miss you and America.

Riding down the Mekong in Nam

We just left Can Tho and now heading to Vung Tau, a beach resort town
outside of Saigon. In order to get there, we would have to transfer to
another bus, back in Saigon enroute to Vung Tau.

Today in Can Tho was a very interesting day. We got picked up from our
hotel for our tour down the Mekong river. Because our hotel sits on
the river, the dock was just a step down from the hotel restaurant.
Our tour guide, met us promptly at 530 am in the reception area and
lead us to his boat. It was all very surreal, funny, and kinda awkward
all at the same time. The boat is worn and beaten but had a coat of
torquoise on the rims for that "fresh" look. The tour guide, which we
still don't know his name, was a soften spoken and very tanned guy
that we thought was at least in his early 30's, but later found out to
be 17! He only had an education of a 3rd grader and does this full
time as a living.

Our private boat ride went down the Mekong and we first encountered
the floating market. All of a sudden, you see all these boats w goods
on them and people headig toward us to bombard us w fruits, noodles,
and coffee. They would hook onto our boat w literally hooks to marry
the boats together during transactions. We just got some fruits and
not dared eat anything else cooked by these boats because our tour
guide says they wash their bowls/untensils w the river water which was
pretty dirty.

After the floating market we docked at a house that made rice noodle
and rice papers that we use for spring rolls. The entrance in had a
make-shift zoo w random animals in cages. There were bunnies (3 to a
cage), a pig, 2 chipmunks, some turtles, and what seemed like a ferret/
fox-like creature. Yes, all very weird. PETA would have a field day at
this place! Our tour guide said the caged animals were more for
"foreigners" to enjoy. The best part for me were the abundance of dogs
running around being excited to see us. I had to control myself from
showing them too much affection because they are mangy. Very cute, but
still mangy.

We stopped by a few other spots where we ate and walked around to see
more ghetto zoos w corny decor and designs.

Jamie's favorite part was when we stopped by this village where they
offered guests "home stay" for 300,000/night ($15). You'd live w the
family and they'd cook you breakfast and dinner. There were chicken
coops where they housed all sort of birds to be slaughtered. The rooms
basically had 4 partitions made out of leaves w a fan and a mosquito
net above the queen size bed. Oh, and a small light bulb. Of course,
my sister and I shudder at the thought of paying that much to live in
that condition. For us, that's 3rd world living, and we didn't
understand why Jamie would want to live in that condition. For the
rest of the ride, my sister made fun of Jamie.

The best part for me was actually that 7hr ride on that boat. It was
very soothing to be so close to the water and the monotonous sound of
the motor was peaceful. I got to hear my sister's perspectives after
the fall of Saigon that put me to tears. My family had such a
tumultuous history and I'm the only one that escaped it. I cried out
of empathy but also in appreciation for all that I have. I will never
complain again for having a more than 8hrs work day!

A couple of you have expressed difficulties posting comments on this
blog. Is anyone else experiencing difficulties? Jamie and I check
daily for commets because we would like to hear from you, but we just
assume people are just silent stalkers and not commenting. Please let
us know at nbnguyen1030@gmail.com

Will post pictures soon!

Ngoc

Extra credit!