I apologize for the lateness, but I guess I'll make up for it with an extra long post.. and TWO collages!

I woke up to my mom asking me where the camera was at 500.  The sunrise looked really nice outside, and she wanted to take some pictures.  It did look quite beautiful over the ocean with a nice orange color, and for once, she actually took a decent picture of it.  You can see it in the collage picture.

This was a pretty massive day filled with lots of events.  The entire family gathered in the lobby at 630 sharp, and we walked into the bus to head to Doc Let Resort.  I’m still amazed at how a group of 21 people, half of the percentage being children, and some percentage senior citizens can wake up and be ready by a certain time without being late.  It may be part discipline with my family, but it’s also due to the fact that many of them wake up early by default.  Most of them wake up at around 530 to 600 normally, and have breakfast at around 700.  Lunchtime is 1030 to 1100.  So the schedules for them are a back a few hours compared to us.  When it comes to events here, we’re generally the ones who they have to wait on, but it’s just a couple of minutes.  

The Doc Let Resort was another substantial three hour drive, hence the early startup.  The resort was equipped with several tennis courts, renting services, swimming pools.  The Doc Let Beach also was claimed to be one of the best in the nearby area, and when we arrived we headed straight there.  It was quite a nice place, and there weren’t too many people there as usual since it was fairly early in the morning.  The pathways were lined with palm trees and large huts.  We rented out a hut, changed into our swimsuits, and quickly ran to the water.  The weather was perfect at that time, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.  The beach area we played at was empty, and so we had complete access over it.  The sand was a lot smoother and cleaner (and hotter) than the sand from the other two beaches, and the water was the clearest of them all.  The water at this beach probably rivaled that of the beach I went to in the Bahamas.  It was a nice aqua blue color, and the water was as clear as that of a regular chlorine pool.  In fact, I could actually see small schools of fish swim away from me on occasion.  I had goggles on, and swam underwater to explore the ocean floor, but when water leaked in and entered my eyes, the sting wasn’t bad at all.  

I discovered that a lot of people couldn’t actually swim, particularly the women, but it wasn’t too much of a problem since the water was shallow.  This beach was interesting too since you could actually go quite a distance before actually reaching deep water.  In addition, the children who couldn’t swim had flotation devices, and they paddled their way around.  We enjoyed the water for about an hour and a half, and then headed inside to eat lunch.  

There were actually two areas to the Doc Let Resort that you could rent.  You could either rent out an umbrella and beach chair in a specific area for a cheap amount, or you could rent a large hut in another area with several chairs and table for a bit more.  There was just one big distinction between the areas.  Think about it in an advertising standpoint: with or without ads.  Yup, that meant either dealing with the feisty vendors who shove their products in your face, or nothing.  We chose the latter, but unfortunately for lunch, we had to enter that “ad-filled” area to eat.  As we ate, the pesky vendors slowly surrounded us, and continuously asked us questions like, “Would you like a drink with that?” or “Have enough rice to eat?  I also sell bun bo hue!”  The topic of conversation also progressively steered over to discussing my back as well.  Due to the saltwater, my back was a bright red and filled with small dots and lumps throughout, and the vendors questioned if I got bit by insects or something.  I forgot about how perceptive and nosy Vietnamese people can be.  Family over here don’t really gossip too much, unlike some people (by that I’m slightly hinting at a particular senior citizen who likes to gossip about people hehe).

Did I mention my showering and bathroom experiences over here?  I think I mentioned the showering part.  I’ve definitely had my fair share of bad restrooms and areas here.  Places with showers that barely run any water, filled with mosquitoes.  Or restrooms that definitely don’t pass sanitary regulations, with the overwhelming smell of urinal tablets and other fecal matter, mold, rust, cracked tiles, holes on the ground instead of toilets, toilet paper soaked with water, no toilet paper, flies, etc., etc.  It’s a wonder that I was even able to use the restroom every couple of days, and not kneel over from some septic poisoning or kidney stone or whatnot due to my body saying, “Ain’t nobody got time for dat” to unclean and unsafe restrooms.  I digress.

How did I go from lunch to restrooms?  Oh yes.  After lunch, we showered up, and headed back into the bus to head back to Nha Trang.  That was only half of the day, but the best was yet to come.  Our second major event was to Nha Trang’s largest attraction, the VinPearl Amusement Park.  With a large waterpark, an all-free arcade, 4D cinema theater, rollercoaster rides, aquarium, various shows, and more, the park itself was situated on its own island.  In order to get there, we had to take a ski tram-like system, which was pretty cool.  Luckily, the amusement park was only a fifteen minute drive away, so we didn’t have to wait long.

Unlike the High Finance Ski Tram system in Albuquerque, this system was continuously running, and constantly had three to four trams ready in the terminal.  The trams fit about eight people total, and moved fairly quickly.  I got onto a tram with some of my cousins, and they yelped in fear when the tram started accelerating to its destination.  The view was awesome up there, as the tram went up over a major body of water, showing their entire Nha Trang area to us.  There were tall skyscrapers in the distance, and small houses and boats below.  Definitely a view that you wouldn’t find anywhere else.  Despite the tram being decently quick, the trip to the island ended up to be about ten minutes long.  Throughout the entire duration, I snapped a lot of photos of the scenery and of my cousins siting over the nice view.  As we neared our final destination, the amusement park came into view, equipped with rollercoasters, rides, and people.  Luckily, the population within the park didn’t seem too bad, as it wasn’t as crowded as places like Disneyland or anything.  I guess that’s an advantage for having a park located on a remote island, as with only a tram or ferry system for transportation, the flow of people entering the park is slower.  We reached the end of the tram, hopped off, and waited for the rest of the family to arrive.  

It was quite a big amusement park indeed, and we didn’t even have enough time to explore all of it.  By the time we arrived it was nearly 1500, so we only had six hours to look and play around before closing.  To begin, we started with a family group picture in front of the VinPearl entrance.  It had a nice background, with a green mountain behind us, and large letters spelled out “Vinpearl” on the mountain.  Then, we quickly went to the waterpark.  The waterpark closed at 1800, so we decided to visit it first.  Much of the park looked like any regular amusement park, with a whole line of stores down certain pathways, and little souvenir shops to buy random things.  There were also lots of places to eat, but they seemed to be only fast food, and by fast food I mean American.  Interesting.  The waterpark was fairly crowded at the entrance when we arrived.  The people who weren’t swimming (most of the adults and kids who couldn’t swim) found a shaded bench and put all of the belongings down, while the people swimming ran into the shower rooms to get changed.  As I entered the shower room, I once again heard a mixture of both Vietnamese and Russian being spoken, as people showered and changed in the vast hallway of stalls.  After changing, we proceeded to the waterslides.
Holding foam boards to slide on, we went up the stairs to the colorful six-lane waterslide, which was a progressive slope to the bottom.  One of my cousins Titi (I don’t know how to spell her name), who can’t swim, mustered up the courage to come with us, seeing that the bottom of the slide didn’t have too much water.  The stairs were very poorly engineered, as instead of having flat concrete ground for us to walk on, it was created with a gridded steel.  The stairs left an imprint on our bare feet, and it was almost like walking on those stone massage rugs.  Unfortunately, when we made it to the top, we were greeted by a worker, who stated that two of my cousins couldn’t come on the slide because they were wearing jeans.  They were actually wearing shorts with jean material, and I guess that wasn’t allowed, despite the fact that we were using boards to slide on.  One of my cousins had a swimsuit under her shorts, so she was fine, but my second cousin had no alternative.  My sister Lien went and saved the day though when she offered her own shorts, since she too had a swimsuit underneath.  We brought her over to a corner, and covered her with the sliding boards as she quickly changed into Lien’s shorts.  Quite the workaround I suppose.

The slide was real fun, as the slope got increasingly longer the more we descended to the bottom.  We ended up going on the slide a second time before taking a break and heading into the lazy river.  I forgot to mention that the group I was with consisted of my sister, and my three cousins, Nokia (again his nickname, and he was the only boy besides me), Phuong Hoang (Nhi), Titi, and Cam Hong.  In the lazy river we created a massive chain “motorboat” in the water using the tire floats.  We all laughed as we floated down the river, and pretty much blocked anyone from going past us due to our chain’s size.  The river didn’t wrap around in a circle, and after about ten minutes of floating we exited at the end.  We then picked up some more tire floats, and made our way to the wave pool.  We attempted to make a chain again by holding hands in the pool, but the waves were too strong for us to continue after a couple minutes.  The chain was also difficult to maintain since there were many people in the area, and we didn’t want to hit anyone.  My cousin Titi screamed as the waves nearly made her flip over, and she clutched onto the tire float for dear life.  We kept a close eye on her so that nothing happened.  Dad found us after a bit, and recorded us splashing around in the waves with his underwater action camera. 

To complete our waterpark experience, and there were many other rides we didn’t go on, we decided to go down another waterslide that had a steep slope to it.  The slope then went back up, and made almost a ramp over the top.  Unfortunately, we were unable to go on the slide because our cumulative weight was not enough for the slide.  We instead went on the slide next to it, which was a constant slant downwards.  The slide was extremely fast, but since the slide was a two-seater, it didn’t seem so bad at all.  By the time we finished, the waterpark was beginning to close, and we quickly changed out of our swimsuits to meet with our family, and proceed to the next destination.
We stopped by a fast food café since all of us were hungry, and looked at a massive isgn that had all of the entrees.  I went and decided to try the ol’ hamburger with fries, just to see how it differentiated with America.  While I waited for the food to come, I took pictures of the beautiful landscape that the café was next to.  The eating area was right beside the large ocean-like body of water, and you could see the tramline going across to Nha Trang.  My cousins joined me on my picture taking, and took selfies along the view.  I’m friends with some of them on Facebook by the way.  

At last, the food arrived, and my uncle seemed frustrated.  He told us that the sign we looked at to buy food actually had the old prices, and the new ones were much more expensive.  He scolded the workers there for not having a sign that was correct, and it seemed to have spread to the nearby people, who also got angry at the employees.  He was able to lower the price down a bit, and also got free drinks for all of us.  In Vietnam, you can bargain on almost any item, and have the price lowered a bit to make it more reasonable.  Exceptions only go to actual shopping stores like Walgreens/mall equivalents, or when vendors specifically say they have a fixed price.  Even then you can still try to bargain though.  

As I suspected, the hamburger was not really a true hamburger.  Imagine soy-sauce seasoned meatloaf that’s slightly grilled placed into a bun.  That’s essentially what it is.  I suppose the French fries were fine, as you really can’t mess up French fries. 
 
After dinner, we made our way to a large amphitheater to catch a light show.  The theater was extremely large, and looked to fit at least a thousand people.  When the show started, we were greeted by a projected cartoon on the screen, who spoke of Vietnam’s great accomplishments and ability to thrive and succeed in the world.  To be honest, it sounded like this North Korean narrator that I listened to in a documentary.  The cartoon had a strange English accent.  The show was accompanied by large illuminated spouts of water that spewed in an eloquent sequence.  About a minute into the show, fire shot from the stage, followed by a massive roar from the crowd.  I readied myself for an intense show, but I was wrong.  The next fifteen minutes were filled with the same shenanigans, and it started to actually get old.  To make it worse, the songs that the fountains synced to were old time patriotic Russian songs, like Dmitri’s Dream or Romanov’s Symphony No. 5 (or something).  It was just a repetitive show overall, and we decided to leave early, along with many others who followed. 
For the rest of the night we toured the attractions of the park, and rode on as many rides as we could.  Some of the adults went on the bumper car ride, and we had a lot of fun smashing into each other.  We also went to a typical 4D cinema, and everyone had fun experiencing the water, wind, and special effects.  Despite not being able to go on the fabled Alpine Coaster, which was a massive rollercoaster that required manual steering, as well as probably 50% of the rest of the park, I still had a lot of fun with the family.  They definitely had an awesome time as well.    

We left the amusement park at 2130, and the line to take the tram down had shrunk.  When we came by around two hours earlier, hundreds of people were present at the line.  The support beams of the tram, modeling the appearance of Eiffel Towers, illuminated in a bright white in the dark, and looked quite nice on the way back.  Besides that, the water and land below us was a pitch black, and I sat quietly and relaxed in a dim light as we returned to the Nha Trang area.

Upon arriving at the hotel, I said my goodbyes to the family, and quickly headed up to the room to lie down.  About an hour later, two of my cousins entered, and gave me some snacks to eat.  The night ended with me munching on choco-pies and shrimp chips while watching Star Trek: Into the Darkness…  

This was probably the most eventful day of all, and tomorrow we would be leaving Nha Trang, and heading back to Ho Chi Minh City on a strenuous 15-hour drive.  Although I only stayed a few nights in Nha Trang, I had a great time, and wouldn’t mind coming back to explore some more.  Vietnam really changed in my mind, and what I originally imagined was not like what was present in reality.  Although the country lacks the cleanliness of Japan or Singapore, or the technological prowess of South Korea, there’s a certain culture and style to Vietnam that you can never find in the States or anywhere else for that matter.  It’s a place that truly shows the colors and life of Asia, and we haven’t even explored it all.  Well, that’s all for Day 13.  I apologize for the late posts, and I will try to get them done in a timely manner.  Live long and prosper, connect the dots, and until next time.    

 Only staying a day in Mui Ne, we woke up early, packed our bags, and headed once again into the bus.  Compared to yesterday’s overcast outlook, the weather was nice and sunny.  It’s generally bright and clear in the morning, and then in the afternoon the clouds starting coming in and it becomes overcast.  There’s also a very high chance of rain too, and when it rains, it pours.  It’s not recommended to go outside at this time, since the rain is almost like acid due to all the pollution. 

This time, we had a larger bus to carry all of us, with a hallway for walking, and about 36 seats total with reclining chairs.  This type of transportation should be sufficient for the additional eight hours that we would have to endure to get to Nha Trang.  Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case.  Immediately upon driving, the bus shook with an endless rumble.  The suspension on the vehicle must’ve been destroyed, since it didn’t seem to absorb any kind of shock at all from the road.  To top it all off, the bus driver seemed really inexperienced.  Besides going down the main freeway, he didn’t know where anything was.  He was unable to show us anything along the way, like markets or special stops, AND he drove extremely slowly.  We were probably driving an average of 30 to 35 miles per hour the entire time.  

Before heading out, we stopped at some sand dunes near the resort.  It was pretty much like White Sands National Monument except the sand was more of a tan color.  Boy was that an experience.  Right as we got off the bus and crossed the street, we were surrounded by five kids who offered their services to us, shoving plastic boards in our faces to use for sliding down the sand.  This was obviously the main attraction, and the business was cutthroat.  As we slowly made our way up the steep sand dune, we attracted even more people with plastic boards.  By the time we made it to the top, I believe there were about thirteen people following us.  These people belonged to four to five different “businesses” in the area.

I didn’t tell this to anyone yet, but I think I was the impetus for a large fight that erupted after we made it to the top, though it’s not a guarantee.  To clarify, I originally thought that the plastic boards were just for renting out.  We would buy a board and use it to slide down the dunes, and when we’re done, we would return it to the person.  However, in reality when you buy the board, you are ushered over to a specific sliding area, where they prepare the board for you, have you sit down, and then push you down the hill.  

In utter confusion from having multiple boards being shoved in my face, I finally took a board.  Right as I took it, my aunt shoved me over to another spot to slide down, and I dropped the board on the ground.  Well the girl who I took the board from didn’t like it, and in a rage she yelled at my aunt saying something like, “What’s your problem?  He bought from me already!”  I suppose holding onto a board means that you’re forced to buy their service.  

To be frank, the aunt that the enraged girl spoke to doesn’t take crap from anyone (for the lack of a better word at the moment).  In fact, none of my family members here do.  They’re not afraid to cause a scene in public when people try to mess with them.  So the fight erupted between my aunt and the business she bought from versus the other business.  In all the pandemonium, I slowly walked through the crowd, sat on a plastic board, and slid down the hill.  To conclude, business is rough here, and I understand that.  People need to make a living to survive, and they will fight for their money.  My aunt won the fight in the end, but yeah, it's rough.

After that short excursion, we prepared ourselves for the eight hour journey down to Nha Trang, and once again, went into the bus.  I don’t have much to describe in terms of my experience on the bus, other than that it was extremely bumpy.  Oh yes, and the Paris by Night music was real.

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I was greeted with the ocean when I awoke, and I knew we were in Nha Trang.  The sight of the ocean was also accompanied by car and bike horns, so yep, we were indeed there.  We stopped at the Golden Lotus Hotel, a hotel located close to the beach, and rested for half an hour before heading down into the water.  The hotel room was better than the room in Mui Ne, and was equipped with a shower with a shower area.  Well, we actually upgraded rooms.  Our first room was fairly small, and had a window with a beautiful view of some bricks.  Our second room was much larger, and had a balcony that extended over the street and ocean.  Quite nice indeed.  

I forgot to mention the demographics of the Vietnam area.  There are only two people who inhabit the area of Nha Trang:  Vietnamese and Russians.  Nha Trang must be a major tourist hub for Russians, as compared to Ho Chi Minh City, every other business sign had a Russian translation.  In our room, the instructions to use the safe were in Russian.  

Compared to the beach in Mui Ne, this one was quite crowded, but the water was clearer.  I was finally confident enough to dip my head into the water, and having my goggles now, swimming in the ocean was nice.  We played around in the ocean a bit until some storm clouds moved in, and then we went to some rice with beef for dinner.  So many nice looking restaurants to go to, and when we asked our bus driver to find a place, he simply chose a random, secluded restaurant that was easy to park at.  That restaurant had decent food I suppose, but it took almost half an hour to get all of the food out.

After dinner, we ended our events for the day by stopping at an outdoor market filled with various items.  It was very crowded, and we had to push our way just to get to certain vendors.  As usual though, most of the items were just plastic souvenirs, or Vietnam T-shirts that I had many of, so nothing interested me.  There was only one place that seemed intriguing, and my mom and dad ended up buying some Vietnam themed paintings on polished wood.  

That essentially concludes Day 12.  As I’m writing this, I’m actually on Day 15 right now, since the previous days were filled with so many events.  I thought it would be easy to write blog entries during my free time, but resting on a nice bed with air conditioning after a long day in warm, humid weather is too much.  I shall try to post the rest of the days before I return to Albuquerque.  The entries for Day 15 to 17 will be very short too.  Well, Day 13 is a big day, and probably the day with the largest events overall.  I’ll try to keep it fairly concise.  Until next time.

UPDATE: I've been slightly behind on my blog posts as you can see, since we've been doing events back to back, and I've been too tired afterwards to write the entries.  Now that we've returned from Nha Trang and are back in Ho Chi Minh City, I will try to post up multiple entries a day to catch up.  Sorry for the inconvenience! 

Our journey begins inside of a bus.

There’s one major difference to vacation here in Vietnam to vacation in the US.  In Vietnam, we generally begin all of our events at around 800.  Usually, we don’t get out of the house until 1200 in the US.  My cousins in California wake up extremely late, but in Vietnam, everyone seems to wake up at 630 or earlier.  

We met at the house at 600, and everyone was there, ready and waiting for us.  We went onto the bus and began our adventure down to Mui Ne.  This would be a six hour trek, so it was fairly long for my relatives.  The bus was also not the correct model of bus, as it was actually decently small.  There were four seats to eat row, but there was no hallway area to walk in, making it small in width.
We stopped every couple of hours at restaurants, and I snapped a couple of pictures as we ate.  Once again, the price for dishes here is extremely cheap.  I was able to get a bowl of bun bo hue for only $1.50.  For the rest of the long excursion to Mui Ne, most of my family members slept, and admired the scenery around us.  I’m really starting to notice how much harder life is over here.  People have to really work hard to make a living, and many of them don’t even make minimum wage every day.  On top of that, the conditions are also a lot different.  Despite hot weather, not everyone has the luxury of having air conditioning cool their homes.  In America as a child, I dreaded the days of going to grandparents’ house, since the days spent there were filled with watching TV, and eating Fritos while sweating in a warm room.  Well I finally discovered that it’s a lot better off than living in Vietnam. 
We arrived at our destination at about 1500, at a hotel resort called Hon Rom.  We headed off to our rooms and quickly changed into our swimsuits so that we could play in the beach.  

The sand was nice and white, and the water was decently warm.  Since we were within the property of the resort, only people who stayed there went to the beach, and there wasn’t crowded at all.  We splashed around in the water for a bit, and then proceeded to find seashells and hermit crabs in the sand.  Given my terrible vision and all, I was only able to find any hermit crabs, but my cousins were able to find four hermit crabs in total.  We put them into a cup, and carried them to a nearby place where we were going to eat.  

Near the beach, there was a plaza area with plastic tables and chairs for relaxing.  The family gathered there, and we ate various types of seafood: sea snails, clams, mussels, crabs.  The food was actually sold in its live form right within the plaza, as the animals were displayed in large bowls filled with water.  Talk about fresh!  After the small snack break, we stopped by a souvenir shop in the resort and bought some small toys, keychains, and life vests.  We played in the beach some more until it was dinner time, where we showered up and ate some chao.  

Showering was quite a fun time.  I don’t know if this is normal in Vietnam, but I suppose this relates to having luxuries in America, and not having them in Vietnam.  The restroom was equipped with a toilet and a sink, as well as a showerhead.  There was no “shower area” though, or bathtub that you would enter.  The bathroom itself was the shower area.  A small knob below the shower head turned the water on and off.  As I suspected, the water was cold.  On top of that, while I was showering, I even ran out of water, so washing up ended early.  Overall, I just thought it was an interesting experience.  

That essentially concludes Day 11.  I fell asleep right after dinner at about 2000, and don’t know if anything happened while I was sleeping.  Anyway, tomorrow we’ll be heading out of Mui Ne, and to Nha Trang.  Until next time!

UPDATE 7/1/2014:  I've been a little behind on the blog posts due to the lack of WiFi, and because we just arrived in Nha Trang.  I finally have reliable WiFi access, so I will try to post up Day 11 and 12 by tomorrow.  As a quick update, my mosquito bite has been fully recovered, and all of my sicknesses have been removed.  I put some Than Ky on it, a magical ointment created by my great grandpa, to treat the bite, and it has since disappeared.  Thank you to everyone who was concerned about me.  I appreciate your constant email responses to my blog posts!  :)

Greetings.

I'm back again for another two day blog post, since the past two days have also been quite small in terms of events.  I will also be making this post decently short since I must get some sleep for tomorrow's big trip.  We'll be heading down to Mui Ne at 600 tomorrow morning, and it's a six hour bus drive down there, so I must prepare.


For Day 9, our destination was back out to the countryside, and we visited even more relatives in Long An, another area that was about an hour drive from Ho Chi Minh City.  Skipping breakfast this time, we went onto the Mercedes van to begin our journey over there.  Our primary reason for visiting Long An was to pay our respects to my grandpa, who had just passed away last year.  We were celebrating his anniversary of passing away by heading over there.  

I’m starting to get used to the scenery, but I still haven’t gotten used to the motorbikes, and the massive amount of them.  I think that’s a distinguishing feature of countries in Southeast Asia.  You really don’t see traffic like this anywhere else in the world, and that’s pretty cool.  Though as a foreigner, you have to leave the driving to the professionals, or at least the people who live there.  There’s way too high of a risk of crashing due to inexperience if you were to attempt anything here.  Another distinguishing feature of Vietnam are the high amount of businesses across the area.  You can literally find anything you need and want within a one mile radius in Ho Chi Minh City, and at a decently cheap price as well.  Most dishes only cost about two to three US dollars, so paying for large feasts with many family members isn’t as much of a problem.  And this business abundance isn’t just in Ho Chi Minh City.  Literally wherever you are, even if it looks like you’re in the middle of nowhere, there are still little huts and shacks that sell food and other items.  It is nearly impossible to run out of things to do and see here.  Another thing I’ve noticed in Vietnam are that there are lots of people that you can hire to accomplish certain tasks.  At the house we stay at, they’ve hired a person to care for the children, cook for the family, and clean.  There are also other instances like hiring people who specialize in hosting and feeding people for large parties, or people who can drive you to any location.  I probably didn’t mention the taxis, which are present throughout Ho Chi Minh City, and can be called within a moment’s notice.  Services like these are available in America, but I don’t see these services being utilized as often.  There’s a bunch of other little things I’ve noticed in Vietnam, things that differ from the norm in America, but I digress.
 
When we arrived in Long An at the house, we were once again greeted with many family members, and I was escorted to an upstairs room with air conditioning, where the other children were hanging out.  I awkwardly entered, sat down, and saw people around my age or a little older.  

There’s one disadvantage with not having the best communication skills in Vietnam.  You can understand what they’re saying, and you can reply somewhat without creating an awkward situation, but you can’t really continue on with any meaningful conversation.  It really makes you feel less intelligent, and you can’t do much about it.  Thus, I actually prefer talking to those younger than me.  People my age talk conversationally with a higher vocabulary than I understand, so I can’t really reply or anything.  Yeah, it is a slightly unfortunate fate.  On the other hand, they can’t understand what I’m saying in English.  Even when I’m speaking a basic sentence like, “Baby, how you like the food,” I sometimes hear others saying, “Can you understand what they’re saying?” with replies like, “Nope.  I hear gibberish.”

For lunch we had the usual excessive amount of food: noodles, hot pot, meat, vegetables, eggrolls, chao, seafood, and more.  I seriously wonder what happens to the leftovers, because I’m guessing there’s a lot of it after big parties like these.  Afterward, we explored the market that was right next to the house.  It was a general seafood market, with lots of fish, assorted seafood, and dried items.  To the side there was also fruit, vegetables, and one place that looked to sell some kind of jelly.  I took a picture of the jelly since there were lots of bees flying around and landing on it.  Such sanitary.  After our short journey, we head back to the house and I sat in the upstairs room to cool down until we had to leave.   
  
My dad and other relatives dropped us off at the hotel, and proceeded to visit a temple to pray for my grandfather.  Before leaving, a saw a jar of his ashes, and a picture of my grandfather being held by Bac Son.  I snapped a picture, which you can see in the collage.  For the rest of the evening, we simply ate dinner and relaxed at the house.  Many family members came by to visit, and we ate, once again, a large amount of food.  Good thing my metabolism rate is off the charts, so I’m fine.  Still a good 50kg (the conversion is real).  Anyway, that concluded Day 9.  Let’s move on to Day 10 now, shall we?

Day 10 was filled with even less events, and comprised of one thing.  Eating.  We didn’t have anything planned for this day, as we were heading off to another location the next day.  This day was simply for relaxing.

In the morning to begin our events, we went and visited yet another family member.  This time, however, it was someone from my mom’s side of the family.  We stopped at the house of my grandpa’s sister, and caught up on things.  The house was located within Ho Chi Minh City, and it took a bit of time locating it since it was hidden in several alleyways. 

We were able to meet her, as well as her children, and their children (never quite noticed until now that there were three generations in the house).  She was around my grandpa’s age, and she had a bandage wrapped around her knee.  It was evident that the knee was giving her trouble since it took her awhile to get up from her bed.  We talked for about an hour, and exchanged phone numbers and Skype usernames so we could contact each other again.  Skype is a decently popular application used in Vietnam for communication, and is downloaded on many mobile devices and computers.  Another application that they use is one called Viber, where international calling is free across people who use it.  

After the meet, it was around 1100, and we met up with the family for lunch.  We piled into the van and headed for a restaurant.  This one was fairly nice, and looked a little more like a regular restaurant in the US, with a Vietnam theme to it.  There was practically every Vietnamese dish you could imagine there.  They had the whole shebang, and we ordered the whole shebang.  I shall list all of the entrees we ate that day, and I probably won’t even list them all.  Banh bao, banh xeo, bun bo hue, chao ca, chao ga, eggrolls, spring rolls, bun rieu.  So we pretty much had a nine course meal for breakfast.  It was quite nice indeed.

After lunch we rested in the hotel for a couple of hours, and pretty much had free time until dinner.  Mom and I decided to head over to the An Dong shopping center again to take a look at all of the “high quality” goods again.  The shopping center was actually fairly large, and had four floors that you could go to.  We were overwhelmed by the high amount of shirts, and even more overwhelmed when we stopped to take a look at a product.  Whenever we stopped and examined something, we were immediately surrounded by three to four people, and they asked us if we wanted anything specific.  It’s a pretty intimidating experience actually, which is why I avoid touching anything or making eye contact with an item, because they’ll hand that item to you and make you feel obligated to buy it.  

We toured around the place for nearly an hour and a half, but we ended up buying nothing.  The clothing there was fine, but it wasn’t really of high quality at all.  They all came from large plastic bags with Vietnamese and Chinese writing on them, so already that’s a warning sign that the items are exports from some shady place.  It’s wearable, but you can see that the stitching is messy, or the material isn’t great, so you’ll see that it won’t last long.  There are items with brand names on them, but it’s obvious that they don’t actually belong to the real manufacturer.  It simply looks like they’ve sewn a logo onto a cheap looking shirt.  Some of the shirts have tags from different brands too.  To top it all off, the clothing wasn’t exactly cheap by any means, as it cost almost 60 US dollars for a cheap-looking dress from China.  We concluded the shopping session by stopping at a store that sold different candies.  Mom bought several types of candies (I think it’s called keo me) that had different distinctive tastes.  Some were sweet, and some had some a spicy aftertaste to them.  We got the candies and then headed back to the hotel.  The hotel was only a street away, and I had gotten used to crossing in the city, so it was fine.

For our last event, we ate dinner at a restaurant that specialized in making Mi Vit Thim (duck soup if I spelled that correctly).  This was the first time we ate at a roadside restaurant, as we ate outside on small tables.  Luckily there were coverings above us, because it was raining as we were eating.
I never thought I’d miss this, but I actually miss the fact that Sriracha and Hoisin sauce don’t exist here.  You’d think that since these two items are used so much in pretty much all Asian restaurants in the US, and the fact that there’s Vietnamese written on the labels, it would exist in Vietnam.  Well, nope.  That is not the case.  Nonetheless, the Mi Vit Thim was decent, and that pretty much concluded our day for Day 10.

Tomorrow we’ll be heading over to Muy Ne, so I may or may not have internet access for a couple of days, depending on the situation.  Afterward, we’re going to Nha Trang.  So I will be heading out now.  Until next time!
 

I apologize for the slight delay in posting Day 7, so I will combine both Day 7 and 8 into one post just to make it easier.  Additionally, both of these days are relevant to each other, so it works.  As a sidenote before I begin, I didn't really have many pics of Day 7 to post, so as you can see from the collage picture, it's comprised mainly of family photos, since I don't have too many of them in my previous ones.  I will try to add pics of me and family in my future collages besides the scenery.

Day 7 was our first day of relaxation in Ho Chi Minh City, with no specific events planned.  I woke up fairly late at 830, and decided to stay in the hotel room until about 1000, skipping breakfast.  Sometimes just relaxing and not doing anything is good, and better than moving around.  My arm was still bothering me that day, and I started to have periodic waves of fever-like symptoms accompanied by sweating.  Walking around Ho Chi Minh City, or anywhere in Vietnam so far, actually takes quite a toll on the immune system.  There's dust and smoke in the air constantly, and an extremely high amount of people who smoke cigarettes.  Such a combination is not healthy at all, especially for someone like me who has asthma.  I'm not sure if it's from the mosquito bite, the pollution, or some other factor, but I seem to have also caught a small cough.  I'm going to just take some Vitamin C until it gets better.  In addition, you still have to watch the food, and make sure that it's safe to eat.  Most foods cooked by family are safe, as most of my aunts and uncles know that we're from America, so they make sure to clean all their ingredients well.  Restaurants seem to be fine too for the most part, and it's a plus when you can see your food being prepared in front of you.  However, eating food from roadside vendors, who don't cook food well enough, or wrap their food in newspapers when selling it, is a small hazard for foreigners like me.  Overall, sanitary-wise, much of the normal, "non-tourist" oriented aspects of Vietnam are far less clean than that of America.  Back to the main point, there is a price for seeing new places I guess.

At 1030 my aunt, followed by her two kids, came to pick us up, and they had already bought tickets to see "Transformers 4" in 3D.  The movie had just released that day (one day ahead of the US for some reason).  We picked up my mom who decided to come with us, and we took a taxi over to the mall where the theater was.  This was the same mall where we viewed "How to Train Your Dragon 2", so it wasn't a new sight, but we decided to explore the department store section of the seven floor mall before we watched the movie.

Although it was a weekday, there was still practically no one inside of the mall, and I could understand why.  This mall sold all of the brand-name items, and as I mentioned before in a previous post, they really like to overprice brand name things.  We viewed some Lacoste shirts and found them to be over 100 US dollars, much higher than what you could find in America.  There's one thing to know when going to Vietnam.  If you want brand name clothing, don't buy it from a mall.  Go to a public market or a street shop.  It's generally cheaper there (as I shall be writing on Day 8 hehe).  Without buying anything, we proceeded to Floor 8.

The movie theater was very clean.  I mean no popcorn or any trash on the ground.  We bought some popcorn, and while waiting for the movie to start, we sat in the lobby and attempted to catch popcorn in the air with our mouths.  Some kernels fell on the tile ground floor, and immediately, a janitor came by and sweeped it up.  It was then when I told my sister and cousins to stop playing, since I assumed they wanted the theater to stay in its pristine state.  If I forgot to mention earlier, movies work a little bit differently than others.  Here, when you pre-order your tickets, you are assigned to a seat, and are escorted to your seat when you enter the movie.  Secondly, there are several options of movie.  You can either watch it in English with Vietnamese subtitles, or watch it in Vietnamese.  Lastly, there is the usual 2D and 3D option, but there is also a 4D option, where the seats shake and water sprays at you during action scenes, explosions, etc.

The movie was pretty cool, and my cousins liked it.  Transformers movies are extremely action-packed, and this one wasn't any different.  The main characters lived in Texas, and in the beginning scene of the movie, it shows one of the characters (age 17) getting a rejection letter from UT Austin in the mail (sad day indeed).  I told my cousin that and he just laughed.  The only cons were that the high amount of explosions combined with 3D sort of gave me a headache, and it made my mom nauseous.  I definitely prefer 2D better.  Also, the movie was two and a half hours long, and we exited the movie at 1630.  That's why I don't watch movies very much.  I feel like I waste so much time afterwards.  At least at home I can multitask or something.  But hey, it's not everyday that you can watch a movie in theaters before it even comes out in the US.

As short as that day sounded, that essentially sums up Day 7.  I'm just going to skip the relaxing at the house part, since it's a daily event that doesn't really change much.
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DAY 8
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Now on to Day 8, which is actually relatively short in summary as well.  I shall do just that since it is 1am in the morning.

We ate breakfast at a hu tiu restaurant, a different one from last time.  Unfortunately, the food wasn't that great.  My uncle said the place used to be well-known, but he now knew that wasn't the case.  Bac son (other uncle), shamed the place for having the worst Vietnamese coffee he's ever had in awhile.  When we returned to the house, he went off to buy some decent Vietnamese coffee, and distributed drinks out so the people who had to experience the embarrassment of coffee at the restaurant could clean their palettes.

Afterwards we took a taxi, and drove around Ho Chi Minh City to find the locations of the schools my relatives (mom, aunt, and uncle) used to go to.  You can see some of the pictures in Day 8's collage picture.  Our first stop wasn't actually a school of my relatives, but it was a well-known school called Marie Curie High School.  Although we only viewed the front entrance, it looked like a nice school.  My uncle talked to the administrator at the front, and said that the place hadn't changed since the Communists took over since the school was so known.  We took some pictures and continued.

Our next stop was the location of my mom's school, called Regina Mundi (the full name is longer I believe).  It was a French (Catholic?) school, and according to Mom, used to be fairly large, occupying the entire block.  Unfortunately, that wasn't the case anymore.  The school itself was drastically reduced in size and turned into space for businesses, and the school was also changed to a public school called Nguyen Thi Ngoc Gam.  The only sector that was untouched was a Catholic part where a church resided.  We visited the area and took some photos.

Our third and final school stop was to a school that my uncles, Bac Khoa (mom's side from California) and Bac Son, used to go to called La Santabeard.  It was a nice looking school, and we entered the front plaza area to take some pictures.  It didn't look like much changed here according to Bac Son.  You can see a picture of him with the school in the collage.  The security guard there helped us take a group photo, and that concluded our search.  Our final leg of adventuring for the day was.. shopping!

We headed back first to the Ben Thanh Market to reexamine the items there.  I bought some T-shirts for myself and cousins (for only $3 US each!), and my mom bought some other items, including pirated DVDs of Vietnamese movies.  My dad said she got ripped off though, and explained to her that the DVDs actually had a chance of not working since they're just burned from CD to DVD in an unreliable manner.  They had Breaking Bad seasons 1-5 for $25, and although cheaper than buying that in the US, I was like "nah". I can just watch it (and download it if I truly want) for free online.  I sort of feel bad since it took the guy almost 10 minutes to find the thing.  After these purchases, we decided that it was time to move locations.  Ben Thanh was good, but the shirts seemed to have the same designs in several, if not all of the T-shirt kiosks.  Plus, it was time to move on to something a little more... brand-name.

My uncle took us to a street outlet/shopping area that had more clothing/shoes/toys/electronics/jewelry/etc., but this time we were met with brand-name items.  And A/C!  However, we still had to keep a close eye out for brand-name items that were fake.  We didn't want another Aberconnie and Fiche situation (well, I knew about that being fake but it was just sandals).  This time we wanted the real stuff, or at least, have it with the logo and spelled correctly.

The items sold here that are brand-name, are made in Vietnam, and there are two kinds.  There are the items that are legit brand-name made in Vietnam, and those who are from the more sketchy manufacturers from China/unknown, with messy stitching, improper spelling, low quality fabric, etc.  We were super careful with our selections as we walked through the plaza, and as we browsed through the sea of items, and saw one that caught our eye, my uncles and I inspected every inch of the item for flaws.  As we walked, I noticed some of the "employees" (or teenagers helping out either mom/dad?) wearing fake shirts.  I saw a girl wearing a nice shirt... but what is this Praduh you speak of?  There were some weird spellings throughout the store, and we came across a shirt for a toddler with words that seemed to try to emulate English, but the person who manufactured it must've had some kind of dyslexia.  The letters were missing and jumbled.  There was also a mixing of brands, like a Hollister shirt with a tag labeled.. Armani Exchange?  Interesting...

Through our hour long search, we managed to snag some legit items though, and for cheap.  We got three North Face hats for $3.50 US each (regular price $25), and I got a North Face jacket for $22 US (regular at LEAST $80-100).  I also got a Tommy Hilfiger shirt for $15 US.  I simply need an Amani shirt, and I'm good to go.

After shopping, we rested in the hotel, and then in the evening when to my aunt's house for dinner (a different house than the normal one).  It was a quick 5 minute drive through taxi, but we had to walk through some alleys to get there.  When we arrived, a massive table with tons of food awaited us, and we were greeted by my cousins, aunt, uncle, and other random people ('tis true, they weren't family).  My sister and I sat down awkwardly, and we began to dig in on the 10 different entrees in front of us.  There I attempted to eat a half-born duck.  It's like half egg, half duck.  Interesting experience.  Afterwards I just stayed eating the spring rolls, beef, soup, and french fries.  As the night went on, it got much louder, and I was just thinking, "Man, I wonder if the neighbors can hear this.  Yep, they definitely can."  They drink copious amounts of alcohol in Vietnam.  Quite scary really.  My dad gifted my uncle a bottle of whiskey, and they drank the entire bottle that dinner.  Anyway, we ate in the night for a couple hours, and then left early to avoid getting destroyed by mosquitoes.  My dad stayed back a bit to talk to family.  When we arrived back at the hotel, he had how he was truly frightened of how much the people drank.  Even the women drank large amounts, and he was like, "So it is true that people get liver poisoning here.  I understand now."

That essentially concludes Day 8.  I apologize for the hasty ending, but it is about 2:16am, and I must get to bed.  It's the end of relaxation time, and back to the countryside tomorrow.  Until next time.

Mosquitoes are truly a bane to mankind.

The mosquito bites that I received two days ago have now swelled to enormous proportions, and have consumed about half of my arm.  It's extremely itchy, and affected me for most of Day 6, but that's all good.  I think I'm actually allergic to mosquitoes...

For breakfast this time, we had some food slightly similar to food in America.  Eggs and bread!  I think this was the first "light" meal that we've had so far in Vietnam.  In fact, it always seems like breakfast is the most substantial meal of all, and all the others are either less so or comparable.  After the quick breakfast, we headed back into the Mercedes van, and made our way down to Can Duoc to visit some more family, and also pay our respects to our deceased relatives, whose tombstones resided in the area.

Can Duoc seemed to be a little farther than Can Giuoc, and about an hour drive.  Despite the massive size of Ho Chi Minh City and the countryside, I'm starting to actually get used to the look of the area, and have memorized several of the locations that we usually pass by.  The city is always bustling, and filled with hundreds of bikes, vans, and taxis driving on the road.  I wonder if they have GPS here.  I would really get lost if I attempted to navigate somewhere.

When we arrived at our destination, we had to take a 10 minute walk to the house we were visiting.  Upon touching the ground which was dirt, everyone ushered us to get onto the road.  I questioned why until I looked and saw tons of red ants running.  When I made it onto the road my dad noticed an ant that had successfully climbed onto my shoe.  We destroyed it before it could do any damage.  My cousin unfortunately had a different fate.  She was wearing Crocs, and some of the ants were able to make it inside and bite her on the foot.  The bites quickly swelled and grew red, and we had to administer some anti-itch cream immediately.  My uncle told me that ants here in Vietnam were extremely aggressive, and their bites hurt much more than those in the US.

The path to the house was accompanied by a nice view.  The trail was narrow, but was surrounding on both sides by bodies of water.  We had to move to the side several times to let some motorbikes get past us.  I think it would be fun to ride on a motorbike in the countryside.  I wouldn't have a problem having someone drive me.  If they can drive in the city, they can drive anywhere... (foreshadowing).  After about 10 minutes we made it to my great-grandma's house.  The property itself was lined with a fence, and stretched out quite a ways.  It was quite substantial, and my dad told me that my great-grandma was a very popular figure a long time ago.  He told me that growing and selling rice used to be a possible job in Vietnam.  One year, however, everyone's crops failed to yield any rice, but my great-grandma's crops were one of the few that was still successful.  Through this, hundreds upon hundreds of people lined up and were fed by her crops.  Decades later at her funeral, thousands of people attended to send their regards.  Beside the house was another small hut, which housed the tombs of my great grandma and grandpa.  We continued onward to the house we were visiting.

Within another five minutes, I smelled the smell of fish sauce.  Quite the enjoyable scent.  Just kidding.  We continued onward and were greeted by many family members who were already at the house.  By this time it was only 1100, but it was super hot.  The sun was out and I was sweating all over, and the backpack I was wearing wasn't helping.  I took refuge under a little covering and cooled down under a fan.  Immediately, I heard the call of a hen (rooster/chicken/etc.)  I looked over and saw two of my cousins looking at two hens fighting.  The hens jumped in the air and kicked their legs at each other to fight.  They also flapped their wings to slap each other.  Quickly, someone came over and yelled at them for releasing the hens.  One of them actually seemed to escape when they tried to catch them.  I later learned that these hens were fighting cocks, and were essentially worth good money for their fighting abilities.  Cockfighting is illegal in the US, but it was still cool to see.  I think in China they have pigeon racing.

For lunch we had some more rice and assorted meats, followed by some soup.  I really can't get tired of eating large entrees every day, and so far it's been good since I haven't gotten any major food poisoning yet.  (Let's not jinx it again).  Afterwards, we followed dad as she showed us the second portion of the house, which was actually a fish sauce factory, which was where that smell originated.  I saw several large containers, which I assumed has fish sauce in them, and dad explained how the fish sauce was made.  It looked pretty dirty, and the fish sauce smell was quite intoxicating.  Still, I've never seen a fish sauce factory before.  For the last few hours before we had to leave, I explored the nearby area, took some pictures, and then sat down to relax since my mosquito bitten arm was starting to bother me.  Later on, everyone piled inside as it rained heavily.  Rain comes quick here, and you can tell when it's coming.  The wind speed kicks up, and within minutes, rain is pouring down hard on the ground.  We don't get this kind of rainfall in Albuquerque, that's for sure.

There's something that I've noticed while in Vietnam.  It's that the solicitors are real.  Every single place that we've went to and stayed at in Vietnam, there's always a random person who walks up to us and shows us lottery tickets, wanting us to buy them.  I guess they're just an annoyance, since all of my family members just ignore their existence, and eventually, they just walk away.  But they're quite the pros at soliciting.  I didn't think they'd make it all the way down to our house which was a 10-15 minute walk down.

On our way back to the van, we were offered a ride on a motorbike to prevent walking back down.  My sister and I agreed, but my mom and dad decided to walk.  My wish was fulfilled.  Although a short ride, it was still fun.  We went pretty fast despite being on a really narrow path, but I knew I could trust the driver's abilities.

Another day, another location, more fun.  I think tomorrow (or today since I'm writing this), we'll be staying in Ho Chi Minh City, and I'll be watching another movie, Transformers 4.  Mom's going to be cooking some bun bo hue.  Let's see if they like it.  Alright, until next time!

Animals act different here than in the US.  I guess they would need to act different in order to survive.  I wonder how dogs cross the street...

Awake at 800, we headed down to the house and prepared for breakfast.  While waiting, I was playing around with their dog, and she absolutely refused to interact with me.  Generally when you ring a door bell or enter someone's house, you hear a dog bark loudly as they rush towards you.  They then proceed to lick your legs and smell you.  Here, you see a silent dog standing alert in front of the house, examining the foreign person.  I tried many times to approach the dog, but whenever I did, she simply turned and walked away from me.  I got it to the point where we were walking in a circle, and my cousin laughed at me as the dog simply wanted to avoid me.  The dog never barked either, and whenever she did, it was much softer than normal.

After some walking and street crossing, which was starting to become normal now (except for Mom), we made it to a place to eat com tam.  Food was displayed buffet style in the restaurant.  Meats, meatloaf, vegetables, eggs, etc., and we simply had to point at what we wanted.  For drinks, in order to prevent any food poisoning, I've been drinking from bottles instead of from glasses or straws.  This time, I drank a Vietnamese carbonated drink called Sa Xi.  It seems to be very popular here, and tastes like a licorice Coke.  Overall, the food was good, and we went back to the house to begin our journey out to Cho Tram to visit more family.  For the past few days, the house has been the central spot to meet before leaving to a destination, and also a place to relax after the planned events in the evening.  I was told from Dad that the house itself has a property value of three million US dollars, and I can certainly believe that since the property size is fairly large, and it's placed right in the middle of the city.  Surrounding the house are many businesses, as well as a five-star hotel and shopping plaza.  I haven't seen any other houses in the general area, so overall it's pretty cool.

We piled into a large Mercedes van and drove about an hour to our destination.  To get out of the city you have to cross a large body of water, and you can tell you're out when the primary aspect of scenery changes from buildings to grass.  The look of the buildings themselves look a little different as well.  Still, there are tons of businesses outside of the city, and many people walking around the area.  I enjoyed staring at people as they looked at me through the window thinking, "Such American, much wow.."  I frequently looked to the front of the van to see the driver's point of view, and I still can't imagine driving on these busy, cramped roads.  Since we were in the countryside, there were a lot more farmers as well, as I noticed many of them wearing the usual rice hat and working on the land.  Still, despite the less modern look of the countryside compared to Ho Chi Minh City, there were many Internet cafes and phone stores, and people who I saw texting and talking on their phones.  There's texting while driving here too, and I think it takes a little more effort here to avoid getting into an accident.

Finally we arrived at our destination.  One of my aunts who went with us quickly took refuge inside the house/Cafe, and relaxed on a hammock looking a little woozy.  Later we asked her, and she said that she wasn't used to sitting inside a vehicle.  Since she generally always uses a bike to travel, she gets carsick when she goes by car/van.  The place we arrived at was actually a cafe, and to the side of the cafe was a motel.  My aunt and uncle owned both of these businesses, and have to work extremely hard to make a living.  They wake up at 4am to open their business, and go to sleep at midnight.  Because they need to constantly keep watch over both the motel and cafe to prevent thievery, they can't really move around too much or go on vacation in a place far from the location.

As we prepared for lunch, I followed my cousins down to the side of the cafe, where trees bore a special type of fruit not grown in the US.  The fruit was named trung ca (fish egg), and it looked kind of like a blueberry except that it was red.  Since I was colorblind, I had a hard time distinguishing the ripe ones from the unripe ones (red from green).  To eat the fruit, you simply pop it, and the juice oozes in your mouth.  It has tiny, edible seeds inside of it, and tastes similar to maple syrup (not as sweet).  I continued picking these fruits with my cousins, and by doing so, it acted as kind of an icebreaker so that we weren't so shy around each other.  

At last it was lunch time, and with good timing too.  Right as we entered the cafe to eat, it started raining heavily.  I took some pictures as two of my cousins sat in chairs and looking at the rain in awe, feeling the nice mist and breeze.  We had chao with assorted meats and seafood.  Afterwards, we cooked some beef and crab over a stove.  The crab was seasoned with some kind of spicy tom yum, and although it wasn't spicy at all, everyone complained that it was.  In one instance, I attempted to extract some crab meat from an arm, and right when I cracked it open, I accidentally flung it across the table and into a bowl of nuoc mam.  My grandma laughed and said, "Lul, the crab is still alive."
  
After lunch we took the van down to a nearby river.  It was a vast body of water, although it was extremely polluted, and filled with trash.  We headed into a boat turned into a restaurant to eat some clams and mussels, and on our way there I saw a monkey chained to a tree.  As we approached it, the monkey jumped onto the rail of the walkway we were on, and immediately my cousins backed away.  We ran past it to avoid getting possibly attacked.

The river itself wasn't really a marvelous spectacle by any means, but it's always cool seeing something new.  While eating, one of my cousins age four vomited all over the floor.  I lost my appetite after that.  We relaxed there for a little bit and then headed back to the cafe.  Then we said our good-byes and headed back home.  For the rest of the evening we ate dinner at the house and then proceeded back to the hotel.  We ate early this time, as we returned back at the hotel at 1830.  I fell asleep all the way up until now, making it a good 12 hours of sleep..  Jeezuz.

I forgot to mentioned the mosquito bites I received.  Two of them in fact.  Right now they've swelled up about four times than original size, and as I'm typing this, my arm is extremely itchy.  Anyway, we're going to be heading back once again to the countryside today, and we'll have to do some walking too.  I hope I don't get any more of these bites..  Until next time.

Well, I jinxed myself.

I woke up yesterday morning with chills, an upset stomach, and a headache.  I seem to have caught a small virus from eating something.  I knew it was only a matter of time.  Fortunately, due to the warm weather of Vietnam, I still was able to walk around without feeling any chills.  The sickness wasn't too bad overall either, and I just needed to lay down for a bit.  The headache did mess me up for most of the day though, and it also affected my eyes, making them really tired as we went along.  It may also be why I'm writing this post slightly late.

We began Day 4 with the tradition of going to the house and gathering family members to eat "breakfast".  Today was my favorite day of all for breakfast, as we got to eat Bun Bo Hue.  Bun Bo's my favorite Vietnamese dish, and probably my favorite my favorite food of all, so I know what tastes good and what's not.  At last, I was finally able to taste the dish from its source.  There's still some small sanitary problems when eating at restaurants like these.  Cups might be dirty, water might be tainted, chopsticks and other utensils might need to be cleaned.  There's still the whole thing with the lack of sweeping the floors, so there's still food and other residue on the ground.  At the restaurant, the bun bo hue was prepared right in front of us, and the waiter used primarily his hands to grab noodles, meat, and vegetables from bowls to ours.  It might not be sanitary, but hey, sacrifices must be made.  The warm weather combined with the steaming hot, spicy bun bo made me sweat the virus out, and I felt better for the rest of the day.  Ultimately, I give the bun bo a solid 9.

For some who may be wondering why some Viet restaurants in the US fail to refill water, it's because restaurants in Vietnam don't give you any drinks until after you finish eating your food.  In addition, when they do give drinks before the meal is out, they don't really drink much of the water at all until afterward.  Just something that I noticed.

We called over a taxi after breakfast, and began our main event of the day: Heading over to the Province of Can Giuoc to visit my aunt Tuyen's house.

We sat in the taxi for a good 40-50 minutes, and made our way from the city to the countryside.  I'm still overwhelmed by the massive amount of businesses that exist in Ho Chi Minh City.  I wouldn't even know where to start.  I seriously wonder if they have some kind of Yelp app here that helps you know what restaurant of the thousands within a mile radius is good.  I suppose the advantage with having tons of people in one area is that the businesses are able to thrive and do well.

We crossed many bridges and I got to see many rivers.  We also came across many tall, skyscraper-like buildings that were used for housing and additional business.  However, what I noticed was that a lot of these buildings were not finished in construction, and it looked like they weren't going to be.  Dad told me that the housing market crashed a couple of years ago, and as a result, the government ran out of money to continue building these housing structures.  So you pretty much saw a bunch of skeletons of buildings scattered across the area.

We veered away from the main street to the countryside, and took a smaller side road to avoid delays.  Even in the countryside, there were shops that lined both sides of street, all with different functions.  Washing cars, eating food, buying things, using the internet, etc., etc.  Along the way we also crossed over some very small bridges.  Our taxi took up more of the space, and I looked and saw bikes go past me, only inches from hitting the taxi or the side of the bridge.  There was even an occasion where we were going over a bridge, and encountered another truck crossing.  It took a bit of time for us to reverse and let the other truck go, and we made a small traffic jam because of it.  There were also many agricultural areas that surrounded the place, since the countryside was filled with trees and grass.  We ran across a "shrimp farm", where a machine spun around in the water to make oxygen and raise shrimp for selling/eating.  It was pretty cool to see, and was a nice change from the bustle of the city (but I like both sides).

At last we arrived at the house.  It was fairly small and open, yet quite clean.  I greeted my aunt as she was preparing food, and said hello to my cousins who were watching a movie.  The house was much smaller than houses in the US, along with being much warmer.  There was no A/C in the house, and only a couple of fans mounted on the walls provided cooling.  I think I can see why my grandparents' house is always so hot and stuff all the time.  It's because that's how it always is in Vietnam.  Then again, maybe not.  To wash our hands, we were given water pitchers to pour the water on our hands, since they had no sinks. As usual, we were met with tons of food.  I ate as much as I could, and then went to sit with my cousins.

My cousins seem to be very fascinated with me.  In fact, I have a personal fan.  One of my cousins, Thu Linh, frequently fanned me as I sat, and when I tried to speak to her in my dodgy Vietnamese, she simply smiled at me, said she was shy, and continued to fan me.  I think I'm speaking correctly. For the rest of the afternoon, we reunited, and eventually, I fell asleep for a couple hours until we had to leave.

On the way back, we encountered some major traffic.  It was nothing I've ever seen.  We were stuck in the middle of a four-way intersection, and I looked around as I saw tons of bikes crossing each other in all directions.  Hundreds of bikes and cars everywhere.  I have no idea how traffic works here.

Sometimes the best days are the days when you don't do much.  I just enjoy exploring new places, and being able to meet new family members.  I shall be off now, and I will try not to post so late next time.  Till later.

 

I got about three and a half hours of sleep last night due to the blogging, but with the circadian rhythm still messed up, I still seem to be taking it fine.  The advantage with having a distorted sleep cycle is that you're able to easily wake up early in the morning, so you can do more during the day.  Unfortunately, in the afternoon, your body begins to bog down, and when you lay down for a presumably short nap, it turns into a deep sleep for five to six hours.

We got up at 700 this morning and headed over to the house at 800.  After gathering some family members, we took a taxi down to the restaurant for breakfast.  This time we stopped at Quynh Restaurant, where we had some hu tieu noodle soup.  It's a good thing that the weather today was fairly cool and rainy.  Having a bowl of hot soup in a warm, humid environment doesn't really work too well.  But I guess, again, it's normal in Vietnam.  As I was eating I saw a sign that said "Follow us on Facebook", yet I questioned it since I tried to log into Facebook and it was blocked.  I wonder if people already knew the loophole around the block by using a proxy or just getting the Facebook app on their phone.

After breakfast we began the tour of the city, and for our first destination we stopped by the address of Mom's home.  It's been over 30 years since she's seen the area where she used to live, and she wanted to know how much it had changed.  When we arrived, she noticed the staircase of a familiar building she used to know, but the surrounding area had been altered to one housing many businesses.  The house itself was turned into a bank.  However, there were some buildings that were left untouched, as Mom pointed some of them out.  While taking pictures, we also ran into a woman who looked to be in her 60s, and apparently she knew the people that Mom used to live with.  We quickly took a picture of her and then headed off to our next destination: The Ben Thanh Market.

The market was massive, and was placed indoors.  Here you could practically find anything you wanted; shoes, clothes, clocks, backpacks, hats, wooden structures, paintings, food, drinks, etc.  There were tons of people walking around in the market, with many foreign tourists from other countries shopping.  As a result, it was extremely cramped and hot, and we had to continue taking refuge in little shops that had fans so that we could cool down.

Now, you might be asking yourself:  What are the chances of Khiem running into someone who's attending the same college as he is?

Well that's a good question, because it is quite possible.  In fact, as we were sitting down and drinking some sugarcane juice, I noticed a boy around my age wearing a "Texas Engineering: Class of 2018" T-Shirt.  It's a shirt that the School of Engineering gets at the new student orientation.  Immediately I pointed him out and said, "HEY.  YOU'RE GOING TO UT AUSTIN!!!!"  He looked at me and noticed my Longhorns shirt, and without saying a word, he smiled, flashed the Hook 'Em Horns sign at me, and walked away into the crowd.  His mother seemed bewildered that a random stranger was speaking English to her son, as she stared at me with a serious face, then proceeded to follow him.

I decided to allot 100 dollars for spending in Vietnam, and I began my spending by buying two T-shirts.  One of myself and one for my cousin.  I think he'll like it.  ;D  Then we headed back into a taxi and continued with the tour.

For our next stop, we went to a cathedral called Nha Tho Duc Ba, and took some pictures.  Again, there were lots of foreign tourists (I suppose you can call that us now too), walking around taking pictures.  There were also lots of wedding pictures being taken there.  We took some pictures with the family and then went back into the taxi.  Our next stop was Tau Ban Park, a place with large, tall trees surrounding an open plaza area.  Hundreds of people sat around the nice place, and we simply drove around the park to get a feel for what it looked like.  The taxi driver and my uncle continued to tell us facts about the locations we visited, and Mom tried to find familiar buildings and structures that she recognized.  As we continued on, we took a stop at a temple, Chua Vinh Nghiem.  It was a very large, pagoda-like structure, and it seemed like it could house many people.  It was far larger than the temple I go to in ABQ.  Fortunately, no one populated the place either since the temple opened at 1330, making it a great time for us to take pictures.  My grandma was following us along our tour, and she seemed to keep up very well, without asking for a break at any time.  The weather was overcast, so it was very nice.  Lastly, we headed down to Dinh Doc Lap, which according to the taxi driver, was like the White House of Vietnam.  Again, it was a large, gated structure, and it looked like tourists were even allowed to come in.  We snapped a couple of photos, and then proceeded back home.  Overall, it was a really overwhelming experience.  Along the way to each destination, there were thousands of people in each street and corner of the city who were walking, shopping, or selling.  Hundreds of different shops with names I never heard of before, that would take weeks to go through.  There was honestly so much to do in Ho Chi Minh City, and my visualization of Vietnam really changed after today.

To end the tour, we stopped by a mall, and got tickets to see "How to Train Your Dragon 2" in 3D.  Now this mall was a very familiar sight.  Apart from the 100% Asian demographic rate, the mall looked pretty close to what one would find in the US.  For fun, we stopped by a KFC to see what fast food tastes like here.  I ordered the chicken sandwich, and it tasted similar.  French fries also tasted the same, but ketchup had a more sour taste to it than the Heinz.  More of a soy sauce-ketchup.  In addition, my aunt and uncle ordered a piece of fried chicken, and for sides they were given rice with gravy, and some soup.  I expected the whole "rice on the side" thing, but it was still unusual nonetheless.

The movie was great.  We watched it in English with Vietnamese subtitles, and Mom told me some of the translations were funny.  Other than that, it was just cool to watch it, as we were probably the only ones who were actually able to understand the movie without needing to read text every second.  On funny parts, we all still laughed.

For the rest of the evening we headed back to the house, and did yet another reunion.  I'm having a great time in Vietnam so far (no food poisoning yet), and I'm excited for what's next.  I believe we're going to be visiting the countryside tomorrow.  In terms of picture posting, I've decided to just post one picture on Instagram, and one collage picture on Facebook, to sum up the events of the day.  Anyway, it's almost 3am here.  Time to sleep.  Until tomorrow.