Vietnam

Greetings all from cloudy Hanoi, Vietnam. Within the past week and a half, life has carried us to northern Vietnam, among hundreds of islands, and a fancy smchancy new looking suit. Bet you can't wait to read, neither can we.

We're happy you're here

We left our last Asian beach at Jungle Beach and passed on to the city located at the skinny, Slim-Fast mid-section of Vietnam, Hoi An. Hoi An is a town renowned for retaining its' culture and architecture from the past, AND, and this is a big AND, as a place to have suits, dresses, and any type of clothes you want tailored to your exact specifications.

Would you like some souvenirs?

Basically you can't walk anywhere without being approached by those 3 magic words, "you want clothes?" Nadine and I thought about having some clothes made in Hoi An, but since we planned on staying in Hanoi a little longer, we decided that I should have a suit made there. More to come about this suit later in the blog.

Shoe-eye view of Hoi An's streets

Several centuries ago, Hoi An was popular as being a major port in Asia. Trading took place all over Asia and as far as Europe, but then Hoi An was replaced by a more attractive port. This other port must have worn a little nicer makeup and heels. But the houses and architecture of old town Hoi An would have all been torn down and replaced if not for the help of our good buddy, tourism. Hoi An has been protected by the surge of tourism and is now recognized as a World Heritage Site. Thank you tourism.

With our time wilting away in Asia, we jumped on a 16 hour train taking us even further north to the cool capital city of Hanoi. H-A-N-O-I has the same letters in its spelling as H-O-I A-N, but different spelling. Same same but different (very popular t-shirt slogan all over SEA).

We have spent our time in Vietnam, and especially in Hanoi with a mix of delight and frustration. We did advantage of the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the Ho Chi Minh Museum, the Ho Chi Minh communism, in addition to Ho Chi Minh ice cream shakes and Ho Chi Minh miniature dolls. Anything Ho Chi Minh, you might be able to find it here in Vietnam. Maybe even a city named after the guy. Actually over at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, they have the founder of Vietnam's Communist Party in a large mausoleum on show 9 months out of the year. We just happen to be in Hanoi during the 3 months when his body is sent to Russia for upkeep to fix any leaks and old patches of Ho Chi Minh's body that might be falling off. In reality, Ho Chi Minh really wanted to be cremated. Sorry about that Uncle Ho, but everyone wants to see you in Vietnam.

How about that for a tomb?

We've now hit a stage in our trip where we are experiencing travellers fatigue. It's a result of constant, daily hassle to buy t-shirts, fruit, suits, books, small children, belly button lent, mototaxis, random pieces of paper, sweet bread or that same souvenir that is offered to you by every other store you've passed in the last 30 seconds. You do try and walk down the street and keep your composure while smiling and saying "no thank you" and continue on your way. With Nadine's famous psychology degree in hand, she has helped us create a few coping strategies. One of the more interesting ones we have for moto taxis is that when they yell "Mototaxi," we respond with "poop." Simple as that. We just say "poop." That baffles them long enough that we are able to make our getaway giggling like small children.

Huc Bridge, Hanoi

Truly, unlike any other country we've been to in 7 months, we've had to constantly be on guard with locals automatically increasing prices on everything by 400% and consequently having to bargain the price back down to it's normal price range. If we were on a short trip, that wouldn't be much of a pain, but having to watch our budget, it's a hourly headache combined with having to dodge mototaxis at the same time. That is why we welcomed our retreat from Vietnamese city life to the calm of Halong Bay.

Now before we jump on a bus to the incredible Halong Bay, let me enlighten you with some interesting facts we've noticed about Vietnamese daily life. We have travelled the length of this country by train and bus and no matter where you are, you will pass rice paddies that are a green's green, proud of their chlorophyl and not afraid to show it off. Green rice paddies substitute for front yards. "Ok kids, go play with your friends in the rice paddies, don't step on the rice though. That's your supper for the spring. Have fun!" Keep in mind that we've never been to Ireland, and it's supposed to be quite green there, but this is the same green I imagine a leprechaun eating his Lucky Charms on in Ireland. Reminds me of a young 10 year old Texan after he returned from Minnesota one summer, this place is way too green.

Everyone is welcomed to Hanoi with this poster and a rose

What do Vietnamese women taking public transportation and New Mexican twins on a first date have in common? They always get sick on the way there. Ok, just had to get my one required jab in on New Mexico. Really, every bus and train we have been on, there is always at least one Vietnamese woman throwing up in a plastic bag and always seems to be close to us. Maybe it isn't the actual transportation, maybe we just stink. Nah, that can't be it. Not sure what it is, but they can't handle the rocking of public transportation.

Majestic Halong Bay

Back to Halong Bay. Halong Bay is a spot where hundreds upon hundreds of islands jut out of the sea making an impressive show for anyone lucky enough to pass by on a junk boat. We intended on visiting the bay on our own and jumped on a bus from the crowds and hassle of Hanoi to the peace and tranquility of Halong City, our jumping off point to the islands. We did have an afternoon to pass, so I made my way to the casino with $11 in hand and Nadine's chagrin etched my mind. Now if I lost a couple dollars, I would join Nadine for a walk back along the boardwalk, but if not, we might enjoy two cans of Coke for dinner. So when Nadine noticed I hadn't walked out with my head down for almost an hour, she knew that I hadn't played yet or I was winning. It was the latter. By the time I was done, I walked away from the Roulette table with $55, a small travelling fortune. Also a perfect way to pay for our two day, one night tour of Halong Bay.

Just soaking it all up in our easy chairs

The following morning a warm sun greeted us and noone pushing small children or t-shirts on us to buy. Great start to the day. After being exchanged by several guides at the wharf in the guides own version of the stock exchange, we hopped from boat to boat until we set foot on the correct one. For the rest of the afternoon and evening, without real knowledge what we were going to visit other than impressive islands, we calmly and peacefully cruised along Halong Bay in a chair admiring all of the beautiful vistas popping up in every direction. That was just what we needed to help our travellers fatigue.

Some of the great pics from Halong Bay

Another great part of the trip out on the bay was that we had a great group of jovial people on board with us. In addition to two older couples from Quebec, we were joined by some German, English, Australian, and Chinese travellers. That night after kayaking and dinner, we sat around a table and learned a German card game, Scheiße, while we taught them our American college version of Arschloch. Both games were a hit and when we come by your neck of the woods in the near future, we will teach you the German card game.

Some moving pictures of our boat ride through Halong Bay

After the retreat from big city Vietnam, we had to go back to Hanoi where we are now waiting for a suit to be completed. It was supposed to already have been sewn together, but after a fitting in the store in front of everyone, i.e. no dressing room, everything needed a little adjusting. First of all, the pants were more like lycra for a workout at the gym, and one sudden bending over would be fatal in a social situation, even a New Mexican wedding. Secondly, the shoulders and back were too tight. I would feel like Chris Farley as a fat guy in a tiny coat. Finally, the pants weren't long enough. Suits in Vietnam are fitted to specifications of a man half my size and attempting to lure the opposite sex. The result was a suit with a bad fit and a bit tight all over. Thus, a suit is keeping out of China and a date with the Mao dynasty.

But life is good, yet we are ready to exit Asia and head further southwest over to Africa. We promise that we will have "State of the Belly Report #2" on the next blog entry as well as our secret hand shake for all to enjoy.

Some stats for you, our blog has now officially had over 10,000 hits over the past 7 months of which 1,243 have been from me reading people's comments.

As long as a particular suit cooperates, we will be heading to China tomorrow for two weeks, before catching a plane from Hong Kong to South Africa on February 15th.

This weeks question, who is going to Win the Super Bowl, and what will the final score be?

Stay classy readers!

JW

That's the sun setting on this blog entry and on Halong Bay

Literally Going Around Dalat

Vikoda natural mineral water which is exploited from Danh Thanh mineral source, is becoming the famous quality in Viet Nam. It was being exploited directly from the depth of 220 meters. The mineral water is conducted to the workshop and bottled by modern line from Germany. Vikoda provides necessary mineral for our body and it is very good for our refreshment.
- Label off of Vidoka bottled water in Vietnam that leaves one wondering many things: all the way from Germany?; what is that one mineral?; do they really need to exploit Danh Thanh?

Gateway out of Jungle Beach

Greetings all! Nadine and I are finally out of Saigon and we hope all are well.

Previously on Globetrotting Around the World, Nadine and I had just finished our teaching stint in Thu Duc, but we were still being held as we waited for our visa extensions to be granted. Exactly a week after we turned in our passports, our passports were returned with a small stamp (#89 out of 89 stamps Peppers) extending our stay, as we were free to roam Vietnam without having an unexpected quick departure to China.

After a month in Saigon, from the side of the road, we jumped on a bus headed for the cool mountain air of Dalat and began actively travelling again. No more staying in one city for a month crap. So I would describe Dalat as the Cusco of Vietnam for its unique feel and the relief from the warmer temperatures closer to sea level. We passed a lot of time commenting to each other on how cool it was in Dalat.

Overlooking Dalat and overlooking Nadine overlooking the city

Actually we did do a few things in the city of flowers. In addition to strolling around the man made lake in the middle of town, we made a visit to the Crazy House. Now this house was designed by this artist in Dalat and the house is still being constructed. This house is very Gaudiesque. There were a bunch of rooms called the frog room, bear room, or some other name of an animal or plant, along with concrete giraffes standing around the premises. The house itself was pretty interesting and when I asked the lady who designed it later on where another site was in Dalat, she gave the perfect lifetime, hippy artist response, "well . . . I am not exactly sure where this church is. . . maybe it's by the hospital or by the lake . . . I . can't . tell . you." After this interaction which should have taken max 20 seconds, took 2 minutes, and I left wondering where this place was even though the city of Dalat is not a big city. So what do those artists do when they are not being artistic? Hmmm.

Two Crazy People at the Crazy House

She's not so crazy now that she is pregnant, unless you count that crazy hairdo!

After two very cool days with two very cool people, we jumped on another bus and headed down the mountain to the beach. Jungle Beach that is. Jungle Beach is described as an isolated beach with great swimming, tasty food, and basic bungalows. All was correct. The beach was the most isolated beach we had visited on our entire trip outside of Aitutaki, Cook Islands. We spent the next two days lying on the beach reading or lying in a hammock deciding where to go with the remaining 4 weeks in Asia.

The View of the Jungle Beach from the South China Sea

All of our meals were included in the price, which was good since there was no other places to go. For lunch and dinner, everyone staying at the Jungle Beach would come to one big communal table where all of the food was laid out in front of you. With your bowl of rice, you would pick what you wanted and mix the two. The food was great. Good thing we had a little volleyball in the evening to offset the sumptuous food.

3 months pregnant inside our bungalow

Life is still good and enjoying non-freezing weather. We are now at the point of moving up the coast until we hit China. February 15th, we leave Hong Kong and Asia for South Africa. Hope all are well and you can always email me at jwhit003@gmail.com or Nadine at pickles9178@hotmail.com

This weeks question, which group performed the song that is our title of this week's entry?

Peace
JW

Greetings all in this our 30th blog entry. In our last entry, we asked y'all what the former name of Ho Chi Mihn City was before 1975, it was Saigon, and the very first person to answer was Hien from Kuala Lumpur. He will be receiving a nice postcard from Vietnam in the following weeks. We also had our 100th comment posted by Morgan. She will be the proud owner of a new Vietnamese postcard as well. Now you can hope to get your very own Vietnamese postcard signed by Nadine and I only if you are the next person to correctly answer this week's question OR post the 150th comment. It's always good to set goals.

We are still in Thu Duc, Vietnam, the city outside of Ho Chi Mihn City, or Saigon, if you knew the answer to last week's question you would have known that. We just finished teaching English to a group of nuns and are about to resume traveling north through Vietnam. Before our trip started, Saigon would have never been a city either one of us would have thought we would end up staying in for a month.

After our first week of classes, we were eager to hit the road again, even if it was for a weekend. We jumped on a late night bus and headed to the beach town of Mui Ne where we arrived early in the morning. Our only plans for Mui Ne were to soak up some sun on the beach and a little more on top of some sand dunes.

As we walked the beach under a cloudy sky, we were amazed by 2 things, 1) the number of white people/tourists, as we had seen none in Thu Duc, unless you count looking at each other, and 2) the number of wind and kite surfers gliding across the water. Everywhere there was someone in the water flying in the air or roughly being dragged by the wind. Mui Ne was the perfect place to take in some wind or kite surfing. Because as you walked on the beach, you were either face first into a slapping wind, or pushed down the beach by the wind. Kind of like that nagging relative trying to get you to eat that old fruitcake from last Christmas. Alright, I'm going grandma.

From these aerial escapades, we walked back along the safety of the wind blocking, tree-lined road. Within the hour, we ran into two people that we had met earlier in our travels, a girl from Quebec, and a couple from England. We had met the girl from Quebec at the Vietnamese embassy in Laos a month earlier and the English couple in New Zealand back in July. I have a strong suspicion that the English couple may be following us. We caught up with all three of them, made plans for dinner, and headed right back to the cloudy beach where we spent the afternoon watching people get battered by massive waves and an old scraggy looking dog playing with an old fishing net. Oh, the pressures of travel.

White Sandhills

The followingt day, our jeep greeted us in front of our hotel to take us on a tour of the area and sand dunes of Mui Ne. We passed our first sight, the fishing port, being that we wanted to see the sandy sights while having enough time to catch our bus back to Saigon that afternoon. We were on a tight schedule here.

At the white sand dunes, we jumped out of the jeep, and walked to the top of a couple of steep sand dunes. The only drawback was that fact that the wind was blowing like an angry stepmother and it felt like small needles piercing our skin, so we ran away, and went to a smaller, less windy hill.

Tilt your head to the left, now you can enjoy this video. Talk about an adventurous hill to take on!

After sand had entered many of our orifices, we jumped back in our jeep, even though I'm not sure why we needed a jeep anyways since we were on a paved road the entire time, except for a small portion of sand at the White Sand dunes, and made our way to the Red Canyon. This small clay canyon was a great spot to climb and take some panoramic photos of the South China Sea, Nadine, and some red clay. While we were searching for a way to reach the top, we crossed a group of monks bypassing all paths and climbing straight over the rocks to the top.

Deep in the Red Canyon

After a few photos, we started making our way down. Instead of returning from the point where we just came from, we decided, what the heck, why not go the other direction. Other than having to lower ourselves down some rocks and climb over a few fences, the way down wasn't that difficult, even though we happened to be the only ones going down this way, but we made it back to the original path safely. Later on, when Nadine asked a local why that area had been fenced off, they promptly responded that "some of the rocks had been crumbling and falling down, so officials didn't want anyone to get hurt." Oh! Maybe we shouldn't have come down that way. And that is where we just came from. I can't believe a pregnant woman like Nadine was making those type of dangerous decisions. Shame on her. Clare, I promise you, it was your precious daughter's decision to go down that way, not mine.

We finished the jeep tour by visiting the red sand dunes, but after the red canyon, it didn't seem quite so red, more of a light pink. We then ran back to the hotel like Lloyd Christmas in Dumb & Dumber while the driver drove, packed our stuff up, and waited for the bus out on the street. Unfortunately, our bus was about as on time as a 9 fingered Alberquerque kid with a date with a hand model, not very. More accurately, our bus was two and a half hours late. That left us enough time to do several sets of jumping jacks on the sidewalk and have a strawberry shake.

Nadine teaching in a traditional Vietnamese hat

For the past two weeks, Nadine and I have been teaching English, and staying in one place longer than 4 days. It has been great, and we have found a solid daily routine. We wake up at 6:30, get dressed, catch the bus to the nunnery, eat breakfast with fresh orange juice, teach English for an hour and a half, take a 20 minute break where we try to avoid eating all the food being offered to us by the nuns, finish our morning session at 11, eat a healthy lunch of fish and fruit, either take a siesta, check email, or both, teach from 2 until 4, eat dinner with the nuns or on our own, return to the hotel, go to the gym to lift and run 2 miles, and finally back to the hotel and off to sleep. That has been our consistent routine for the last two weeks. And you know, it's nice to have a routine every once in awhile. But then again, after these two weeks of work, we are ready to start travelling again. It's amazing what two weeks of hard work will do for you.

Using a scooter to get to the next clue

We have tried to make the past two weeks educational AND fun for Sisters Vianney (Sr. Fix-It), Thuy Linh, Thu Trang, Tuyet Tring, Rosa Bong, Marie Marthe, and Mi Hanh. We played Go Fish one day, bingo another, and had a couple entertaining Scavenger Hunts. Once again, we went in wanting to give of ourselves in a concrete way, but we came away feeling that we had received so much more than we were able to give to these Sisters.

I know where the clue is hidden

One of the gifts that we are coming away with is a pair of fat pants for Nadine. Now that her belly is expanding, and we are positive it's not a result of some occasional gas, we have had to get an extra pair of pants made for her, some Hammer pants. You know the pants I'm talking about, the same pants M.C. Hammer wore back in the 90's. Big, baggy, colorful, you can pull them over your shoulders they are so big, or even hide a small animal inside them. You probably have a pair yourself. If you would like to be in solidarity with Nadine, pull them out this weekend, and sport your very own pair of fat pants. Even if people laugh at you, just think of the fact that Nadine is wearing hers around the world and not letting it bother her at all. I know that at least her friends from JVC Washington are wearing theirs. Anyone that wears their fat pants and emails me at jwhit003@gmail.com with a pic of them, I will post it on our next blog entry.

State of the Belly, Part 1

Here is our inaugural State of the Belly video report. We will post a video report of Nadine's belly every couple of weeks so you can follow her expansion. It might also help you to better guess the sex of our baby in the near future.

Once again, we are both feeling good and energized to complete the last two and a half months of our epic around the world trip. We will barely have enough time to break the ice in that tiny country we call China, which we will follow with Hong Kong, Macau, South Africa, and Italy. Then we make our return to the U.S. to embark on a miniature tour of the Midwest.

This week's question is the following. First correct answer will receive a personalized Vietnamese postcard signed by both Nadine and I.

In alphabetical order, what coutries border Vietnam? Spelling does count!

Peace and love from Vietnam
JW

I know where to get you a balloon?

Thanks to Travellerspoint and our nifty little digital camera, we are now able to upload videos to our blog. We've received a few requests and overwhelming people want to see videos of Nadine. Thus, at the end of this witty blog entry, you have your wish, Nadine in the video form. We've also added a few photos from Angkor Wat and other spots, in addition to two new videos of Nadine, one on this blog entry, and one entry from Thailand. Links are on the bottom, enjoy.

Also, the currency of Vietnam is the dong, and everytime we have to pay for anything with dong, we sing it just like Nelly's Thong Song. Thus, the reason for the title.

So after our crazy Christmas Eve Mass at Notre Dame, we spent Christmas Day just like anyother Christmas. We woke up to cake for breakfast. We found out we couldn't go on a tour of the Cu Chi tunnels, so with no other choice, we went back to sleep for another couple of hours. In the afternoon, with a few errands completed, we called our parents to wish them a Merry Christmas from the other side of the globe, and then went to the gym. I sure that is what you did for Christmas too? Needless to say, Christmas was a little different than usual for us. We did miss our families quite a bit. It would have been great to be with them and friends, but we did enjoy our last quiet Christmas for the next 20 years. Next Christmas, we will have another another member of the family joining us. Make your bets now whether it will be a boy or girl.

The day after Christmas, better known as Boxing Day to some, or St. Stephen's Day if you are Scuba Steve, we were on a bus to the Cu Chi Tunnels with Mr. Bean, our guide. Mr. Bean promptly informed us that he had indeed worked with the American forces during the Vietnam War and that all American women have big asses. I didn't see the coorelation there, but I would agree with him that quite a few do, but not all American women. That was pretty unfair generalization, and maybe a little unprofessional. Probably acceptable in New Mexico though.

Former U.S. Military Tank

Back to the Cu Chi tunnels. They were tunnels built by the Viet Cong to move around without the American soldiers being able to spot them. They were small underground tunnels that had three levels. These tiny tunnels functioned, and they left the small Vietnamese undetectable while they still fought, ate, slept, cooked, all underground. They were miracously able to travel every night 3 miles to nearby American bases and steal their weapons. It wasn't until after the war was over that the Americans learned of these tunnels. As Nadine and I submerged our large, oversized American bodies into these tiny tunnels, I couldn't believe they were able to do this for years. When the first exit presented itself, we had a choice of continuing down to the second level or up to fresh air and room to move my arms, I was out of there.

Not only did the mountain of negative comments from Mr. Bean about Americans continue non-stop, he was even alienating several of the non-Americans on the tour. Two of those folks were Irish, Jacqui and Josephine. We began to chat with them, and broke the ice by saying that because of Mr. Beans' words of enlightenment, I now hated Americans as well. Recognizing the dry humor, they laughed along and mentioned that Nadine and I were indivudually responsible for everything wrong in the world. As we walked together recounting all the horrible things we've done together, I was able to cynically convince another young American girl from Philadelphia, that everything Mr. Bean was saying about the U.S. was absolutely true.

Me - "Everything that Mr. Bean says about the U.S. is absolutely true! I know it is."
Naive Philly girl - "No, it's not all true. He's wrong with a few things."
M - "I know it's true. I've been to the U.S. once before. And it's all definitely true."
N.P.G. - "No!!! It's not true!"
M - "But it is! I have been there once!"
N.P.G. - "No it's not! I'm American! I should know."

It was at this point that Nadine gave me "the look" as the Irish girls looked on curiously at this little interaction between two Americans. What made this interaction funny was that I didn't change my voice at all to sound French, English, or from anywhere else in the world accent. I was speaking English with a slight Texas drawl. To avoid making her look even more foolish, I admitted that I too was Texan and American. I then had to end my cruel little game, but I couldn't get over the fact that she didn't even suspect that I might be American. Segway to Dumb & Dumber, "let's put another shrimp on the barbie!"

That afternoon we spent lunch with the Irish girls, and laughed about the day's tour and our Philly girl. Hope she isn't reading this blog. We said goodbye and walked to our respective hostels. As we were walking, we came to find out that we were going to the same hostel. As we had sat in the hostel that morning waiting for our bus to arrive, we groggily didn't notice each other in the very small lobby of our place.

Next day we were eager to do another tour, and this morning we did notice J.J. in the lobby, and we both hoped that Mr. Bean wouldn't be on board with his bag of slander. As we waited in our hostel chatting, guess who came to pick us up. None other than Mr. Bean himself. With looks of worry and grief on our faces, he drove us around the block a few times, until we were moved to another bus, and out of permanent earshot of Mr. Bean.

The Mekong tour carried us to the massive Mekong River that runs from China and through the vast majority of Southeast Asia. A selling point of this tour was the chance to see floating markets. Floating markets turned out to be a couple of boats just sitting in the middle of a tributary of the Mekong. But an interesting factoid was that the handful of boats selling would hoist up their vegetable of choice on a stick to identify what they were selling to buyers, but other than that, the "floating market" was a sinking letdown. As we passed the few boats in the water, we all looked at each other perplexed wondering if this was it. It was. So we dutifily took photos like a good tourist.

I hope this python has had his lunch already

The rest of the afternoon, we stopped at a coconut candy making factor, excellent candy without processed sugar, a rice popping exhibition, and an authentic Vietnamese lunch on a large island in the Mekong River. Before eating lunch, I stopped to throw a python around my neck to squeeze a little extra space for the meal. The perfect way to quelch an appetite for others. For the rest of the time on the island, we sat in a hammock rocking the afternoon away.

The tour up to that point, felt like a big shopping tour around the Mekong, and as we neared our last stop, a brick factory, we began to wonder if they were going to sell us some bricks. "The prefect gift for your loved ones, an authentic Vietnamese brick to put in their Christmas stocking." I couldn't get over the fact that they took us to a brick factory. What?!?! What did the people who designed this trip think when they included, "to complete the tour, why don't we visit a brick factory. People will love that." Nadine made the most of it to learn, but I just keep shaking my head and wondering why we were there, as I took obligatory pictures of a pile of bricks. I can't wait to show my pictures of bricks when we return home.

This crowd in just 15 minutes!

During our time in Ho Chi Mihn City, Nadine successfully set up a teaching job for us. We would teach English for two weeks to a group of nuns in the town of Thu Duc outside of HCMC. On the day before we began teaching, the nuns took us up to the mountain village of Long Dien. Here we met what seemed like half the village who worked with the Congregation de Notre Dame des Missions. Not knowing that there was going to be some foreigners visiting, they set up an impromptu concert and presentation in the spam of 15 minutes. One of the most amazing organizational jobs I've ever seen. Along with Sister Marie Therese (Australia), we were treated like royalty and to a concert. They also asked us to come back and bring our friends, because they would love to learn English. So, if you want to teach English in Vietnam, we know just the place.

Can you find Nadine in this photo?

As far as our responsibilities of teaching, we've been running the nuns through a gauntlet of speaking and writing exercises in the morning, followed with a quality nap at noon, and then finishing up in the afternoon with readings and pronunciation. When you do come to teach English, they will properly respond to all your questions with an interjected "y'all," "yes maam," and "I didn't know there was a New Mexico either" in their best Texas drawl. During our first day of pronunciation of the letter "p", I sucessfully managed to have a nun say the word "poop". It could be useful.

These nuns are honestly some of the nicest people on earth you could meet. Others might be just as nice, but none nicer. Great people with big hearts. Even though their Vietnamese New Year is in February, they celebrated ours on January 1st with us and by presenting us flowers and necklaces.

What is Nadine teaching these nuns in the middle of the video?

Another quality that they own and have in common with my grandma White is that they will feed you until the cows come home. Everytime we turn around, it's "would you like some more fish, or some bread, or maybe some lemon juice. We have some tasty chocolate in the fridge. Nadine, you should be drinking more milk." So in preparation for our weekend trip to the beach, they even bought us some beer. They are doing us up right. Maybe we will have to stay longer, or maybe that is what they are trying to do by giving us a six pack of beer, bait us into staying longer.

You never wear your shoes inside

Here are links to videos and additional photos that we have added.
Video of Nadine in Thailand, at bottom - Oh Koh Lanta, Get Off My Jungle Gym
Pictures from Angkor Wat - Running Among Cobras and Angkor Wat
Pictures from HCMC - Christmas Scooters Gone Wild

The person with the correct answer to this weeks question will win and receive a postcard from this weeks answer;

What was the former name of Ho Chi Mihn City before 1975?

Good luck. Life is good for us. We are doing well and enjoying teaching. Hope you enjoyed the 29th blog entry from our trip around the world!

JW

Nadine and I are back together here in Ho Chi Mihn City, Vietnam after my week of running around Angkor Wat and Cambodia solo. We are glad to be back together again.

My bus from Cambodia chugged a little faster across the border than Nadine's plane, so I was the first to touch Vietnamese ground, and thus I had the responsibility of checking into and finding our hostel. After a diverted taxi ride around central HCMC to simply go two blocks, I was in our hostel. But as soon as I dropped my bags in our room, I was back in another taxi to pick up Nadine at the airport.

I was at the airport an hour early so I took advantage of the time to eat and talk with people outside the airport exit. Because my banter impeded my ability to watch consistenly the exit, Nadine exited and I never noticed. As she walked around 5 minutes looking for me, I then decided to walk around looking for her, and just as I began walking, Nadine rounded the corner with an instantaneous relieved look. Back together again at least. Just imagine two folks running across a wheat field in a made for t.v. movie in slow motion, except Nadine was lugging her backpack and a little peanut sized baby.

Your first impressions of HCMC right off of the plane and bus are not going to be "this is a beautiful, quiet, relaxed place with a couple of scooters and cars." Heck no, you are hit upside your head that this place has either began cloning scooters with great efficiency or all 6 million people here own 2 of them. HCMC doesn't have alot of green space so I can't say that this place is way too green, no, I might say that it's way to gray in contrast.

As you walk around HCMC trying to avoid being hit by scooters or cars, you realize this place is just plain chaotic. But, a big but here, there are a few parks that provide refuge. Just jump in one of these and the pollution, bleeps from horns, and passing vecichles are now 400 meters away, and you are in your little land of bliss. Momentarily.

Crossing the street is a true adventure!

During our time here, we have spent a good amount of time looking for temp teaching jobs, but we did go visit one place of interest, the Reunification Palace. This was the presidential palace until Viet Comm took over the palace in April 1975. What really makes this place interesting other than the fact that it was once a presidential palace was all the great furniture, carpet, and styles directly from the 70's. Shaggadelic baby! Oh yea!

***New Photo*** Did he read the sign?

As the two videos illustrate, crossing the road here is truly an adventure in itself. There is a proven method to successfully crossing the street even if it does go against everything your mind and body tell you to do at the same moment. You begin walking across the street very slowly, but always keeping your eye contact with oncoming traffic and the drivers. They will slyly and very closely pass you, but not hit you. And if there are two and a half of you crossing, you hold hands just like you are in kindgergarden and stay shoulder to shoulder. The one thing you don't want to do is just stand there, that would throw them for a loop, and they would have no choice other than running over you for this bad decision.

***New Photo*** View of Royalty from the Royal Palace, HCMC

Everywhere you go in HCMC, you are approached to buy something, fruit, watches, tours, illegal substances, small children, individual cities, and coconuts. We have grown to love coconuts during our trip. After we walked out of the Reunification Palace, I figured we should take some video of me crossing the street safely over to the other side were two boys selling coconuts stood. Of note, they carry the coconuts with a bamboo stick over their shoulders attached to a pan with coconuts on one end and a cooler on the other. I figured I would have some fun with them, and I would help sell some coconuts for them. Maybe the novelty of a white westerner selling them would drum up some more business. A group of Japanese tourists did walk by amused and asked me how much they cost, but never bought any. They did laugh though. So I need to work on my coconut selling skills for the future.

My strategy from the street corner was to yell, "Buy your fresh coconut juice, only 10,000 dong!" Not only was this a surprise to tourists, but it was a big surprise to locals driving their scooters. Taking their eyes off of the road and focusing them on to me, I caused a scooter on car accident. As people cranned their necks around to look at me, they forgot about the immediate intimacy of each other. Fortunately noone was hurt in the scooter-car pileup, but the three people on the scooter were a little shaken, not stirred. I guess I have to find another corner to work on my coconut juice selling skills for the safety of us all.

Coconut seller and sellee

To properly celebrate Christmas, we decided to attend Christmas Eve night Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral. As we walked towards the centrally located church, we found it more and more difficult to walk through thousands of people. Never expecting it, the Vietnamese were celebrating Christmas full throttle around the church. We had to walk through thousands upon thousands of people dancing, throwing firecrackers, spraying each other with shaving cream and silly string and the occasional tourist, and this was just to reach the front gates of the church.

Upon reaching the front gates with only glitter on our cheeks, we sat there with hundreds of people pushing up against the front gates. I felt like a piece of meat in a burrito, but I was a big piece of meat, so I could watch everything happen over the heads of the short Vietnamese squished around me. After 30 minutes of not being able to get into church, we used our "whiteness" to learn why we couldn't get in. They told us that the entrance was on the other side of the cathedral via a side door. Just like that, we were in church without the pressing crowd surrounding us. Once inside, we sat among a couple thousand Vietnamese and a few Westerners sitting down in pews, directly behind a pillar. So we sat and listened to Mass in Vietnamese staring at a big piece of concrete. Half way into service, the ushers opened the front gates, and a wave of people waiting outside rushed in. As the pews were already completely full, the crowd filled up the vacant aisles, and as we sat there, we were among at least 5,000 people. Without a doubt, this was the craziest Mass we had ever attended. Merry Christmas to all 5,000 of y'all, or at least the thousand of you within 20 feet of me!

To complete our Christmas week celebrations, we went bowling again just for the heck of it. We were both equally astonished as I started off our game with 4 strikes, that's a turkey plus a turkey leg. I was one pin away from 5 strikes in a row. After a weak middle section of the game, I finished off with two more strikes, and a total score of 191. Personal high score. Who knew we would realize our bowling prowess on this trip. Anybody from New Mexico want a game and think they can keep their bowling ball out of the arroyas?

Dancing. That is something we both like to do. During our travels we have created a new dance, the Under Budget Dance. Anytime we stay under our budget for the day, we end the day with our dance. Simply put both arms out like the macareina, do the cabbage patch, and sing "We're under budget," and you have successfully done the Under Budget Dance. Why is this of importance? We have stayed under budget everyday in Vietnam, so we've been dancing alot at night. So when you are sitting at work at 10 a.m. and feel like joining us, just stand up and do the dance.

Life is good for all two and a half of us. Our checkup with the doctor in Bangkok went well and all of the tests came back, and Nadine is in good health. We set up a two week stint teaching English to a group of nuns over at their nunery.

Enjoy your holiday break and have a great New Years. Have a drink for us and Nadine will have a juice and I will have Saigon Red for y'all.

Peace and Love
J.W.