More Exploration of HCMC

During our second week in Ho Chi Minh City we've gotten a little more settled and seen some more of the local, less-frequented sites and restaurants. Oh yeah – and I won a 4k on Sunday and got a free business class plane ticket!  More on that below. Some of the more practical news from this week: our first shipment of stuff from the US arrived, so we now have a few more clothes, toiletries, food, etc. This might sound boring, but it was much anticipated! Also, we hired a cook/housekeeper that makes delicious food twice a week!

On the fun side, we took field trips with our language teacher to a temple, the local zoo (learning animal names!) and a "water puppet" show. The temple was beautiful with 7 levels and various representations of the Buddha throughout. We interviewed a monk who was reluctant to talk at first, but then launched into a detailed description of his beliefs (of which I understood very little!). The zoo was interesting – orangutan, monkeys, crocodiles, white tigers, civet cats, etc – though it seems they should dedicate more of the proceeds to animal food. The water puppet show had to be one of the highlights of the week. It's an art of telling stories about the countryside using puppets in/over water set to traditional music with narration in Vietnamese (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_puppetry). These guys were super-skilled and we totally enjoyed it.

On the weekend, we had originally planned to take a hydrofoil to a nearby beach community called Vung Tao. Unfortunately, the return tickets were sold out, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. After waiting out a huge rain storm drinking coffee and reading our books in a café, we made our way out to Chinatown (a place called Cholon) where we toured a half-dozen different beautiful temples and were generally overwhelmed by the huge number of people, scooters, and stores. It was way more dense (and less clean) than where we live in district 1, but very interesting and "alive." We opted to walk home (about 4 miles) and saw every imaginable kind of store. We also witnessed our first scooter accident (scooter with 2 people meets bicycle), which didn't result in any major injuries – it's a wonder these things don't happen more often.

I started Sunday with a fun run. It was a charity event put on by the British Business Group in Vietnam and about 6000 people entered. Despite not running at all for about 2 months and a couple nagging injuries, I somehow managed to gut out a win (with a course record!). The whole thing was pretty interesting – I started in the middle of the pack and wove through strollers, rollerbladers, flag wavers, and a marching band to make my way to the front by the first mile. People were running in all manner of gear, including a fair number of barefoot competitors. Once I reached the police escort, things improved, though about 400 meters from the finish I had to literally jump/run over a wall of moving scooters that had failed to heed the flashing police sirens. The prize for my efforts?  Free Adidas gear/shoes and a business class plane ticket to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, or Bangkok. Nice!

After the award presentation, a performance by a Cuban band that plays locally, and a nice breakfast to celebrate, Nikki and I headed to the local horse track for a different kind of race. The entry fee was a mere 50 cents and for another $5 we sat in the VIP section, which had air conditioning. We won all that back and more with a 30:1 bet on a horse that miraculously got 1st place. Could this be a new career? After we got home we did a little work on our scuba nitrox certification. We take the practical portion on Tuesday, so we'll be certified before we go diving in Nha Trang this weekend. In the evening, we tried out a cool restaurant called Bobby Brewers that has a mini-movie theatre upstairs where you can watch free (probably bootleg) films if you order dinner. We enjoyed some mindless action-thriller (Predators) before strolling home in a light drizzle.

Here's the food update: We've been eating at home more often, but explored some more small-scale restaurants as well (after our first week of frequenting the nicest places around). We've tried out a few of the ubiquitous pho (beef noodle soup) restaurants, including a local chain called Pho 24. I'm definitely a fan, even though it often includes a random assortment of beef parts (including tripe). Another great local dish is Banh Xeo, which is basically a crepe/omelet thing with shrimp and pork wrapped in a lettuce leaf with mint and cilantro. Sound weird? It is! But super delicious. We went to a hole in the wall place (maybe "side of the street" is a better description) that specialized in the dish. The good news is that it was fantastic and we only had minor gastrointestinal issues afterwards. Other colorful dishes from this week included a "fishball coke" (half a coke with a tray of fried unidentified fish balls floating on top – yummy after-school treat) and a "California burrito" (definitely not a burrito, but not a bad attempt).

We are continuing to make friends and settle in. Nikki is looking into a book club and I have my usual soccer practice. I also got a chance to play cards last week with some US and Aussie expats which hopefully will be a regular thing. This week is our last one in language immersion before Nikki starts work formally, so we're planning on a bit more fun before getting down to business.

First week in Vietnam

Wow! So much happens in a week! We are absolutely loving life here. The food is delicious, we've made some great friends, and there is so much exploring to do! This first week Nikki and I were both in one on one language class for 4 hours each day, followed by field trips or exploring on our own. The teachers are wonderful and I feel like we're learning a lot (though we (I) have a looong way to go). The other folks that work at the consulate are fun, and we've already found friends interested in travel, biking, tennis, rock climbing, a dinner club, billiards, etc. We're making local friends too – the soccer team I'm playing on is mostly local guards, and after practice this week we sat at a streetside vendor practicing our respective Vietnamese/English skills. I had this surreal feeling riding on the back of a scooter under the full moon to the place, then explaining the rules of baseball to my new friends. Plenty of interesting foreigners too – yesterday I met an expat who has been doing biodiesel/alternative fuel work in this part of the world.

This weekend has been super fun. On Saturday, Nikki and I went with the language immersion program to a Cao Dai temple and the Cu Chi tunnels, northwest of town a couple hours. We passed time on the long ride out singing Vietnamese songs and practicing listening while our guide explained the sights (I understood maybe 5%). What we learned is that Cao Dai is this interesting religion founded in 1926 in Vietnam which combines aspects of Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity and counts among its prophets Sun Yat-sen (leader of Chinese revolution), Victor Hugo and Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm (Vietnamese poet/official) (more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cao_dai) The temple was beautiful and we witnessed a very colorful service. I didn't take any pictures of the people themselves, as it didn't seem cultural appropriate, but the white, red, blue, and yellow colors were all very vivid. After a lunch with the class (I ate snake) we headed to the cu chi tunnels, which are a huge (hundreds of kilometers) network of underground tunnels that the Viet Cong used during the war. We followed some for a few hundred meters (they are maybe 4 feet tall, hot, and dark) and got to see how the Vietnamese lived while they fought in the war. They also had a display of all the different traps that the Viet Cong used during the war - they usually involved numerous spikes impaling the body via some king of hinged trap door – yikes.

On Sunday we explored the immediate city a bit more. We checked out the backpacker district, where there are funky stores selling old propaganda posters, interesting t-shirts, and interesting art. We bought guidebooks for Bali, Hong Kong, Singapore, only to get home and discover they were each photocopies of actual books! Live and learn! We also visited a market selling old army gear – helmets, fatigues, compasses, gas masks, dog tags, etc. When we had seen enough, we flagged down a unique form of Vietnamese transportation called a "cyclo" for a ride over to the Chinese part of town called Cholon (big market). A cyclo is pretty much a pedicab where the passenger sits in front of the bike rider. Nikki and I squeezed in one cyclo at first, which was piloted by a man who appeared to be over 100 years old and had only one tooth remaining. Since we've been eating so well (see below) and clearly represented a hefty load together, a second cylco appeared so that each of our voluptuous selves could have our own vehicle.  It was great fun tearing through the city on the front of the cyclos and luckily Saigon's daily torrential downpour didn't start until we reached our destination. We did a bit of shopping and came home in time for me to make it to my soccer game (which we won!).

No update from us would be complete without a description of the food situation. It's fantastic. Nikki and I have been eating out almost every night and this city has every cuisine imaginable. Vietnamese food itself is great – fresh ingredients, delicious soups, lots of veggies, and plenty of seafood – and on top of that it's super cheap. And no one has gotten sick…yet. Some highlights from the week include dinner on a posh rooftop near our apartment overlooking the whole city (restaurant Shri); lunch with our teacher Co Binh at an architect's sustainable-food driven restaurant which integrates old materials, local plants, and animals into the décor (restaurant Cục Gạch); lunch at a French colonial-style café, with delicious soups, salads, and coffee (the Refinery); and a gourmet all you can eat Vietnamese dinner where we had three desserts (restaurant We). We've also sampled local Indian, Italian, and Mexican(?) food (all good, though the Mexican food was a bit strange). Last night I had a different kind of dinner experience when I went with my soccer team to a restaurant owned by one of our sponsors. Sitting in a private room where our beer and chivas glasses (yes, both) never went unfilled, we were brought course after course of awesome food – whole prawns, fish cakes, some kind of baked invertebrate, hot pot, and my fave – durian (which thank goodness tastes waaay better than it smells!).

So life is good so far and we are just getting started. We are already planning trips regionally and within Vietnam. Our air freight is getting here Wednesday, though I think the bulk of our household effects are still a long way off. Our car also won't be arriving for some time, though I think we might buy a scooter in the meantime (we found out our US motorcycle licenses will transfer over – yay!). Looking forward to another action-packed week!

Welcome to Saigon!

We made it! From DC to San Francisco to Maui to Hong Kong and finally to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City. It took many months of preparation and two weeks of travel, but we have finally arrived at our new home in the southern part of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. We've only been here for a little over two days, but Nikki and I think we're going to like it here.

First or all, our apartment is amazing. Three bedrooms, a big kitchen, and a ton of windows. From our living room we can look out over a big park and a busy street with hundreds and hundreds of scooters. There's a pool and a rooftop where we can BBQ too. We are right downtown and there are a ton of really cool restaurants and shops. We've been exploring with the help of our fantastic sponsors – Robert and Kong – who have been making sure our transition goes smoothly. Yesterday (Saturday), they took us on a tour of the city, including Ben Thanh Market, which had everything you can imagine for sale. My favorite part was the seafood section. They had clams, squid, snails, eels, and a million kinds of fish. We've done a little exploring by ourselves too, and are slowly learning to cross the street. Here's the method: you wait until traffic lightens up a bit, and then just start walking slowly and steadily across the street while cars, scooters, and bicycles go around you. The city is an interesting mix of old and new, with both historical buildings and holdovers from the French, as well as new malls and skyscrapers. Looking forward to exploring further!

On Friday, I went with Nikki to the consulate for orientation. Everyone is sooo friendly and welcoming! There's this great sense of community, and people seem to hang out outside of work quite a bit – both locals and Americans. It sounds like the work will be challenging for Nikki at times, but that people are very supportive of one another (her supervisors also have great attitudes). I'm getting to know people too, and by our second day had joined the consulate soccer team. We had our first game yesterday (against the Indonesian consulate) and I didn't embarrass myself too much.

Tomorrow Nikki and I start a language immersion program, so we'll be back to improving our Vietnamese skills. We've got three weeks of that before Nikki starts her formal job. By then, I'm hoping to have a few more leads on environmental opportunities and I've already got some great contacts to follow up on. We will be sure to keep you all updated!

Hong Kong – City of the Future

Wow. Nikki and I had a 24 layover in Hong Kong and it has to be one of the coolest places in the world. There's this breathtaking quality about it – something having to do with the huge green mountains, huge steel buildings, water everywhere, and mix of traditional and modern. Too bad it's ridiculously expensive! Oh well, that's the price of the future I guess!

We got in late in the afternoon and took the nearly silent high speed train in to town for a quick bite and a view of the nighttime skyline from the IFC mall. We were wiped from the 13 hr flight though, so made it an early night and returned the next morning for more sight-seeing. We started with Dim Sum at Luk Yu Teahouse, where we more or less randomly ordered whatever went floating past. Result – total deliciousness, including a weird-looking black gelatinous mass which I discovered to be a yummy tapioca-like concoction. We attempted to burn a few calories walking to our next destination, but found that a huge moving walkway existed that would do the work for us! We took in every kind of interesting shop and restaurant you can imagine as we glided up into the hills behind the city center. After stepping off the meandering walkway and hoofing it (like a sucker) to the peak tram, we shot to the top of the highest mountain around for incredible views of the city, mountains, ocean, and surrounding islands. It kinda reminded me of Rio, but with bigger buildings, no hangliders, and the occasional coal-fired power plant or strip mine on the horizon. We made our way down the hill to the water and took the ferry across to Kowloon, which apparently has every chic store known to man amongst some crazy tall buildings. We had fun people watching and taking in the sights while making our way back to the train and eventually the airport.

We just got a taste of the city, but had a ton on fun. Definitely warrants a return visit – maybe for the Redbull Luftag in a few weeks?

Quick Trip to Maui

It's been a while since Nikki had a vacation, so we arranged for a couple days off in Maui before arriving to start work in Ho Chi Minh City. Man, I looove Maui and it was a very relaxing couple of days! Chuck and Jacqui arranged for us all to spend a night down at the Prince in Makena, and we took full advantage of the location with some beach time, lounging by the pool, and a wonderful dinner and brunch. One of the highlights for me was paddleboarding/kayaking – we saw turtles and dolphins during our two sessions and even Jacqui tried the standup – now I see where Nikki gets her coordination! On the way back up-country, we stopped for drinks/pupus at the country club, but not before Nikki/Jacqui did some shopping in Paia and I hit up Hookipa for a (much warmer than SF) surf session – I'm always amazed at the number of turtles in the water there and am sure I'm breaking some federal environmental protections just paddling around!

 

We took a quick trip to the Big Island to visit with Grams, since we weren't able to make her 90^th b-day party a couple weeks ago. It was a somber time, as her brother was not well and has since moved on, but we were glad to be there for support. It was good to catch up with Reg, Susan, Jonesy, Lisa, Naia, and everyone and we were sorry to miss the rest of the family that was out of town – Nadine and Gary – your house is beautiful!

 

After heading back to Maui on a tiny 9 seat plane, we got to work on final preparations for our departure. This included me getting a Hawaii driver's license after (barely) passing the driving and motorcycle tests. We spent our last day engaged in the entirely unexciting, yet necessary, process of canceling all our various contracts and changing addresses. For those interested – we are keeping our same email addresses and phone numbers (through Vonage). Finally, we packed up all our stuff – four 50 lb bags, 2 backpacks, a huge carryon, and beautiful Kirk Kurokawa original painting from Chuck and Jacqui (anniversary present) and headed to the Kahului airport. So – it's goodbye USA for 2 yrs and hello Vietnam!