Saigon
15 January 2006
We ended up spending the whole day at my family's place and
had a nice home-cooked meal with them. We sat on the
floor and my legs kept falling asleep. They laughed at
me every time I had to adjust sitting positions. They
also talked about some pictures they had of me when I was just
learning to walk, but they weren't able to find them.
After dinner we went to check into our hotel room, cleaned up,
and then explored Saigon's nightlife. We went to a
couple of discos, which played really cool music and were
really crowded. We didn't stay out too late, as we were
exhausted still from the 10-hour bus trip. We crashed
until almost noon the next morning.
Even though we got a late start, we were able to visit
Reunification Palace, War Reminant Museum, Notre Dame, Hotel
De Ville, and the largest, most beautiful post office we'd
ever seen. We were so exhausted after walking around all
day, so we stopped at an ice cream shop. I wanted to
give durian (a very nasty smelling fruit) another try, since
people claim it tastes really good, but I was afraid to order
it. I had the lychee ice cream instead. Shawn decided
he'd order the durian (not knowing what it was) and the waiter
left the table abruptly. He came back with a small
spoonful for us to try....and thank God he did! It
smelled as bad as I remembered and didn't taste all that good.
We did a little shopping on our way back to the hotel and
stopped off at a Cajun/Vietnamese restaurant for dinner.
We ordered a big old ribeye and shrimp curry....both were so
good. We also had some hot-as-hell papaya salad.
After dinner we went to the hotel with the intention of taking
a short nap and then going out. We ended up not waking
up till 8 this morning. We had a little excitement when
the cold water pipe on the sink broke off and water was
shooting all over the bathroom. Shawn had to plug the
pipe with his thumb until we could find a screwdriver from the
front desk to shut off the water. Chi Hoa and her
daughter stopped by this morning and took us out to breakfast
at a Hue-style restaurant. We're scheduled to meet them
for dinner later tonight.
We had intended to visit the History Museum today, but we are
all museum-ed out for now and nixed those plans.
Instead, we just booked a couple of tours for the next 3
days (1 day visiting Cu Chi Tunnels and Cao Dai Temple and 2
days traveling around the Mekong Delta and Can Tho). Now
we're just going to spend some time in this internet cafe,
grab some lunch, and then do some more shopping before meeting
my family for dinner.
More to come in a couple of days....
21 January 2006
So it's been almost a week since we've been online.....doesn't seem
like anyone's missing us, though (except for 3). No updates from
home???
Tonight's our last evening in Siem Reap, Cambodia. We leave for
Phuket, Thailand in the morning. The events of last week are a
blur now, so I'm sure I've forgotten a ton of stuff. Shawn is a
bit under the weather (nothing to worry about....just a touch of bird
flu, montezuma's revenge, ulcers, and appendicitis). It might be
a while before you all get to see the amazing pics we have,
though.
We are so glad to have my family here to show us the great restaurants
we never would have known about. Last Sunday night they took us
to a restaurant that was down an alley. Unlike all the other
touristy restaurants we've been eating in, this one was packed.
Thank goodness we got there when we did because there were tons of
people waiting to get in after us. They solved that problem by
pulling out more plastic tables and chairs till the whole alley was
full. All these people coming to eat curried goat of all things!
It was delicious....and cheap. There were eight of us and the
bill was about $26 including plenty of beers. Just like the rest
of the Le family, they won't let us pay for anything. They even
did our laundry for us.
Monday morning we woke up early to tour Cao Dai Temple and Cu Chi
Tunnels. The bus we rode was filled with mosquitoes and the bus
driver was a honker. He beeped at anything and
everything....sometimes for no reason at all. It was so
annoying. Our guide, on the other hand, was so funny and full of
interesting anecdotes. He was an older gentleman who used to
teach English in the Mekong region. He got tired of teaching after 30
years and became a guide to improve his English. He saved me a
ton of money, too. The entrance fee for the tunnels was 65,000
dong. He got me the Vietnamese rate of 8,000. The tunnels
were used by Viet Cong villagers in the south to escape from US
soldiers who were too large to fit through them. They also set
booby traps throughout the jungle to slow down the enemy.
The Cao Dai Temple is beyond description....you'll have to use your
imagination till the pictures get posted. Cao Dai is a blended
religion combining Buddhism, Taoism, Confuscionism, Hinduism, and
Catholicism. One of their saints is Victor Hugo (famous for Les
Miserables). Later that evening we had a home cooked meal at Chi
Hop's (not sure of the spelling) house. It was great, but we
weren't able to handle the pig's feet in the soup.
Our next adventure was a 2-day tour of the Mekong Delta, including the
cities of My Tho, Ben Tre, and Can Tho. Thankfully the bus had
very few mosquitoes and the driver used his horn sparingly. We
spent a lot of time on various boats to visit all the attractions
which included a coconut candy factory, a rice paper maker, a bee
farm, a floating market and a monkey bridge. (As
you can tell, I'm getting tired and lazy...)
Our last night in Saigon was spent with the family at a Banh Xeo (rice
crepe with shrimp, pork, and bean sprouts). Delicious and cheap,
as usual. Time for bed so we can catch our flight in the
morning.....
Phuoc and Shawn (who's starting to feel better)
