Vietnam - Day 2 - 3/2/09

The second day we visited the Mekong Delta. It is a few hours outside of Siagon. On the drive down we stopped to look at a rice field. It looks very similar to a wheat field!

About half way through the drive we stopped at a rest area that was privatly owned. Everyone in the country calls the restroom the "Happy Place" because you go there and afterwards you feel happy. This rest stop was like nothing I have ever seen... absoloutely beautiful!!!

The Mekong Delta is famous for the floating markets. People arrive in boats from all over the country to sell their goods. The put an example of what they are selling high up on a poll for everyone to see. There boats have eyes painted on the front to scare away the sea monsters.

We witnessed many of the locals at work. They work very hard and only earn about 1-2 USD/day. We saw demonstrations of them making pop rice (like popcorn), coconut candy, rice paper, and bricks.

We had lunch at a “rich house.” During the war they had to bury the intricate wood working parts of their house because they would be ruined. Parts have been restored due to termite damage. There was WAY too much food at lunch, multiple courses. Started with veggie soup, mostly tasted like corn. Then they brought a whole fish. They helped us to wrap pieces of the fish in rice paper with cucumber, star fruit, and pineapple. Then they brought us fried sticks (we don’t know what they were). Then they brought huge prawns. Then we had Vietnamese pork and rice. Then they brought finger bananas and grapefruit. After lunch we walked around the houses’ fruit and fish farms.

After lunch we almost got stuck on the delta. The tide went down and we had to turn around. We visited a brick factory... where they didn’t really want us to be visiting

After getting off the boat we visited a Temple. Here they worship a combination of Buddhism, Catholic, Toaism, Confucianism. Worship the left eye b/c it is closer to the heart.

We saw the very dangerous result of car vs. cyclo on the way back to Saigon. The car won.

After arriving back in Saigon we were exhausted... still not recovered from the long flight. Stacy took a long nap and we (of course) took advantage of the wonderful happy hour, with food and drink, at the Marriott hotel. After the nap we went to a London bar/restaurant called The Underground. We had surprisingly good beer & pizza. We met a guy in the hotel elevator the noticed Joe’s KC Royals t-shirt. He questioned us, saying “Royals? You don’t see that too often.” He was actually from KC. His jaw dropped when we said that we lived in Parkville. He was from Lenexa and was actually staying in the room next to ours.

Vietnam - Day 1 - 3/1/09

We slept in very late the day after arriving in Vietnam. It was lunch time already so we headed to Pho 2000. This is the place that President Clinton ate while he was here a few years ago. The food was delicious and CHEAP. This whole meal was about $4 USD

We also went to the Behn Thang Market that day, which is similar to the City Market where people come to sell fruits, clothing, and anything else they want to sell. This area was pretty crazy as the pathways were only a few feet wide and the merchants were pretty aggressive in trying to get people to buy from them. At one of the shops, we saw they were selling "snake wine", which is pretty common here. It is a liquor that is about 30-40% alcohol and they put a whole Cobra and a Scorpion in the bottle with it.

After browsing the market we went to the War Remnants Museum. They had a lot of the old US planes, tanks, and bombs that were used in the Vietnam War. Inside, there were a lot of pictures and stories of what occurred during the war from Vietnam's perspective, which was pretty interesting.

We walked around the city a little more and then relaxed by the rooftop pool the rest of the afternoon.

p.s. Today was my birthday. The hotel remembered (from our passport information). There were roses in the room for me. This wasn't something Joe requested either :)