Wedding Bells Are Ringing!

Or should I say wedding balloons are popping? What? You didn't think I was talking about our wedding, did you?? This past weekend we went to our first Vietnamese wedding! I know that sounds really exciting, but it wasn’t, seriously. We were invited by the bride, who is a co-worker of Clayton’s, and because this was our first wedding in Vietnam and we didn’t want to completely embarrass ourselves, we made sure to ask some friends the necessary questions. (What is an appropriate gift, what should we NOT to do to call ourselves out even more than our huge white faces already do-that kind of thing.) Let’s just say that it was not our biggest success.

First, let me fill you in on a few details about tradition here. Keep in mind that although I have done a little light reading on the subject, I probably still have no idea what I am talking about. Anyway, our first wedding conundrum was seeing the “pre” wedding pictures. On the weekends, couples are littered about over a few “picturesque” places in the city (Notre Dam Cathedral and a park in D7 are the most popular) in full wedding garb with generally about 4 other costume changes and posing every which way possible (and when I say every which way, keep in mind, they are Asian and LOVE to take glamour shots). These pictures are done weeks before the actual event and then blown up on posters and put in a slide show so the room is jammed with cute, cuddly, sexy, and aloof pictures of the bride and groom. Apparently, the more dresses the bride has, the more affluent she is, so the higher the number the better (though I also read that the dresses are rented). The pictures are usually comprised of at least one fluffy white wedding dress, western style; 1-3 colorful, bejeweled, taffetaed ball gowns; one traditional Vietnamese garb; and one matching t-shirt photo op (the cheesier the better-cartoons, phrases, etc). For this wedding, we counted 3 white wedding dresses, a blue ball gown, a red ball gown, a traditional dress and matching red t-shirts with cartoon characters saying something about love. This also goes for the actual reception itself, though with fewer changes (and yes, she changes mid-reception).

What I didn’t know was that the “wedding” that we were invited to (and the invite actually said “wedding”) was really only the reception. Generally the couples do the official ceremony a day or 2 before the wedding. This official ceremony varies depending on religious beliefs, customs, etc. and generally lasts an entire day ++. However, what we heard from others about the Vietnamese wedding reception was true to what we experienced-every detail is the same. Vietnamese cookie cutter reception. Lots of popping balloons as the bride and groom walk into the room, game show type host introduces them and says a short speech, parents are introduced, Father says thank you (which really was all he said), couple pours some bubbly bright red concoction into stacked wine glasses, everyone eats, couple takes pictures with EACH table with red bubbly concoction in hand (then also multiply that times how many outfit changes she has), sit through some Vietnamese karaoke for 15+ minutes, go home. 2 hours and it’s over. Not really even worth getting dressed up for…

The wedding reception that we went to was on a Sunday afternoon (a lunch reception). Generally, the more money you are willing to spend the later the reception will be. So, the low income wedding receptions are at lunchtime on weekdays > week nights > lunch on weekends > dinner on weekends. But the time frame is usually only 2-3 hours regardless of time of day. One of the questions we made sure to ask was, should we arrive at exactly the invite time? Answer, if in the evenings, come 1-2 hours later. If in the afternoons, come on time (generally). Wrong…as we learned. We arrived at 11 am, which is what the invite stated and stared into a completely empty reception room. When Clayton spotted the bride, he said, “Ummm…are we at the right place? I thought the invite said 11?” She immediately covered her mouth and started giggling at our cute-foreignness (that’s what I like to think instead of stupidity). “No,” she said (in between giggles). “Everybody knows to come an hour after the invitation time.” What?? Whatever, we had the pick of the tables, got a head start on the beer, translated the menu via google translator and played a round of scrabble (what was life like BI-before iPhone?) Not only were we the biggest and whitest of anyone else there, we were ridiculously early. Oh well, could have been worse!

We did eat one new thing that we choked down purely out of respect. Sea cucumber, I would rather see you on the bottom of the ocean and not on my plate next time. The gelatinous texture and briny funky aftertaste is a bit too much for my western palate. I’m having some post-traumatic reflux as I think back… But overall, its was cute to see the bride so happy and by the end of the reception, the groom was bright red and about ready to pass out (too many mot, hai, ba, yo’s and downing of beer glasses-one per table will really do in a 110 lb Vietnamese guy). Same same, but different.

We Made It Out Alive...

Through some stroke of luck, we ended our 10-day trip to Australia without a heartbreaking sting, lethal venomous bite, nor loss of limb.  We left only with pictures, a little bit of dirt between our hiking shoes and empty wallets.  I would call it a success!  After reading Bill Bryson’s “In a Sunburned Country” my knowledge of Australia was mostly of potential life threatening wildlife, vast desert and mobs of kangaroos.  Well, he talked about other things besides this, but my mind mostly honed in on all the ways to die there.  Of course, all the Australian’s that I have met have merely batted away my fears with a “ah, no worries, you’ll be fine” (input aussie accent here).  They generally go on to say that they themselves have been stung by a blue bottle(s), which was “very painful”, but they usually manage to skillfully downplay the likely amount of “pain” that they were in, leaving me with scrunched up eyebrows and thinking there is no way in hell I am putting a single toe in that jellyfish-polluted water.  (Blue bottles, or Portuguese Man o’ War, are actually not true jellyfish, but according to wikipedia, stings usually cause severe pain to humans, leaving whip-like, red welts on the skin that normally last 2 or 3 days after the initial sting-google image, say no more.) 

You may think I am being totally irrational because things like that don’t happen when you are on vacation, right?  Well, that’s true, it didn’t happen to us, but we also visited the country in their winter, so the cold weather was enough of a bother to keep us out of the water, much less all the blue bottles that we saw washed up on the shore along the beaches.  (Yeah, we did actually spot them littering the sand on nearly all of our beach strolls…)  But I felt fairly confident that my worries could be benched for now, though only because we were going nowhere near crocodile territory, were there in the winter, so all the poisonous snakes (and there are MANY) were hibernating, and we would not be going in the water anyway (so sharks, sting rays, and jellyfish can also be subtracted from potential life-takers as well).  Now all I had to worry about was the likely possibility of Clayton exploring too far down a cliff…

Our exploration there was via a very glamorous camping trip as we rented a camper van, which included all the modern conveniences of a stove, sink, minuscule bathroom, refrigerator and heater (though as we unfortunately learned, only worked when plugged in…).  So, it allowed us get a little more off track without Clayton griping about cleaning dishes sans sink and hot water and me complaining about how much I hate the condensation inside the tent in the morning.  So after Clayton worked out his anxiety about driving a huge van with a plethora of blind spots on the wrong side of the car and wrong side of the road we managed just fine!  First up on the adventure packed Unesco world heritage-recognized itinerary was the famous Blue Mountains outside of Sydney.   “Oooooh” is what we caught ourselves saying way too much.  The area was named after the characteristic slate-colored haze from the mist of oil exuded off eucalyptus trees.  We power hiked our way through as many “bushwalks” as we could fit in in 2 days.  To quote Clayton, “it’s just like hiking in Oregon in the spring or fall.  Same, same, but different trees”.

 

While renting a camper van was a great idea, there were a few mistakes that I made...

Mistake #1) Not bringing any CD’s to listen to on the drives, having instead to bear Clayton repeatedly impersonating Elaine from Seinfeld, “maybe a dingo ate your baby” in a terrible Australian accent, trying to answer his favorite question of the day such as, “what noise do kangaroos make?” (insert annoying noises here), or making up new animals: wallabats, kookaroos, kangaburras…

Mistake #2) Assuming Australia was a warm country no matter what season it was, and more specifically because we were on vacation-the weather should have sensed our arrival and warmed accordingly.  My wool socks were way overused.

Mistake #3) Assuming that the auxiliary battery in the camper van would be fully functional when we were camping deep inside the “bush”, instead of lasting 15 minutes, then dying.  Big thanks to Clayton’s good friend Pat who gave us headlamps (intended for use during Vietnam’s roaming blackouts, though majority of use during our Australia blackout).

Despite visiting in the winter, we did see lots of wildlife: owls, colorful parrots, kookaburras (NOT sitting in gum trees, nor laughing…), kangaroos & their little joeys, wallabies, Australian monitor lizards, a dingo, monster spiders, tiny but absurdly loud frogs, washed up Portuguese man o’ war, jellyfish lazing around the waters of the Sydney harbor, and sharks at the Sydney aquarium (okay, so that last one was not actually in the wild, but we had to do at least one tourist trap while we were in Sydney!)  My one disappointment was not seeing a koala.  We had the chance to stop in a koala reserve on our way north, but Clayton vetoed the idea annoyingly commenting, “I don’t want to see them in the hospital”.  Oh well, maybe next time, Australia.

After the Blue Mountains, we meandered through the back roads, made a stop in Hunter Valley (wine country) for some awesome Australian wine, stinky cheese, fresh fudge and views of the beautiful country side.  Then we headed up the coast, stopping for a night on the beach, followed by some more bushwalking through Dorrigo National Park rainforest and a tour drive along the famous Waterfall Way, then ended our camping trip with a couple more nights along the coast.  The last of our money was spent in Sydney, where on our last day we power toured our way through the Sydney Aquarium, the Sydney fish market (second in the world only to Tokyo!), sampled way too much deep fried seafood, briefly stopped in the Maritime Museum (mostly because it was free…though there were some great exhibits), walked around the Sydney Harbor, took a ferry to Manly beach, saw harbor views of the Sydney Opera house and bridge, then lastly had a nice dinner at a small French restaurant.  Whew!

Complaints aside, we had a great trip, did lots of “bushwalking”, marveled at orange trees still holding strong despite the freezing temperatures at night, got up close and personal with nature, sans injury and re-grouped before returning to steamy, sweaty, loud, unorganized Vietnam.  Rest much needed!

We Live In A House!

I know that we have been keeping some of you in suspense about the new accommodations that we recently moved into-it has been pretty cruel to hold that back, hasn’t it? But I’m not doing it intentionally, really! I just don’t feel like it is quite “moved-into” yet, so I have not been motivated enough to start describing it. But I think it will be okay, in fact, I doubt that there will be a period during our short time here that the place will ever be full. It will likely always echo when we yell and look partially lived in, but I’m okay with that-largely because I just don’t have any more patience to find the other fill-ins. I have gone on enough treasure hunts for now.

As far as housing goes here there are a few options: lowly, boring, apartment; fancy serviced apartment; individual house; house in compound; house in BP compound. You can see how this is going right-least desirable to most desirable. The one in the middle I probably would never do only because I have heard too many tales of break-ins at houses that are outside of a compound (despite the night “guards”). A house in a compound has a gated entrance with full time guards (that actually stay awake through the night), then also gates around each house. Seems a little overkill, right? Well, some of the homes even have additional guards inside the compound-they must really have some good stuff in there! I would feel sorry for the poor guys who accidentally broke into our house instead of our neighbors…they wouldn’t walk away with much! Unfortunately theft is almost guaranteed if some measures are not taken. However, the BP compound is one of the oldest, most established and notoriously safe, flood free compounds in Ho Chi Minh City. We are still not really sure how we got lucky enough to move there, but we thank our good fortunes every day.

So, imagine a large 4 bedroom (technically 5 if you count the “maid’s room” in the back-outside entrance, of course-you wouldn’t want your maid to actually have to be seen) “French colonial” style villa, small “garden” with a patio, shiny silver gas grill & outside dining/sitting area. No private pool for us…but then again, we haven’t even gone to the compound pool since we moved into the house, so I doubt that it would get much use anyway! It is an older house, so the kitchen is unfortunately tucked into the back corner, behind the dining room, but that was originally designed so the owners could shut the maid in there and not have to see the kitchen at all. Only…that’s not really our style. So, we asked for some kitchen remodeling & took the door off the hinges-good enough! The upstairs has our master bedroom and 3 guest/exercise/office rooms. We are definitely enjoying the pomp and splendor as it is likely to be the biggest house we live in…ever. But the good news is that the guest room is all ready-I know that’s what most of you were waiting for, right?

The compound itself (I hate that word, makes me think I am living a concrete and walled-in existence) is beautiful. The compound was originally built for BP expat employees (hence the name BP compound), but it has slowly been infiltrated with outsiders-heads of consulates, CEO’s, company “x” employee, etc. At the time it was built, real estate along the Saigon river was dirt cheap because it was the first place to flood and expensive to actually build on to control it. But what do we westerner’s love more than living on some body of water…nothing! So, the compound is bordered on one side by the river, where a pretty walkway, BB court, skateboard park and restaurant are located. While the restaurant is nice enough, it definitely lacks in culinary expertise and the music they play makes me want to vomit. Think horrible 80’s-90’s R&B, easy listening and pop that never made it on the radio with some N’sync thrown in here and there. I guess if you have a restaurant on the river in a nice compound, then nothing else matters…what they need is some competition! There are also 2 pools, a gym and 3 tennis courts (complete with “ball boys” if you are that type) for residents of the compound and those who wish to pay way too much for a membership.

But it does make us feel like we can at least lead a semi-normal life. You just have to pretend that the walls around the compound are there as a decoration and as a trellis for the crazed vines. Because the compound was built so long ago, the plants, trees and flowers are all a madness of tangles and shades of green and bright colors. The streets are shadowed by large tropical trees and littered with fallen flowers, making it such an oasis from the smog and hustle of the city. I think so far Ginger is none the wiser that she will never be stepping foot outside the compound walls. I won’t go into details, but we would rather keep her for ourselves during the time we spend here. Luckily for her, the perimeter of the compound is fairly large-about 1.5 miles, which is about as far as she gets before dropping into an exhausted, hot Ginger pile. Just outside the compound gates is a great little expat inspired area where there are 2 nice grocery stores, easily within walking distance. The fruit market and other shops are only a short bicycle ride away & there is always a taxi ready if not. Although it drives me crazy to be dependent on other modes of transportation to get places, I wouldn’t drive a car here even if I had my own! The bicycle is enough to raise my blood pressure a few notches for the day…or week.

But as spoiled as we appear to be here, we miss the Northwest and our homes like crazy. Nothing can replace the natural beauty of the US and especially not our best friends and family on the other side of the world. Three years will fly by, we will stock up on travel and new experiences and come home appreciating the US likely more than we ever have. However, while we are here, it definitely helps to have somewhere beautiful to spend our time.

To see more pictures, click on the new slideshow to right!

Our First Visitors!

Yep, that’s right, we did actually have visitors-2 friends flew all the way over to Asia from America to see us! Okay, so maybe they also flew over to do some traveling too, but we were still excited. We took advantage of the visit to accompany them on some of our first “holiday travels” around Asia as well. Sad to say that we have been here about 6 months already, and are just now traveling outside of Vietnam, but now that we have found a trustworthy Ginger-sitter there are no more excuses!

So, Meghann and Matt flew into Bangkok, Thailand and the next day Clayton and I flew there to meet them for our first weekend adventure-we were off to SE Thailand, to Railay Beach, a secluded spot famous for its limestone walls and rock climbing. After spending the afternoon navigating our way around Bangkok (and 2 hours inside an unappealing coffee shop to wait out the rain), we had our first round of excitement! Trying to squeeze all the sights we could into a few hours that first afternoon, we misjudged the intensity of Bangkok rush hour traffic and nearly missed our train out of the city. Oops. After a 45 minute taxi ride (that covered an entire 4.5 km) with a driver who clearly had no qualms about tweezing out errant facial hairs or blatantly picking his nose as we sat in traffic, we opted for the skytrain > skytrain > subway > train station route for the final leg. However, I don’t recommend it with 4 people and 6 bags during the middle of rush hour, and I’m pretty sure we took out a smaller Asian (or 2 or 3) cramming our way into the cars and running like fools from connection to connection. Let’s just say the LARGE bottle of Singha beer waiting for us on the train was consumed with much appreciation!

We had opted for the cheaper route via train, then bus/shuttle to our destination thinking that it would be fun and exciting to book “1^st” class overnight tickets on a train (and save a nights worth of hotel fees, so thrifty are we). I was a bit disappointed by the lack of luster awaiting us, but my expectations for a 1^st class $60 fare was on the low end as well. The train was comfortable enough with its private booth, a sink (ooh), surprisingly tasty food, and let’s not forget about the abundance of singha beers, which made the trip that much more fun! It was all long forgotten when we arrived at our picturesque destination via boat (the only way to get there) and had pad thai overlooking the ocean framed by immense walls of limestone, jungle and the occasional climber. We filled our 2 days there with an overcrowded tour to islands around the area (involving the repeated phrase by the tour guide “stand by your cameras”…can we say tourist trap?), a few snorkeling stops, beach lounging, hiking and eating. Did I mention the eating? We had a few things to check off the list…eat pad thai in Thailand, get a Thai massage, drink Singha beer, swim in Thai waters without getting stung by a jellyfish-check, check, check, check (thank goodness check).

On day 3 we were sad to say good bye to the little oasis of Thailand beauty. I would say that the way back was equally as exciting, but the glamour of Thailand’s 1^st class train service had worn off in the first hour of our initial ride over and we had plenty of time with the rest of our connections to lollygag around and have one more Starbucks in Bangkok before returning to the drought of American coffee chains-HCMC later that evening. I think the only interesting part was the fact that we actually added on an additional mode of transportation-which we didn’t think was even possible. Tractor > boat > shuttle van > bus > train > subway > skytrain > skytrain > airplane > car. Whew… The addition was the tractor to boat service-way more exciting than wading through the water to hop on the boat!

From there Meghann and Matt flew to Chang Mai where elephant rides through the jungle and scenic Buddhist shrines awash in sunsets awaited them. Then onto THE most exciting part of the trip for them…to Ho Chi Minh City! Just kidding, but they did sacrifice a couple of days to spend here, see HCMC, and allow us to spoil them as our first formal visitors. Then the following weekend we all took a quick flight north to Hoi An, a city in Vietnam popular for its “old town” world heritage site with traditional, preserved Chinese assembly halls and wealthy bygone merchants homes lined with colorful Chinese lanterns and store after store after shop after shop of tailors. Hoi An is also well known for its plethora of tailoring shops ready to custom make clothing to your hearts content-all still in the original buildings and homes making each and every tailor selling the latest fashions still look historical and unique.

We immediately set out to see the preserved buildings and assembly halls, not intending on landing in a tailor shop as our primary target. However the air-conditioned oasis of Yaly Couture beckoned us forward and we walked out 2 suits and 2 dresses later… Much refreshed, we continued on our sight seeing way, then later in the day took refuge in the hotel spa while the rain poured down, leaving us a much cooler walk to a great dinner. The next day was filled with suit and dress fittings, a dusty bike ride to the beach, a lounge and swim and more great food for dinner. We were all sad to say good-bye to Hoi An, but left with some great custom creations, good memories and satisfied bellies.

That same day we said our good-byes to Meghann and Matt as well, they had one last adventure through Cambodia on their itinerary, then it was back to the states for them and the end of our entertaining. We hope to do more of it in the future though-we have our guest room all ready ;) Who is next??

(To see more pictures of our trip, click on the new slideshow to the right!0

Fruits that I love

It has been another blissfully boring week here, minus the melting hot weather (I say melting because it certainly looks like I am melting like a popsicle the minute I step out the door). Clayton had a 4-day weekend thanks to the Vietnamese Labor day this Monday. Since we found ourselves out of spending money for the weekend (thank you Nike Vietnam office staff for waiting until after the long weekend to deposit the monthly check into the Vietnam account), we spent our days avoiding the steaming temperatures and sleeping in.

Instead, inspired by my best friend (who said, “maybe you should think about writing something about what you DO like”), I have written about a few things that I DO actually like-but also threw in some other things…I couldn’t help myself!

Fruits that I love IN VIETNAM

THE POMELO-A massive citrus fruit whose likeness resembles what we refer to as a grapefruit, that can come in both the yellow and red variety. It’s about 4 times the size of a grapefruit, also similar in taste, but milder and sweeter. Think Goliath grapefruit, but a little bit nicer, with a sprinkle of natural sugar on top.

THE MANGO-Duh

THE WATERMELON-Also duh. But there is a yellow flesh watermelon as well (tastes almost exactly the same) but more fun to eat because it’s yellow, of course.

THE PAPAYA-for those of you who don’t like papaya, you have not tried the Asian variety then…delicious.

MINI BANANAS-Actually I like all bananas, but Clayton loves the fact that the entire banana can be eaten in 1 bite. (The rest of us will still need to take 2+ bites.)

THE PASSION FRUIT-I think its name stands for itself.

THE MANGOSTEEN-scrumptious little white pieces of fruit that melt in your mouth.

THE DRAGON FRUIT-Comes in both white flesh or a deep purple flesh. It’s texture is similar to watermelon + apple with tons of little poppy seed like kernels for a little crunch. Even when at times it is almost totally flavorless, its worth the effort just for the party in your mouth.

Fruits that I DON’T love IN VIETNAM

THE DURIAN-There are definitely some foods that the Western palate finds unpleasant and the durian is notably one of them. This is the same fruit that is not allowed in taxis or airports in Singapore (seriously) because it smells like a overripe, fermented tropical fruit that an elephant ate and then pooped out.

THE CUSTARD APPLE-Most of the fruits that I do not enjoy have a few things in common: funny texture, super sweet taste or off-putting smell. The custard apple has 2 off the above to blame for my distaste. The grainy texture and super SUPER sweet flavor is too much for more than 2 semi-unpleasant bites-and what’s the point of buying a fruit for 2 bites?

THE JACKFRUIT-Very similar to the Durian, except that the smell is only of an overripe, fermented tropical fruit (minus the elephant part). Plus it is way to sweet. The combination of these 2 things are just too much. I’ll stick to the traditional tropical fruit please.

There are more that I don’t like…but these are the main ones that are very common. The rest I can uncomfortably swallow in case of necessary politeness.

Obviously eating here is different than what I am accustomed to-that I think needs no explanation. Luckily, HCMC has a large variety of international foods to break up the monotony of eating the same thing, every day. Many of you have said how happy you would be to eat Vietnamese food every day, all day, forever. But trust me, you would get tired of it too. It’s like only getting to eat American food all day, every day. Boring. Not that I am complaining, just saying it’s nice to have the option for some variety. If you are happy eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for every meal, every day, then your opinion does not count here (FYI).

However, just because the restaurants serve “international” food does not mean that one should assume the service would also be similar-as we have learned. We are still learning “dining lessons” here. Here are a few to write down and keep in mind ;)

Lesson 1: If you all wish to eat your meal at the SAME time, you must tell the waiter, please bring out our meals “at the same time”. Otherwise chances are you will be eating separately.

Lesson 2: If you order an entrée salad for your meal and your dining partner orders a meat dish, even though you have requested an entrée salad DO NOT assume you will get to eat together. (See lesson 1) Generally you will get your salad and as soon as you are done, your partner will get to eat (they are very kind and wait for you to finish your salad before brining out your partner’s actual main course).

Lesson 3: If one of you wants a salad as a starter, then orders a main but the other only orders a main, good luck communicating who gets to eat when. To complicate matters more, try ordering an entrée salad instead of the traditional main.

Lesson 4: Don’t be a picky eater. If you want to modify a dish on the menu, eat at home or do it yourself once you get the meal. Like a friend said, “I asked the waiter for no avocado on the burger, but all I got was a bun and avocado when he brought it out.” Be careful what you ask for.

Lesson 5: Always point at what you want on the menu. NEVER assume they have memorized the menu or would understand your English “accent”.

Lesson 6: You will be waiting all night for your check if you don’t specifically ask for it. Even if you are dining alone and everything is cleared from your table and you have turned down an offer for dessert or an after-meal coffee and you have been sitting x# of minutes at an empty table and there is a line out the door waiting for a table. If you don’t ask you will never receive.

Lesson 7: Just because you are at a “traditional” Italian, Indian, Japanese, American, Mexican (especially Mexican), etc restaurant, you are STILL IN VIETNAM. There is only so much that is imported here…

There is one more thing that I love, and a great finish to this blog entry! It’s the “Vietnamese coffee”. Not the actual coffee beans… It’s the style of coffee that is most popular here. My favorite is the cà phê sữa đá, or the iced coffee with milk. But the “milk” is sweetened condensed milk that gets stirred into the hot coffee before it is poured over ice. Delicious (and cheap). I have to limit myself to one per day. Here are the steps and a picture slideshow just to make you swoon!

Step 1: Order cà phê sữa đá. Don’t worry so much how you say it, likely the waiter will know what you are taking about since it is the most popular drink here. Plus you are pointing at the menu as well (see Dining Lesson 5 above).

Step 2: Wait for water to finish dripping through the individual press while simultaneously keeping your over-watering mouth from leaking.

Step 3: Remove coffee press and stir strong freshly brewed coffee with the sweetened condensed milk stuck to the bottom of the cup (its just hiding, don’t worry).

Step 4: Pour into glass of ice

Step 5: Stir coffee and ice, possibly wait for ice to melt into coffee a little for a reduced coffee rush effect.

Step 6: Enjoy!

Rules of the Road

Our past couple of weeks have been quiet and per usual here (whatever that now means). We enjoyed seeing Bob Dylan in concert last Sunday (yeah, that actually happened) and have been busy making new friends and remembering new faces. Ginger had an exciting trip to the (one and only recommended) vet who had to remove (another) tooth. However, he threw in a teeth cleaning at the same time since she was going to be under anyway for a bargain $150-for everything. Hopefully she will keep the rest of her teeth from now on…the dog tooth fairy does not have any more money! We also actually took the new camera out for a spin around the city to capture some typical life here before it starts to become “normal” to us. So, instead of droning on about our mundane weeks, I will share a bit more about the country. Enjoy the new pics!

Rules of the Road

Vietnam is one country I would recommend doing some serious soul searching before deciding to get behind of the wheel of a motorized vehicle-or at least spend some quality observation and research on the Vietnamese “rules” of the road (please). Here are some to start:

1. You may stop your vehicle anywhere you wish, whether it be to light another cigarette, partake in the morning comings & goings, look for your destination address or just because. This may be in the middle of traffic, on the corner of a blind turn (non-motorized bicycles may stop here as well), or on the highway.
2. If you don’t agree with the speed the vehicle in front of you is going, feel free to pass them, wherever you are and whatever the consequences may be. (Practice playing chicken in a safer place before practicing here, the Vietnamese truck and bus drivers are very adept at this skill) There are no “non” passing zones, just be careful if there are physical barriers in the median.
3. There are no stop signs, anywhere. So, no worries about getting a ticket for not making a complete stop.
4. Slower vehicles yield (usually). When driving through a 4-way intersection (see rule #3), make sure you are the fastest, then you don’t have to yield.
5. No looking for oncoming traffic necessary when merging into traffic. Just hit the throttle (and the horn at the same time) and be on your way.
6. Traffic lights are only a suggestion. If there is no oncoming traffic within a few feet of your vehicle, feel free to continue through.
7. Turning signals on the vehicle are for decoration only.
8. Getting flashed by one’s brights does not mean you forgot to turn your head lights on. It means “WAKE UP. YOU ARE ABOUT TO DIE!”
9. The only thing you need to pay attention to is what is in the front of your vision. Things to the periphery cannot be bothered with.
10. Don’t worry about the pedestrians, they will move out of your way if need be.
11. When driving down main streets, blare your horn so that vehicles “merging” from side streets will be aware that there is at least one other vehicle on the road to share with.
12. Remember that the police here have a ticket quota too…
13. Bigger trumps smaller. So, although there may be designated “motor bike lanes” if you are bigger than them, you can drive in their lane if you want to (although see #12 if its quota time and carry extra “coffee money”). Likewise, if you wish to bypass some road traffic, take the sidewalk (see #10 in case of pesky pedestrians in the way).
14. The dotted lines all over the road are only a suggestion.
15. If you are a truck driver, your incentive is not to hit any motorbikes. But if you do, better to kill them because then all you have to pay is $500 for funeral fees, however, if they need serious medial attention you are responsible for paying all the hospital fees (which can be very expensive…).
16. Avoid driving if you don’t have to (see all of the above).

Although driving here seems completely insane, they do have a set of “rules” that make no sense to us, but seems to work for them. Strangely they are very predictable in the ridiculousness on the road. Sometimes I feel like I am overreacting to the driving here, but then I read or hear from another Westerner about their road frustrations, and I feel okay again. Every morning, I sit down with a cup of coffee and have my first laugh of the day over a comment on the daily local (expat) google groups page. Here is a comment from earlier this week:

Addressed to: Classy foreign driver in blue BMW

Dear above mentioned person,

Thank you so much for such a wonderful display of selfish driving this morning as you headed toward the Phu My Hung bridge. 
The way you overtook a line of lorries stuck in a traffic jam head on into an oncoming HGV truck was truly remarkable. The way the HGV then decided to panic and swerve into the motorbike lane in which I was traveling, forcing me into loose gravel and stones at 50kph was a much needed test of my riding skills and sphincter muscles. 
Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, you decided that the HGV presented too much of an easy target for you to hit and so you made the brave choice of swerving and aiming at me, forcing me to brake to a complete stand-still.

Thanh Tay Ngu. A wave of apology would have been nice. Instead, you shrugged your shoulders as if you were completely in the right. Of course, I am a lowly motorcycle rider (on a green Vespa but I'm sure you
remember that) and you are a King of the road in a car (a BMW no less) and it was rather presumptuous of me to use a lane for motorcycles. I must accept my responsibility in this matter.

Your humble servant,

Scott

I could not have said it better. (Luckily we have a courteous driver, so I never worry about this). However, you can see why “rules” and “laws” are wonderful things, no matter how much we complain about them…

Here is a short video of us crossing the street! Notice the "cross walk" in the distance. Like most lines on the road, they mean nothing, but every once in a while you can still catch a tourist trying to use them ;)

A Ride through the Foothills

Well…where do I start? It has been so very long since I last updated the blog, I’m not sure what to include. Are you sitting, with a nice beverage in hand-because there may be a novel coming your way! Our shipment from the US finally arrived (only took 3.5 months). They must have put our stuff on the party ship that stopped at every port along the way. But the excitement was short lived because Clayton axed any ideas of unpacking just yet. What was his excuse?? We move again in 4 weeks…but how much more awesome would it be to wake up to freshly brewed coffee in the mornings and drink out of mugs that are larger than the kiddie tea cups that I used to play with when I was 5?! So after rifling through nearly all of the boxes, we finally found the coffee maker and 2 mugs-SO worth the effort! Now I don’t have to re-fill my cup every 2 sips. (And as long as he is at work, he has no idea what else I have unpacked!) He usually only skims my updates, so I think my secret is safe on this blog ;)

I think the biggest excitement of our past couple of weeks was the arrival of our fur child, Ginger. Miss G arrived via United Airlines cargo late Wednesday night with many thanks to the large amount of work from Gramma Julie and Auntie Tina. She flew by herself for the first time-such a big girl now! It was a 2-day trip for her, spending the first night in a pet hotel in San Francisco and the next on the plane. The flight arrived at 10:05 pm Wednesday and UA had informed me that Vietnam had a “late night pick-up”. Dammed if I was going to let them tell me that their customs office was closed after 5pm and she would be “fine” in the warehouse until 9 am the next morning after an 18-hour flight. Don’t think so. So with a bit of friendly persuasion a handful of papers and “coffee money” we miraculously were able to pick her up that evening. I’m pretty sure we were the first to ever do that judging by the non-existent import procedure. No quarantine either, so she is now happily following us around every step we take, scaring the crap out of our Vietnamese maids, and not so much enjoying the heat with her winter coat still in place. But with the amount of hair that is littering the floor right now, I think her shedding instinct has kicked into high gear.

Last weekend we (finally!) went on our first out of town adventure. Invited by some new Danish and German friends, we happily tagged along. The 6 of us took off last Saturday morning for an early flight into Dalat, a city in the mountainous region of central Vietnam. This is where all the “exotic” produce is grown (ie, produce that needs a mild climate) like strawberries, bell peppers, etc. What bliss it was to step off the plane, breathe in fresh air and feel a chill slight enough to think (very fleetingly) about putting on a jacket. We met up with a van, a truck filled with bicycles, and 2 tour guides that took us to our starting point for a 75Km ride to the coast. After interrogating the guides regarding the status of my brakes we were on our way. First was a refreshing 5Km ride uphill, then the remaining 70Km was largely downhill (reason for my faulty brake anxiety) with a few flats and small rises nearing the end. We rode through the mountainous region, then down through small towns and rice fields and dragon fruit farms complete with roaming cattle, water buffalo shuffling through the fields, and cute little piglets waddling across the street and ecstatically rolling through mud. I think they put them there just to make me want to take that ride again! Part way into the morning, we stopped on a small rise and had a few snacks across the street from a group of local farmers who unsurprisingly stared at us like aliens-though I think they were mostly eyeing Jesper who towered over them at 6’4”, making even Clayton look average. I first thought they were staring at all of us until Jesper moved away from the group and I realized that they ALL had their heads turned and necks craned, gaping at every move this foreign invader made. Thanks Jesper, for the mid-morning comic relief!

We finished the ride mid-afternoon and were then dropped off at a resort in Mui Ne, a popular get-away beach town only a few hours away from Ho Chi Minh City. We spent the rest of the afternoon cooling off in the pool and watching the wind & kite surfers on the beach. Mui Ne is famous for its wind sports, which is on our adventure check-list (a steep learning curve and sinus cavity full of salt water ahead, I’m sure). The next day was more of the same sluggishness with a few beach strolls and gawking at “acceptable” European swimwear thrown in for a little beach style entertainment (a men’s speedo-style suit is bad enough, but is an orange and pink plaid pattern REALLY necessary??) We arrived back in HCMC around 10 pm after the usual (so I am told) 4-hour amusement park of a van ride back to town. I felt like I was in a virtual motion ride in Six Flags dodging and weaving through motorbikes, semi’s and trucks on the 2 lane “highway”- or at least what I could see through my hands covered tightly over my eyes. On one of Clayton’s rough draft blog updates that he started about 8-weeks ago (I’m adding it here because it may be the only time it actually makes it way to you) he wrote a little bit about the transportation hierarchy. It goes something like this: semi-truck > bus > smaller truck > van > car > ambulance (seriously) > motorbike > bicycle > guy in horse drawn cart > local pedestrian > foreign pedestrian. Bigger has the right of way (except for the final 2). There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like I home… I kept saying to myself clicking my heels.

Other than that, our weeks have been filling up slowly. Clayton had a few extra items thrown onto his work plate this past week and I have just started volunteering with some developmentally disabled Viet kiddos at a school for the blind and another early childhood development center. My weeks may start to get even busier with the very real prospect of developing a PT clinic here with an American Chiropractor (the only chiro practice to ever survive in Vietnam). I have all fingers and toes crossed! Other than the presence of Ginger soiling the pants of most Vietnamese we come across, I think our next few weeks will be more of the same awkward assimilation into Vietnam and gearing up for our final move!

Take a look at the new slideshow to see more pics-Click on the actual slideshow to enlarge and view the captions!

Mother or Ghost?

Last Tuesday was the official kick-off to our Vietnamese lessons. We found a great tutor that comes to our apt (!!) and attempts to teach us the Vietnamese language for an hour and ½. Then we both pop a couple of Advil. I don’t think it’s a good sign when the first page of the lesson book is an illustration of the anatomy of the face and throat… To give you a bit of background info on the language, Vietnamese has 6 different “tones”, although only 5 are used in the southern half of Vietnam and around HCMC. For comparison’s sake, I believe that Mandarin has only 4 tones.

Here they are:

1. (a) Mid-level/flat vocal range
2. (à) Low falling: begins low & falls lower
3. (ả) Low rising: begins low, dips noticeably & then rises to a higher pitch
4. (ã) High broken: begins above mid level, dips slightly and then rises slightly
5. (á) High Rising: Begins high & rises sharply
6. (ạ) Low broken: begins low, falls to a lower level then stops

I have not come close to mastering these yet, but somewhere in the tones you will also need to throw in some glottalized, nasal and alveolar sounds. Good luck.

And, yes, you can say the same word 6 different ways and it means 6 different things:

1. Ma = ghost
2. Mà = but
3. Mả = tomb
4. Mã = horse
5. Má = mother
6. Mạ = rice seedling

If you happen to walk into a haunted house and cry GHOST! Make you sure you have an even, flat tone or you will likely be saying MOTHER! Its also important to keep up a good attitude because even though you may have practiced the sounds 100 times and your teacher understands you, likely any of the people that you practice out on the street with will have NO idea what you are trying to say and giggle at you while you flounder around trying to remember if the last word was supposed to be low or high. Ah, serenity now.

This weekend we went “tourist” and drove out of town to the Củ Chi tunnels, which was the home & fighting ground of an estimated 18,000 peasant guerrillas. It consisted of 125 miles of hand-dug passageways & chambers. The tunnels were originally started in the late 1940’s during the French War and by 1967 there were a network of tunnels, aid stations, kitchens, theaters, dormitories, weapons caches, wells, printing shops & other chambers. Củ Chi was written as the “most bombed, shelled, gassed, defoliated, and generally devastated area in the history of warfare” during what they refer to as the “American War”. The tunnels were dug in 3 different levels below the surface, were ridden with booby traps, generally only big enough to fit a Vietnamese body through and full of zigs, zags and hatches designed to keep enemy intelligence from returning to camp. I can’t imagine the fear that these volunteer “tunnel rats” had to feel as they ventured into this underworld. We were given the option of crawling through a very small segment of the tunnels that made me nervous though the guide with a flashlight leading the way was RIGHT in front of me. Cramped, humid and dark does not even begin to describe them, and I was only on the “1^st floor”. Maybe I would not have been as anxious if we had not just seen examples of the various booby traps that were interspersed throughout the tunnels?! And I’m pretty sure the one we went through was widened because Clayton was able to crouch-walk through without hitting a knee to the ground…and we all know he is a tad bit taller than the average Asian. Although talk of war, fighting, killing and conquering are not amongst my favorite topics, it was an incredible place to see and even more incredible to imagine the construction and life in these tunnels.

After spending our morning around tourists, we happily accompanied our driver Tin to his brother-in-law’s home for a typical Vietnamese lunch! We were happy to see that they had 2 dogs as pets so likely the meal was not going to consist of any dog meat, ha ha. Lunch was delicious spring rolls that you make individually at the table out of rice paper dipped in water first to soften. Then quickly throwing in rice noodles, cucumber, lettuce, various fresh herbs and pork, etc. before the rice paper turns into a sticky mess resembling a crumple of saran wrap that is nearly impossible to pull apart and then proficiently form into a roll that you can eat without a fork. I found the task of making the rolls provided for a few seconds of slightly less awkward silence, which was nice. I was even told that my chopstick skills were “pretty good”. Did they mean “pretty good” for a foreigner or “pretty good” for a chopsticks user? It may take me another 10 or so years to learn the language well enough to carry on a semi-normal/slang/rambling conversation at the table with mouths full. Then maybe another 10 to figure out just what they are really saying about my faux pas and silly American ways of picking out bones and other delicacies prior to putting the meat into my mouth or my clumsy, fumbling formation of a simple rice paper roll. My incentives for learning Vietnamese increase on a daily basis…