Vietnam Part One

Oh Vietnam.  I have so much to say about you but not sure where to start or how to organize it.  I had such a love-hate experience, although probably a little more love now that I look back on it.  I must admit you were pretty much the most foreign place I had ever been to (despite Guatemala) and yet you managed to make me feel at home (which oddly enough, Guatemala did too).

I guess I'll just do one of those boring day by days, if I can recall what we did day by day.  I'll have to get to adding and sorting the pictures soon.

The first day was a long one as it was mostly just travel.  We went to Tsuyama by car and then Osaka by bus.  We went to the airport by train and then to Tokyo by plane.  Finally we boarded the flight to Vietnam at about 5 or 6 pm.  I don't know why, but I never assumed that we would get movies on the flight to Vietnam.  I guess because I am used to just flying to Korea which is a quick flight.  Not only did we get movies, but we got fairly new ones (well, new for Japan).  I watched The Descendants with George Clooney about a guy whose wife is in a coma.  This was a great movie and at the same time quite a draining movie as it made me think about my family and losing my mom.  I bawled pretty much through out the whole film, which must have been a little disturbing to the people sitting around me.

We got to Vietnam and right away noticed the heat.  We had been having light snow in Japan but Vietnam was definitely shorts weather.  We sat forever trying to get through the Visa process, though it was pretty simple.  Fill out a form and pay money.  We then went outside to quite a large crowd of people waiting.  If it had just been me I think I would have been at a loss for what to do, but luckily I was with Kym, a Vietnamese-Australian, and Amy, a Vietnamese-American.  Kym took no time in spotting her aunt and her cousin.  We went over to them and they greeted us in both English (the cousin, an university student) and Vietnamese (the aunt, a shop clerk).  We got loaded in a taxi and headed off to our hotel.

I was quite impressed with the cousin's English and more impressed with her boyfriend's English.  Not only did they know difficult words, but they also knew a lot of slang and idioms.  They were very informative as we were whipped through the streets of Ho Chi Minh.

I don't know if I can accurately describe the streets of Vietnam.  There are few traffic lights and though I am told that there are laws, no one seems to follow them.  You see cars driving side by side in one lanes and everywhere are motorbikes darting back and forth.  Seriously, for every car there are probably 20 bikes, and there are a lot of cars.  Instead of signalling most people seem to honk and so there is a constant noise to accompany the constant blur of traffic.  I felt ok because we were in a large taxi, but I know I would never be able to drive there.

We made it to our hotel and got checked into quite a big room.  Because Vietnam is so cheap we were staying at 4 and 5 star hotels.

Kym's relatives offered dinner but we were full from the train and pretty tired.  There is only a two hour time difference between Japan and Vietnam, but waking up at five was leaving us all a bit jet-lagged.