The Road Trip Begins

Hong's family has been the empitmy of Hospitality. We arrived on Friday night to our own guest house just down the street from their house. It is a really nice 4 story house. The ground floor is the entry where it serves as a sitting room, garage for the mopeds, and the back kitchen. The second floor has a formal living room, third floor is our bedroom where Charles and I are sharing one and Hong and his little brother are sharing the other. The fourth floor is a Karaoke room where we have fun challenging each other. The first day we met his family that lives on the same block in Saigon. His aunt runs a business that manufacturers clothing. She has about 70 workers and is doing really well. She enjoys sitting and talking English with us over coffee. I love the dark chocolate with condensed milk. One of my favorite things about Vietnam!

On Saturday we went to ramification Palace, this is the palace that was captured by the South Vietnamese troops during the Vietnam War. I have been here before during my last trip but it was worth seeing on a self guided tour. We got to see the underground bunkers to see where the war efforts where organized! It was interesting to see where a war was conducted only 30 years ago. I guess you could say it is like going to Baghdad 30 years from now.

We also saw the Notre Dame Catholic Cathedral in downtown Saigon. This isn't the same as the one in Paris, but is left over from the French influence! Saturday night we went to dinner at the neighbors house with the family. I swear I am going to gain 20 pounds in Vietnam alone! We eat amazing meals every half hour it seems! There is never a shortage of food! Charles and I have learned to watch taking of second portions! We know there will be food shortly! Following dinner we went to a nice Disco. We met up with some of Hong's friends and danced the night away. Techno music and American Music are very popular here! We met some people touring from Minnesota at the club.

Sunday we went to the Saigon Water Park and Amusement Park. We went to a place similar to Schlitterbahn with tube rights, wave beaches, and lazy rivers. Charles and I became a tourist attraction in ourselves. We where the only two Caucasians in the entire place! Talk about feeling what it is like to be in the minority! The children are really fun to play with in the water. We would splash each other back and forth. We went and rode a roller coaster, Ferris wheel, and several other amusement type rides following the water park.

Monday we left for a 5 day road trip with about 15 members of Hong's extended family. Hong's dad rented a bus for the family to take to Nha Trang, the most beautiful beach in southeast Asia following the Sunami. We drove past several areas that I have heard of as American bases during the war time. I remember my history professor talking about Phang Rang his base and we drove through the area. It will be interesting to talk to him about that when I return to the US. We left at 7:30 AM and arrived at 4:30 PM in Nha Rang. We rested and went to dinner and hung out at a touristy bar where we met several Europeans. The people from Holland really didn't like Americans at all. We met two lovely ladies from New Zealand named Renee and Charlie. The where walking around looking for a table but everyone was occupied so we invited them to visit with us. It was fun to talk about their adventures in Vietnam so far. We didn't do much yesterday but we have a tour of the islands and scuba diving planned today! I have never been scuba diving before! So the first experience will be in the South China sea!! Im sure it will be amazing.

Hope to hear from you all soon! Take care and Ill update when available!