March 21st, 2008 kim
We also went to Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum and saw his body. (However there are rumors that what the public sees is a wax statue as the real body is only viewed by VIPs). Upon arriving everyone must surrender their bags, cameras, cell phones, etc. to a guard booth. No shorts, short sleeve shirts, hats, etc. When you enter, you are not allowed to talk and your hands must be kept at your sides and out of your pockets. There are guards there with bayoneted rifles to remind you. This is a shot from outside:
We also went to Ho Chi Minh’s house and presidential palace
This is a one-man bomb shelter that Uncle Ho would go to whenHanoi was being bombed
Of course, they had shopping:
We went to so many temples and pagodas that I can’t keep track. I think this was a Confucianism temple..
Kim at a restaurant overlooking the city
Taking a rest…
One of the countless street vendors. The stick and baskets weigh more than 80lbs.
We went to the famous Hanoi water puppet show. I’m glad I got to see it and thought that it was the right amount of time. The narrator/singers:
The puppets
One of the highlights of the trip for me was taking the night train to Lao Cai and on to Sa Pa
We left Hanoi at 2100 for the 11 hour ride towards China. Here’s almost all our bags on a cart. I usually watched security over everything and everyone.
Inside our air conditioned cabin. Very tight quarters
We finally arrived to Lao Cai. Lao Cai is a border town that was destroyed by China in the 1970′s. It has been rebuilt but there isn’t a whole lot there in the way of good places to eat. All my tourist books say that there are a lot of thefts at the train station so I was on the lookout. Sure enough as we walked out of the train station I saw a young guy taking a note of all our bags on our cart. He wasn’t looking for someone as everyone else was but rather looking at people’s bags. On the top was one of Kim’s carry-ons. He stared at it, then at me, then at the bag then at me. I put my hand on it and stared at him. He just passed on.
Trying to find coffee…
Our guide took us to a crappy place with bad overpriced food. The good thing was that we could trust (somewhat) the owners to keep our luggage secure and get some coffee.
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March 21st, 2008 kim
Kim is sleeping so I (Trevor) will post.
We are finally back home in the good ol’ USA. I can now post and not feel scared that the Vietnamese authorities are watching my Internet traffic. Vietnam is CORRUPT. When we got to the airport in Saigon my mother in law’s bag was “randomly” selected for search. Out of all the passengers flying only Vietnamese people were “randomly” searched. It was obviously not random as the government guards were giving a hard time to the people they were searching. They were trying to get “coffee money” from them. The told my mother in law that her bag had “bullet shells” in it. My father in law (white guy) stepped in and said “you have got to be kidding me” they government guy just grumbled and cleared the bag without re-searching or re-xraying it.
Most of the immigration and customs workers in Vietnam pay up to 20k USD to get the job. The job is attractive as it gives the employee power over the people and allows them to take bribes, etc. All of the workers looked mean and I could tell they half-assed the security at the check points.
Anyways, we did not care that much for Hanoi. We met some nice people but it was obvious that the government influence was greater in the north. Our first guide even said that if he didn’t smile, it was because he was from the north. We also found that we all preferred the Pho from the south which is a bit sweeter.
Anyways, on to the pictures…
Chi’s cousins live in Hanoi and are some of the nicest people I have ever met. Here we are at the house:
That night we at a a restaurant called Ngan. The place went around Hanoi and found the best street vendors that run the tastiest food stalls and assembled them into a single place. We all ate more than we should.
One of the best spring roll vendors in Hanoi…
Wow posting is so much easier from my home connection.
Our great waiter…
The next day we got up and made a 4 hour van ride to Halong Bay
Walking to our boat..
This is a boat that you would go on if you wanted to stay overnight. We had a day trip.
This was our boat. We waited for all these people to clear off. We had our own private boat.
We went to a cave located on one of the islands.
The cave was only discovered in 1993! While we were inside the cave, the lights went out for about 15 seconds. Luckily we were standing near this opening which gave a dramatic effect.
Trevor pushing Kim to the top.
Finally at the top
Inside the cave
Kim and her mom
The view from the observation deck
And so begins the story of the most famous fish in Vietnam…
Part of the tour was that we had a seafood lunch on the boat. One thing to understand about being a tourist in Vietnam is that almost everyone everywhere tries to sell you something. Fine. Everyone from the guides, tour companies, taxi drivers, reception desk clerks, waiters, etc. all send you to the “best place”. One our way back from the cave we stopped at a floating fish farm. While no one ever said it, it seemed that we had to buy our fish for lunch fresh from the farm. It was sort of a half “hey look at our fish” and “hey why don’t you buy our fish” show. More on that later…
Fresh crab
The fish farmers live on their boat with the family. They also have a floating school for the kids of the fish farmers.
The floating building with the yellow wall is the school
Checking out the merchandise
They wanted to sell us a squid or cuttle fish. I never got a full answer on what it was. Anyways, they had to de-ink it before they weighed it. Glad that they did that.
Anyways, back to the famous fish. The fisherman asked Chi if she wanted to buy it. Chi asked how much “that” one was. The lady said that in order to weigh it, she’d have to kill it (wack it with a bat). You may see where this is about to lead…
At some point during the chaos when the fish was flopping around the deck, Chi agreed to a price that she saw flash on the lady’s calculator. Only it was hard to see the decimal point, convert the kilos, convert Vietnamese Dong to dollars…
WACK!
We just bought a $79.00 USD fish.
Paul with his wallet ready to pay for the now dead (but weighed) fish. Note the lady on the boat in the background. She pulled up to see what we were bargaining over.
Buyer’s remorse…
Payer’s remorese
After lunch we went upstairs to look at the scenery
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March 19th, 2008 kim
Kim and Trevor are on their way home. We’ll post the rest of the pictures when we get home back to the land of faster internet. Posting from .vn is s-l-o-w 
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March 17th, 2008 kim
Our guide Huong took us to her favorite Banh Xeo place. It was sooo good.
Making it the real way..
Our guide and driver ate with us. This was a local place, no tourists.
Trevor and the driver
After lunch we made our way to the Citadel.
This one is for Allie. Note Kim’s freakishly long arm.
Lest you forget that we are in a communist country
And another boat ride. Every boat in Vietname seems to have bilge pumps running all the time. Those that don’t, bail it out by hand. Like these guys.
This car belonged to Thích Quảng Đức. More info can be found here. You can see the car in the background of the famous photo.
Note: Funny, the Wikipedia article has the exact same shot using the exact same focal length lens (we think).
Monk children studying
This shot was taken at one of the Kings burial sites. The writing describes the King’s life.
Our driver disappeared. For a moment.
Our hotel in Hue
Mrs. Venne got us on some cyclos at night. Cyclos are man-powered bike carriges that are slow and offer to crash protection what so ever. Also, the drivers speak no English at all. I kept and eye on where they were taking us. It turned out to be crazy and a lot of fun.
Kim’s self portrait
Me, trying not to crap my pants as we drover through a dark, traffic lightless intersection
Chi and I trying to remember the path that the drivers took us. A lot of places don’t have street signs.
Chi had the drivers take us to some place that sold tea. Several families were hanging out there and loved listening to our terrible attempts at the language. They also loved hearing Chi bargain with the head lady over a huge bag of tea. Kim and I already told Chi that we weren’t carrying it home in our luggage for her.
We can drink the tea even though it is made with local water since they boil it. I hope.
This guy was great. He loved having us there and wanted a lot of pictures taken. He’s actually hanging on us as Paul and I are much taller.
That’s all from Hue. On to Hanoi.
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March 17th, 2008 kim
Hand made lanters
Kim and I on the streets of Hoi An
Hand-weaving silk pictures
Silk worms
Nice rice field near our hotel
This is one of Chi’s (Kim’s mom) friends from 40 years ago. It was a great reunion.
This is Kim at Marble Mountain. HUGE marble statue market.
Ahhh, Vietnamese iced coffee..
We finally make it to our hotel in Hoi An. One of the most relaxing places we went.
On the beach at Hoi An
Chi walked next door to another resort and met a nice security guard. After some chatting, they met up with them the next day, went to their house for a snack and tea then went out on the motorcycle.
Paul struttin’ the hog
Rather than eat expensive hotel food, Chi went out and bought a TON of cheap food stall food. It was awesome and a great picnic on our patio overlooking a river.
Pork and beef skewers and Banah Xeo (bang sow) and beer. It was sooooooo good.
More of the food…
The best part is that Chi went to the restaurant and took a ton of their nice dinner dishes. Someone stopped her but she turned on her Viet-charm and we had nice flatware.
Trying to update the blog…Internet would only work outside our room.
The next day we got up early and went for a walk on the beach.
Found this guy combing the beach for another resort with a water bufflo.
Our fearless Dictat– err leader.
Victoria hotel
Chi goofing off…
More flattering picture..
The bloggers
This is some mountain pass that we stopped to use the WC and take a break on the drive to Hue. The view was great but I was too busy swatting flies, pick pockets and pushy vendors. We call this “Fly Mountain”. The vendors were too “touchy” and Paul found that all the zippers in his bag were open when we left. We didn’t lose anything however. We noticed that when the vendors wanted the hard sell, they led us out of the cover and into an area where there was a swarm of flying ants. This disoriented and distracted us and that’s where they starting hugging Kim, etc. I had my hands in my pockets the entire time and my bag was on my side, not back. We ended up tersely telling them we didn’t want anything and slammed the van door in their face and drove off.
Back on another boat… I can’t remember where this was.
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March 14th, 2008 kim
We have some self-induced down time so we are updating this post…
Our shuttle from the mainland to Vinpearl Land
Our room
View from the beach
About to board on our day trip to the fishing village, aquarium, and scenic lunch spot.
The aquarium
A throne fit for a tourist
Some crazy eels
Scenic seafood lunch spot.
Our best friend throughout the trip -antibacterial wipes from Wegmans.
Vietnam’s best beer…so I’ve heard.
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March 11th, 2008 kim
We drove back to Saigon from Can Tho in the morning. Can Tho was great as it had its own charm. We had dinner at a small restaurant that overlooked the shore and a huge statue of Ho Chi Minh and other communist propaganda pictures. Our table was up on a very skinny balcony. It was across the street from a karaoke bar, cafes, etc.
Back in Saigon, we shopped. And shopped. And shopped. My mother in law went to an art store that sold contemporary paintings of asian scenes. Rather than buy a picture of some water buffalo, etc. my mother in law is having the artist paint her a picture with her face on one a very young body wearing a traditional Vietnamese outfit. The painter took a digital picture of her and it should be done in about 6 weeks. Cost: $150 plus shipping. Yeah, the situation was as hilarious as it sounds.
We went to eat lunch but the two places our guide tried to take us to were gone or closed for the day. We ended up at a little hole in the wall. Correction, if there was a hole in the hole in the wall, this was it. The cook smoked while he grilled and there were two dogs play fighting in the dining area. While we were eating a scooter drove into the place and parked in the back. One thing we noticed while we were here is that ALL of the business is conducted on the street/sidewalk. This includes cooking, haircuts, fixing engines/tires, acupuncture, etc. So they cook outside and then you eat inside.
This was some of the best BBQ pork/beef I’ve ever had. Oh, and by the way, I have not had to “run to the jungle” once since I’ve been here. All of the food is natural and fresh. Very nice. Pictures of the hole in the wall:
Since everything in Vietnam is cheap, one of the activities that my mother in law planned for us was to have pictures taken. If you have ever been to a nail salon owned by Vietnamese you will notice that there are a lot of “cheesy” photographs of models on the wall. Yeah well that is the kind of photo shoot we had today. For $150 we had 5.5 hours with a photographer, 6 assistants, and 3 “costume” changes. These pictures will never see the light of day. All of the girls who worked at the studio were sooooo nice. Their English was about as good as my Vietnamese. Hilarity abounds. They had such a good time with us that they wanted a group picture at the end. We now have good friends in Saigon. Here is the only digital recording the Internet will ever see:
This is a draft.. will update it tomorrow morning…
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March 10th, 2008 kim
Last night we left Saigon and drove 4 hours to Can Tho. Along the way we stopped to fix a flat tire and made our way to the Mekong Delta. It was a long ride that really allowed us to see how people live along highway 1A (major highway in VN).
Nice looking government buildings. This is where the people’s tax dollars go:
Another government building. Almost all the buildings here fly the red and yellow star communist flag. Lest you forget where we are.
On the way to Can Tho we saw a school being let out:
The entire drive to Can Tho took about 4-5 hours. Boarding a boat in the Mekong Delta:
All of us on the boat:
This is a pony/mini-horse ride that we took through the village located on an island in the Mekong. My mother in law told the driver that Paul had to pay the horse extra. The driver nearly fell off the cart laughing.
This is a war memorial where a lot of Viet Cong died:
Taking a ride through the delta. I told my insurance company I was sticking to resorts the entire time. These are some locals that were hanging out…
A local boat the sped by us. I actually had my backpack on with my laptop in it as we rode down the delta in what can best be described as a plank with some paint on it. When this boat sped by I thought it was going to swamp us. I thought about my hard drive’s platters spinning around with river water in it.
Our driver/rower:
We took a boat back across the river and hopped in our van on the way to Can Tho.
To get to Can Tho, we had to take a ferry across the river which took forever. The line to board the ferry was about a 3 hour wait. However since this is Vietnam, a little bit of “coffee money” given to the government guard we were allowed to take the “express line” right on board. We made it to our hotel and checked in.
The next day we got up early and went to the floating market. It was like seeing the roots of trade and commerce. It was very chaotic and unorganized but “just worked”.
On the way to the floating market we saw this bridge that was under construction. Vietname is still growing. The workers were bare feet and had no safety ropes, etc.
My mother in law had the driver of the boat running all over the river so she could bargin. For those of you that know my mother in law, yeah, it was that funny.
These are fishermen that live on their boats year round.
Sellers:
We are several days behind in our blogging but have to run out the door. On to the next spot!
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March 9th, 2008 kim
The first day in Saigon we walked around the city touring, shopping, and just taking it all in. Kim and I found ourselves unable to really talk much. We were just awe-struck at everything. Sensory overload. Vietnam is a developing country. As such, the way people live is just a bit different than in Northern VA Every since place I looked I saw something different, foreign, and incredible. It’s one of those moments that can only be experienced. The pictures we’ve shot does not do the experience justice. Here’s some shots from our first day on the streets.
One of the first things you notice is that “holy shit there’s a lot of scooters here”. Vietnam runs of scooters. If you live in an Asian country this may be of no surprise. To us however, it was a shock. I read a few guide books on Vietnam and maybe I glossed over the part on scooters. Wow. Just wow. Go to Youtube and search for “Vietnam scooter” and see for yourself.
After we tooled around we went to a market. Needless to say it was not really for foreigners but with my mother in law in the lead, we were there. Shopping. Or something. I mostly just stood back thinking “What’s that smell?” or “What is that food?” “Is that food?” “Is that food causing the smell?” Every since merchant was extremely nice and loved joking with my mother in law.
Me, watching…
Flower market:
A guard… hanging out with friends.
Why I don’t want to get sick in Vietnam:
We then went to an optometrist to have some glasses made at a huge discount. This is where Kim shot the now infamous picture of Paul:
We then stopped by a temple to take in some culture. The detail and craftsmanship on nearly every inch of the building was incredible.
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March 9th, 2008 kim
After our 15+ hour flight from IAD to Narita we had a 3 hour layover. We then hopped on a 6 hour ANA flight from Narita to Saigon Airport. Makes all of my IAD to Long Beach flights seem like a short hop.
Landing in Saigon was uneventful. We arrived at 2303 (actually a little late but I don’t know why) so I was unable to see much of the city from the air. Again, we were too tired to take pictures of the landing so you’ll have to look on Google Maps for an aerial view of the city. The airport was very nice with scary government guards and corrupt customs agents. I’ll post more about that later when I’m out of the country.
One hilarious thing I noticed when I was at baggage claim was the huge number of people that cheked cardboard boxes. If you are Asian (or married to one) you know what I mean. there must have been 25 boxes before I lost count. We had 8 pieces of checked luggage. Mrs. Venne gave 3 suite cases full of clothes and stuff to an orphanage outside of Saigon on Day 1 so we didn’t have to lug that around with us. Here we are curb-side. If you look closely you can see that I am holding my sweater. Last time I’d use that.
The airport does not allow the locals into the airport. Our guide said that when an American picks someone up at the airport, it is usually one person. In Vietnam the entire family comes along. Here is everyone waiting for people to come out:
Paul and I waiting for the van:
From here we drove to our base of operations in Saigon, the Rex Hotel. Note: The official name of the city is Ho Chi Minh City. However those who are native south and like the pre-communist name call it Saigon.
One thing I noticed about almost all the lights in Saigon is that they only use florescent energy saving bulbs. I don’t recall seeing a single old incandescent light bulb. Ever night the hotel staff walks around and turns off most lights (I’m a light nazi at my house so I am so down with this). The lights gives everything a very communist minimaist look. Sort of errie for us.
Checking in:
One thing that was a little worrisome to me was that hotels here hold your passport while you are checked in. This is to ensure that you pay before you leave the country. I have these visions of running to the US embassy for shelter and not having my passport. I have color laster printer copies of all important documents in redundant locations with me so if the hotel looses my passport, I have something.
Our room:
The Rex Hotel was famous during the Vietnam War (or if you are Vietnamese, the American War). The Rex was an officer hangout and location for press briefings where the US government would inflate body count numbers.
The hotel was nice, had a nice bar and great breakfast buffet. Great location and really nice staff. Had an old feel as the new part is still under construction. Still, I tried to image what it was like to be holed up here during the war. It wasn’t a stretch.
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