Vietnam 2012

  Mekong Delta (Day 1) This may have been the highlight of the trip. The cruise down the Mekong River, spending the night on a cruise boat that was originally a traditional rice barge. And the side trips.... fabulous!!! We were picked up at our hotel in Saigon for a 3 hour drive to Can Be where we boarded the Mekong Eyes. This cruise was different from our Halong Bay cruise which was much more catered to tourists. There was no cooking classes, Tai Chi or massages on this boat. This cruise was about seeing how life was on the Mekong Delta River. As we left Can Be, you could feel that you were being transported into a world that is completely alien to Americans. The lives of these people who live on this river, and in many cases, live on their boats and rarely set foot on dry land, was fascinating. As we crawled down the river about 100 yards from the shore, children would step out of their houses and yell "hello, hello". Sitting on the deck, you couldn't help but be fascin...

  Like A Local... Saigon (I have a hard time calling it Ho Chi Minh City), is a major metropolis. Not as 21st century as Shanghai, but as bustling and vibrate as any city in the world. We began our day with breakfast at the Ben Thanh Market about a block from our hotel. This is on the list of 1000 things to see before you die and it doesn't take long before you understand why. You are immediately immersed in the smells, the sounds, the constant tugging at your sleeve to the calls of "Sir, Sir.... Madame, Madame, please come into my shop. I have your size!" Speaking of size.... I know I've put on a pound or two, but I've been called "Buddha" since we've been here and women have pointed to my belly and giggled "baby" or "two babies". It's all in fun and I've laughed right along with them but my new favorite haunt when we get home will be Gold's Gym. :-) After breakfast we returned to the hotel and I made sure Sonja was w...

  Goodbye Hoi An, Hello Saigon Our last day in Hoi An was spent with a leisurely walk through the town sampling the street foods and picking up some souvenirs for back home. We stopped to pick up the coat Sonja had made and, of course, we were talked into having a second one made that could be sewn in two hours. Aside from the fact that these are beautiful wool coats, custom made to fit, was the art of bargaining with the tailors. For both of these gorgeous coats we paid less than $100 total. We stopped at one outdoor restaurant for a cold beer and a snack and had the only negative incident of the entire trip. The waitress was a lovely young girl (we later found out her name was My) who had a beautiful smile and was as nice as she could possibly be. But a few tables away were a couple, Aussies from their accents, that called her over and read her the riot act because they only had 6 shrimp in their dish and they felt they should have had more. You could see how upset My was at the ...

  Hello Hoi An A quick one hour flight south from Hanoi to Danang and we were in a different world from the last few days. Our driver picked us up and we headed south along the coast to Hoi An. The ride showed how fast tourism is becoming *the*industry in this country. Resorts pepper the coast line with luxury  accommodations  and golf courses. The Vietnamese people are so amazingly friendly and go out of their way to please you. As we pulled up to our hotel, we were greeted by Liong who sat us at a coffee table and served us cold carrot juice while she took care of our registration. Our luggage was then carried up the 3 flights of stairs to our room where welcoming gifts awaited us. A short walk from our hotel and we entered the ancient city of Hoi An. Tourism is BIG in Hoi An. Souvenir shops are everywhere and you can buy anything and everything. At one point we stopped for a cold drink and a young boy came up to me selling his trinkets. He offered me a small vial of li...

  Halong Bay There simply isn't enough space in this blog to write about Halong Bay. It is one of those places on earth that makes you understand that when the earth was created, there were some spots more special than others. Halong Bay is one of those spots. In Vietnamese, it's called "Ngon" or wonderful. We boarded a small shuttle van with a couple of other couples from our hotel and rode 3 hours through the Vietnamese countryside to Halong Bay. We've always enjoyed getting away from the cities and seeing the more rural parts of any place we go to and this was no exception. Of course there were the obligatory stops at the embroidery and pearl factories where you are swarmed by sales people, but that was a small price to pay.  One interesting part of the ride was seeing the factories for Foxconn and Canon, etc. They are so much in the news back in the states right now and seeing them in person gave me pause that we're not seeing the entire story back home. W...