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Last Day, Return Home. (June 22, 2004)I'm sitting here in the airport typing out this last journal entry before I board the airplane. Leaving Vietnam is quite a contrast from arriving. Getting here was frantic chaos and crowds, with the terminal itself looking crude and definitely third worldish. The exit terminal is far different. Slick duty free shops, clean bathrooms and even an internet caf make this the equal of any other terminal in the world. Not that that's saying very much. Still, it's much less stressful then the arrival. One thing the marks the process of arriving and departing Vietnam is the redundant paper work. You get and fill out a form that's handed to you by one person, it's stamped by another, then collected by a third. I guess that's helps keep the unemployment rates low.
In many ways this was my least favorite vacation here in Vietnam. It was crippled by my being subjected to the whims of others, in terms of what we did and where we went. I just couldn't get control of events. On the plus side, I got to see where Thu was born and raised. Now I understand a little more about what she endured as a child that effects the way she is today. In addition, Thu's sisters did a real stellar job helping to take of Robert. Overall, I think Robert had a blast. There where many more people here to go ga ga over him, and lots of new stuff to see and do. Thu had some problems, she had a hard time adjusting to the heat, and she got sick for a few days. But she loves her family and especially her sisters, so this vacation is very important to her.
For Thu, the vacation will continue for another month. She'll stay in Saigon for a few more days and then return to Vinh Long to spend sometime with relatives she didn't get a chance to see before. I'll see Thu at the end of June. |
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Day Seventeen (June 22, 2004)Got back to Xai's house to find that Robert had just gone to sleep. Apparently Robert was having a hard time sleeping. He'd get up in the middle of the night and wander around looking for mommy and daddy. Then he'd go back to bed and cry. Repeat. By the time we got home he had finally gone to sleep. I took a shower and went to join him in bed. Thu stayed up to do laundry and chat with her friends and sisters. I got up a few hours later, but I lingered in bed until Robert woke up. He didn't look that overjoyed to see us. Of course, that's because we were where we were supposed to be, with him. I'll bet Thu's going to have a hard time leaving Robert alone again.
This is my last full day in Vietnam. We plan to do some shopping later, but mostly we are just going to stay here and relax.
We ended up going to a super market that was also very Western style. Boy, was this place packed. Upstairs there was an equally crowded video arcade. Robert had a blast. |
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Day Sixteen, Monkey Island. (June 22, 2004)Oh god it's early. I can barely move, yet somehow, I drag my ancient carcass out of bed and into some clothes. I'm really unhappy right now. My funk lasts through breakfast, and on while we collect the rest of our crowd. A note, not everyone that's part of our group is staying at the hotel. Some of the gang actually live here in Nha Trang. So, every time we want to go somewhere we have to go collect that part of our group.
This time we end up at a boat terminal that's on the river, a few mile away from the coast. We pile onto this little tourist boat, (say about thirty feet long, capable of carrying about 20 people, we filled it to about half it's capacity), and launched forth. I perched myself on the bow, and for the first time since the trip began, felt myself starting to relax. The river was broad and slow, say about two or three miles across. The trip took about thirty minutes. We landed a small concrete jetty and headed down a small well maintained dirt road.
You know all those little plants that you can buy at souvenir and flower shops, well this is where they're born. They had a farm here with hundreds of little pots, each with some plant or another growing out of it. In addition, they had a pretty little herbarium, with hundreds of different little plants. Of particular note are the parasite plants. These plants take root in, and grow out of the sides of trees. We spent sometime looking around and then headed back to the boat.
Our next stop was Monkey Island. So named for the plentiful population of relatively tame monkeys. They had only a little fear of humans, and could easily be induced to take food from your hand. They're fairly bright as well, one of our party got careless, and a monkey stole an entire bag of food from her. The monkey immediately ran off, not just to protect his/her prize from us, but also from the other monkeys. Well, I hoped he/she enjoyed the fruits of their boldness. There was a lot more on this island then just monkeys. We watched the dancing bears, got lifted by the elephant and watched the children get pony rides. All in all, it was a blast. I was pretty tired though, so eventually I found a nice quiet spot, in the shade, and rested and read. Around noon they rounded everyone up and we headed back to the boat. This boat delivered us back to our starting point. We got in our bus and headed back to Nha Trang.
After lunch we went to our friends home. There I napped until it was time for us to head for the train. This was a sleeper train as well, but it wasn't an express. It was an older model, but in some ways better. There were only four people to a compartment, thus the beds were bigger, and little more comfortable. It left Nha Trang at 5:30 in the afternoon, and arrived in Saigon at about 4:00 in the morning. This time I actually had a chance to look out the window and enjoy the view for a few hours.
Vietnam is country that's inherently beautiful, with it's rice paddies and forest covered mountains to it's bustling cities and towns. Sadly there's a lot of ugliness too. Trash is everywhere, industrial areas mix with old museums and classical buildings. Slums and rich houses are often side by side. It's a little depressing because much of the ugliness could be eliminated, if the people of Vietnam just cared a little more. For example, most Vietnamese think nothing about throwing their trash out car windows, or just onto the ground. And, in most cases, there's no one to come by later and pick it up. Oh well.... |
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Day 14 & 15 Departing for Nha Trang (June 22, 2004)Day Fourteen
The train was scheduled to leave at 10:30 PM, so we waited until after dinner before we packed our bags and left. Kha was going to stay at Xai's house to look after Robert. I said goodbye to him just before we took off.
That was a difficult moment. I'm sure Thu hated leaving Robert as well. We collected the friends who were going to travel with us and headed to the Train Station.
Day Fifteen, 05/30
Our car was a sleeper car, six people per compartment. It was fairly comfortable, air-conditioned, but noisy. The bed was just big enough. This particular train was an express, so it got to Nha Trang just as the sun was rising. Miss Hong is very aggressive about seizing advantages. We ended up having to stand by the car exit for thirty minutes because of her determination to be the first one off the train.
Nha Trang is a pretty little resort town on the coast north of Saigon. It was little cooler and more comfortable then Siagon. Since tourism plays an important role here, the town is much neater, with wider streets and more spaces between the buildings, then is typical for Saigon. There's also a beautiful beach with only a modest crowd.
We got to our hotel about 6:30 or so, we were all tired, so after a bit to eat, we decided to sleep for awhile. Well, that while ended up lasting until 3:00 O'clock. That was annoying, but I guess Miss Hong doesn't travel well. None of the ladies like heat and bright sunlight, so getting them out of their rooms before the afternoon was just not going to happen.
At least the hotel was nice, this was my first experience with a One Star Hotel. It had hot showers, flush toilets and air conditioning, and it was clean, so I didn't have much to complain about. About 3:00 we stirred out of our rooms and headed off. Thu said we were going swimming, but when we left the hotel, we drove past and away from the beach. We stopped to pick up some more friends and then headed on to our destination. By this time our party consisted of five ladies, three children and two male adults, myself included. Where were we going? But to the locally renowned hot springs!
The springs where a mixed experience. The place was beautiful, but a little crowded. We took a mud bath, which I consider to be an extremely pointless exercise. After that we hit the hot tubs, those were great, except that.... Well, hot tubs are supposed to be a place to relax, something that's basically impossible with three bored rambunctious children around. After that we spent sometime in the swimming pool. The pool was heated to 38 degrees C (natural heat), so any kind of exercise was impossible. On the plus side, there was plenty of shade so we didn't have to worry about getting sunburned. Another shortcoming was the absence of any kind of cold pool. Some of us boiled ourselves in the pool, others took off to get a massage. There were also some nice showers, one was set up like a waterfall, the other shot water at you from both sides at high pressure. All and all a nice place, but the experience was somewhat spoiled by the children. Someday I'd like to come back here with just my wife. (I'm sorry I didn't take any pictures of this place, but camera's weren't allowed.)
We got back into Nha Trang after dark and stopped at a restaurant for dinner. The whole place was an advertisement for San Miguel beer. Posters where everywhere and the waitresses wore tight outfits with San Miguel all over them, and the first question they would ask, (in English) is "Would you like some San Miguel beer". I did
notice some Hienkens bottles so San Miguel wasn't the only choice. Despite the overt marketing emphasis, the food was really really good. (lightly battered fried octopus, hmmm....)
After dinner we spent some time walking along the beach. Personally, I thought that was pointless, it was dark, so you couldn't see anything. (Except for the vague shapes of some young people doing what young people will do when the lights out.) Well, it was good exercise anyway. We stopped for some ice cream, and then headed back to our hotel. Made it to bed about 11:00 PM, dead tired, ready for about 12 hours of sleep, when Thu says "By the way, we have to get up at 5:00 Am, so that we can go to Monkey Island", "Good Night".
Monkey Island! What the hell is Monkey Island!?! |
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Day Thirteen (June 22, 2004)Went to a party over at Le's house. They were marking the anniversary of the death of her dad a couple of years ago. I hate these things, I can't talk to anyone but Thu, so I stand out like a sore thumb. I can't even drink the beer. (Ice might make me sick, and I'm not, by god, going to drink warm beer). I gave everyone the impression that I'm hugely henpecked, but that's OK. Until I learn to speak Vietnamese, I won't be able to do any socializing anyway.
More time on the Internet. You pay by the minute, but it's fairly cheap. I stayed for about an hour or so, it only cost about 4000 dong, or about 25 cents. I like these internet cafes, they're air-conditioned. Hate the computers though, the connection is slow, and the keyboard is crap. I wish I had a USB memory stick, so that I could download some articles to read later.
Ticket to Nha Trang cost 25 dollars. We leave tomorrow about 10:00 PM. It'll be a twelve hour trip, so we expect to sleep on the train. We are going to leave Robert with Kha. This will be the first time Thu and Robert have been separated for more then a couple of hours since I took Thu to her immigration interview. I'm a little worried, but I'm sure everything will be alright. |
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Day Twelve (June 22, 2004)The Nha Trang Question has been settled. A friend of Le has already bought us train tickets, so we're going. In addition, whatever it was that Robert caught, he's over it now. He's running around like nothing happened.
Thu has decided that she'll remain in Vietnam for the full extra month. Today we went to visit Vietnam's equivalent to Sam's Club. It's a super market that you have be a member of before you can shop there. It's called the Metro, and it's pretty nice. It's just like Sam's Club or a Walmart, except that it's actually nicer in some ways, and there are more employees to help you. (Go Capitalism!) Of course the products are a lot different. I don't think you'll find whole chickens or rabbits (complete with head) at Walmart.
Managed to catch some time at an internet caf. Caught up on the news (there wasn't any), sent an email to some friends, surfed the Web for a bit. Tried getting into some deathmatch/team play with Lap (one of Thu's friends, he's a teenager just finishing up high school). I died, a lot. Dammit, hate Counterstrike. Like to try him in Quake arena. |
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Day Eleven (June 22, 2004)Contacted Chris's Mom this morning. So, he won't be waiting for us at the airport. Thu said that she was thinking about returning with me to the US. Robert is still sick and she doesn't think it will be good for him to stay here. I told her wait a day, if she still wants to go home with me tomorrow, I'll change her airline tickets. If Thu does fly home with me, we won't be able to go to Nha Trang. Thu needs to return to Vinh Long so that she can see some of her family that she missed the first time. Damm, I was looking forward to the trip to Nha Trang. In Vinh Long, there's nothing for me to do, and I feel like I'm a side show attraction or something.
Spent the rest of the day reading books, watching videos and playing computer games. Syberia is incredibly boring. I wouldn't play it, if I had anything better.
No! Karoki, AAAGGGHHHH!!!!!
Later, Hmm, that wasn't so bad.. |
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Day Ten. Decided to stay longer. (June 22, 2004)Thu managed to convince me to go with her to Nha Trang so I contacted China Airlines to change my flight dates to June 2, arriving in Wichita June 3rd. I now need to contact Chris, so that I can tell him he doesn't have to meet me at the airport. We visited Gerald and Le. Gerald is headed home today, so we went to say good bye
Went shopping for some Audio Visual cables to link Alice's computer to the TV set. We also went to a bookstore, where I picked up an English language Vietnamese magazine. I'll save these for the flight home, they'll bring me up to speed on Vietnam's economy. After that we went to the Diamond Market. Whoa, this is an upper class establishment. A really nice place, with fine products and prices to match. I went and took pictures of a nearby church, while the ladies shopped. I met them in the store. The only thing we bought was a toy for Robert, but we had fun looking.
The A/V cables were a bust, I couldn't figure out how to get the picture to show up on their TV. Dammit, it may be a compatibility issue. Oh well....
Looks like Roberts got some sort of bug. He's running a fever, and he won't eat any food or drink any milk. Thu is really worried. |
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Day Nine. (June 22, 2004)| Spent the day playing computer games and reading my Ebooks. Thu did some shopping with her Mom. |
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Day Eight. (June 22, 2004)Stayed home today, dug out Alice's computer for the first time and noticed that the "End" key had popped off. Damm that idiot driver. When we were at the airport the driver of our van tossed my carry on into the back. And then proceeded to drop a seventy pound box on it. God Dammit. Oh well, the computer seems to be working fine, I'll try to fix the keyboard when I get back to the US.
Thu mentioned that Miss Hong, Le and a friend where planning a trip to a place called Nha Trang. She wants us to go as well. The problem is that they're not planning to leave until May 29, returning on May 31. So if we go I have to change my airline tickets, and then contact Chris (my ride home) somehow. I'm torn, on the one hand, it sounds like a cool trip, on the other hand, I really want to go home. (I miss air conditioning!) |
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Seventh Day, The Park (June 22, 2004)| Went to the "Park" today, with Miss Hong, Le and Gerald, Xai, Nguyen, Kha, and some other children (including Robert). I don't know what they call this place, but it's a combination of zoo, amusement park and just a cool place to hang out. There's lots of beautiful landscaping and sculptures. There's also some rides and animal exhibits. Of course if this place were in the US, it wouldn't last 5 minutes. It violates just about every regulation we have concerning safety, animal welfare, pollution and so forth and so on. I loved it. Sadly, it was really hot today(as it is everyday), so the ladies wilted pretty fast. We only stayed for about an hour and half or so. |
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Sixth Day, (June 22, 2004)Went shopping today with Miss Hong and Miss Tuyet. The market is much like I remember it from my last visit to Vietnam, it's much like a flea market on steroids. I was able to purchase a step down transformer for the power supply for my PDA. I also did my gift shopping. Got gifts for Alice, Todd, and Chris plus a spare gift, I'm not sure what I'll do with. I also picked up a pair of sandals. The heat and humidity here make wearing western style shoes and socks really uncomfortable. The ladies all did their shopping while I stood around waiting. We ate at a nearby restaurant, really crappy food. Note to self, the cabs running around with their windows up, are the ones with air conditioning.
I was wondering about the quality of this driver, he seemed to be having a lot of trouble finding his way to Xai's house. At one of the intersections near Xai's home is a hole where a man cover is missing. As we approached this hole, I wondered to myself, has this idiot noticed it? BANG!! Well, that answered my question. The driver successfully managed to drop the right front tire down into the hole. Thankfully we were surrounded by a crowd of amused onlookers. With their help we were quickly able to extract the car and be on our way.
In the evening, me and Thu went to visit Mr and Miss Hong. They were separated a few months back, and Mr Hong is trying to get Miss Hong to come back. He remodeled their home and it looks really nice now. This is where I stayed on my previous visits and we were hopping to stay here again, but those hopes were dashed when the Hongs separated. While the house hasn't been completely remodeled, it has seen a lot of improvements. Not the least of which is AIR CONDITIONING. This is the first private home I've visited that's had air conditioning. Oh how wonderful it felt.
AC in Vietnam is really expensive. To have one room equipped with AC can cost about $450. That's in American dollars. In addition, Saigon has variable electric rates depending on usage. If you use over a certain amount of electricity, the rates above that will double.
We sat there and chatted with them for a while. It's clear that Mr Hong wants his wife to come back, but she's looking a little skeptical. Well, I hope they can patch things together. After about an hour we headed home. As we walked home I took note of a new church that's being constructed in the neighborhood. Pretty impressive looking. It's an open structure, so the wind can just blow throw it and keep everyone cool. Even though it's not finished, I've noticed that when services are held, it's so crowded that people are left standing outside.
Finally got a chance to try that step down transformer, everything works. Thank you God. I can now access my Ebooks. |
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Fifth Day, Return to Siagon (June 22, 2004)We packed up our stuff to head back to Saigon. We took the boat back into town, (BTW there is a road that runs by Thu's house, but it's dirt and very narrow. It's really only usable by motorbike.) When we came down from Saigon, we took a small mini bus, which we shared with some other people. For the return trip, we decided to hire a car instead. There were only three of us going back, plus Robert and a car was only twenty dollars. Sadly, we weren't very careful about which car we got. No air conditioning, and it was a FIAT. As in "Fix It Again Tony" FIAT. We had to stop twice to let the car cool down and allow the driver to add water. Still the trip back was a lot quicker then the one down, this driver knew about the construction and was able to avoid it.
So, we got back to Xai's house unloaded and vegged for the rest of the day. |
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Day Four, Grandma's House (June 22, 2004)Spent most of this day relaxing, playing the game boy and just generally hanging out. Thu's family has lots of women that are willing to watch Robert, so that me and Thu don't have to. Robert was having a blast, farms are great places for kids. He was also having fun playing with the other children. The heat doesn't seem to bother him much. It's actually cooler down here then in Saigon. The house is a very drafty structure, so it stay fairly cool, except the front which faces west. In the afternoon, they close all the front doors, and everyone stays out back.
In the evening we decided to visit grandma's house. She doesn't actually own this house, she just lives there with some relatives. We got back into the boots and headed out. Cruising along this river is a lot like wandering down the streets of a small town. The river is lined with houses, each with it's own spot of land, and it own little jetty. The river itself is the source for all the water these people use. Waste water also ends up going back into it, but apparently the real nasty stuff goes into the ponds that each house has out back. The standard of living out here various a lot. Some of the houses are real shacks, mostly wood with a thatch roof, but some of them are real nice, made of brick with tile roofs and floors. It's a little strange to see such wealth and poverty side by side.
Grandma's home is one of the nicer ones. It's smaller then Thu's family home with only about three rooms, but it's beautifully made. We hung out there for about an hour and Thu took me out back to show me the graves of her grandfather and grand uncle. |
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Day Three, Life on the Farm. (June 22, 2004)We got up the next morning and had breakfast. Actually Thu got up at dawn, me and Robert slept in until six. There's something about being on a farm that makes you want to get up early. The family just went ga ga over Robert. I just couldn't get over how popular he was. There are normally about 10 people who live on this farm, but a bunch of other people stopped by to visit. They gawked at the fat American husband, and then went over to coo over Robert. Well, the women cooed, the guys just hung around and chatted.
I got a tour of the farm. Thu's home is a farm, where they raise pigs, fish, chickens and ducks. They also have some fruit trees with bananas, mangos and something called "Mit". It's all very medieval, they wouldn't last a split second against a modern agro corporation farm. Most of Vietnam's population lives on farms like these, so the import of food is carefully regulated. This keeps the food prices are kept artificially high.
This farm sits on about an acre of land, that's roughly rectangular. Facing the river is the front yard and the house. Behind the house is the bathroom, dining area and kitchen. There's another yard where the chickens and ducks are kept. After that are the pig pens, the male is a huge bastard, at least 6 feet nose to rear. In the back is a large pond, where they raise fish. Behind the property are many acres of rice patties. On either side of the property are small artificial streams, that are used to drain and fill the rice patties.
The whole system of rivers and streams has an artificial feel to them. They're just too damm straight and regular to be natural. I wonder how old they are. Could be hundreds, even thousands of years.
Thu spent the a lot of time video taping everything. She wanted a full documentary of her home.
I had brought with me an old Game Boy, just in case. Thank god I did. I spent a lot of time playing the damm thing, while Thu was hanging out with her family and friends. Thu convinced me to stay for another day, since we got in so late the night before. That evening some of the chickens were sacrificed for dinner. They tasted great. |
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