Private Tour

March 29th

• One hour till we depart for our private tour. The tour operator came by this morning to give us our plane tickets and to go over the itinery again.
• He also gave us 2 golf shirts and ball caps with the words "TIC Tours" emblazed in big bold letters across them. Just incase people can't recognize us as foreigners with our height, cameras and American clothing - they can now see the shirts and ball caps and say to themselves "yup...there goes some tourists!"
• We had thought there would be other people joining us on the tour when we reach the other cities - but that is not the case. Only tour guides are meeting us at each destination. I have a list of guides that I'm suppose to look for at the airports.
• My mom is a worry-wart so now she wants to go on tour with us too. We had asked her days ago with us but she hummed-and-hawed about it. Now that she heard we're having a "private" tour - she's worried that they will take us out to some remote location and rob us or worst. Lol - I said she's not a very bodyguard for KA and I and that we'll probably be taking care of her more than she of us.
• Everyone is worried that something will happen to us while on tour. My uncle gave us his cell phone and I've got a booklet of "emergency" phone numbers to call. :-) It's sweet that they worry but KA and I have travelled alone before and are not worried.
• My mom has invited Chi Trang to come along as well. So hopefully it will us 4 girls touring. It all depends on whether or not they can get onto our flight at last minute though. They've gone to pack and will head to the airport to buy a ticket there. I'm sure that with the "right" amount of money they can get a flight out with us. Money can make things happen quickly over here.
• KA's tummy is still upset from lastnight's catfish meal. She's sucking on the pepto bismal tablets (which I carry everywhere with me). We went out for Bun Bo Hue and an ice coffee this morning with some family members. That seems to be our regular breakfast menu these days. Nothing like hot soup to start off a hot day. But we're always greatful for the ice coffee as it's strong enough to keep us awake.
• I don't know what the food will be like with the tour. I hope the tour guides are interesting people. If not then we only have to be with each guide for a maximum of 2 days before we go to our next destination.

Banking 101

Day 12 - March 28th

• We're set to go on our semi-private tour of the north. We have to be out at the airport at 10am tomorrow morning to catch a flight and then meet our first tour guide in Da Nang. I doubt I will be able to update this site during the tour. You'll have to wait till we get back to Nha Trang.
• The tour is 6 days/5 nights for a total cost of approximately $450 CDN each. It covers transporation, accomodations, food and events. One of the events we're attending is an opera in the Imperial Palace in Hue and snorkeling trip in Halong. Should be fun! :-) We were told that if we wanted to - certain parts of the palace will allow you to dress up in the old royal costumes and take pictures (I'm sure we'll be given a "good deal" for this - NOT!).
• This morning KA and I wanted to embark on a bank to exchange our CDN money for some Dongs. So far we've been changing our cash with a local jewelery store. KA had brought travellers cheques. Our cousin called up a taxi for us and told him to take us to the ACB Bank (which stands for Ao Chau Bank - which translates to the Hong Kong bank).
• The cabbie looked at us strangely and said that the bank was in walking distance and asked if we just wanted to walk. Our cousin insisted that we use the taxi as he was concerned we wouldn't be able to find the bank. So the taxi drove us 2 blocks and dropped us off. As we got out he told me that the cab ride cost $15,000 Dongs. I flipped out - as that's the same price to travel across town to my aunts house! But I paid him anyways as we forgot to negotiate a price before getting into taxi and he was barking back that it was only like a $1 CDN to us. That's not the point - it's the ethics behind it. We want to reduce the number of times people screw us over. We expect it but this was highway robbery!
• When we went inside the bank - which was nicely air conditioned - they told KA that they don't accept travellers cheques and gave her the address to another bank. We decided to walk instead of getting another taxi.
• The second bank was an international bank - with english words on it's doors! Yah! The tellers and system over here is very strange. No one stands in a line. People budge in wherever they can and a teller can service multiple people at one counter. I learned this as I patiently waited behind this lady - I gave up and went to see what KA was doing. KA as talking to a teller and filling out some paperwork for her travellers cheque when a lady walked up beside her and did some transactions. The other lady got her stuff finish faster than KA.
• KA is still not familiar with counting the currency over here - too many zeros so she gets confused. She asked for a calculator so that she can double check the money that the teller gave her. She doesn't trust anyone. Even with the calculator she counted incorrectly. I had finished changing my money and recounted it quickly. I counted her money for her as the teller was getting irritated with her using the calculator for so long. I don't think numbers are KA strongest academic area. Though she would probably yell at me if I told her that! ;-) Plus I was trying to horde the counter space as I wasn't too keen with the whole idea of the teller counting out my money then couting out someone else's money right beside me - the piles are too close to each other and can get mixed up. This is where being "super-tall" and not skinny comes in handy! Lol - no one approached our counter when both of us stood side by side infront of it.
• We took a picture of the stacks of money we carried home. We've never had so many stacks of $500,000 Dongs. Lol - we were more than billionaires! Realistically it was just a couple of thousand in Canadian money. KA even got a $200 Dong coin today. I'm not sure what you can buy with that.
• On our walk back, KA wanted coffee (she was going through withdrawl again). So we found a coffee shop that had a fan and some beach chairs. It was indoors and no beggars bugged us to buy postcards, peanuts or lottery tickets. That was the greatest part. We might go back to that store again just for the peace and quiet. When we ordered our ice coffees we joked about how they would probably charge us double the price because the coffee shop was desserted and near the beach strip. The coffees turned out to be regular price - $4,000 Dongs for each cup (about $0.35) which we were happy with.
• KA bought socks and full length gloves on the way back home. She's really getting into the whole "stay white" mentality that's over here. As many of you who have been to other parts of Asia can attest - the beauty supplies, creams, etc contain some kind of bleaching or "whitening" agent. Guess it has something to do with social class.
• I wear my face/neck/hair masks (have 2 of them now) just to stop people from asking me why I'm not sheilding my face. The other day I reminded KA about how she had first saw people wearing the face masks and made fun of them - saying that the face masks were just germ traps and nothing more. Now she's the one that insists on getting many of these masks.
• So the weather is 32 degrees again. KA is sporting full length pants, socks, tank top, jacket, full-length gloves, hat and her smaller face mask (reminds me of and N-95 mask). I don't think she even wears that much clothing in the winter time in Vancouver! I can see she's melting as she walks. I'm just wearing my usual skirt, tank top, jacket, beach hat and face/neck/hair mask (as I don't like the look of KA's masks). On top of that we've got on our usual layer of SPF 50 and bug spray. :-)
• The face masks here come in 4 styles (face only, face/neck, face/neck/hair and full coverage - which is like a ski mask with only and opening for your eyes). I think by the end of this trip we will have a couple of fabric patterns in each style. They are sufficating but at the same time they absort the sweat that's coming off of our faces! The good thing is that they make them with light cottons and many different patterns - some cute and some trendy. Hmmm...this would be a great time to find/buy one of those visors that we see Vancouver-girls wear in Richmond. The ones that look like welding visors! :-) Might actually be better than the "genie" look that we're sporting. I think I'll use my covers on my next vacation - lol - won't that be something for people to stare at?!?
• Tonight we went down to grandmas house for dinner. They BBQ'd catfish and squid over coal stoves for us. I was wearily eyeing the catfish as it was "fresh" and just thrown onto the grill as is. My uncle gave me one on a plate and as I stared at it's face I wondered how I was going to eat this "politely". It's very rude to not eat what is offered to you here. So as I looked at my catfish my uncle demonstrated how to rip it's head off and pull the skin off. KA was no where to be found. I was wondering why she wasn't sharing in the delicacies. I forced a smile and proceeded to poke my fingers into the catfishes eyeballs and ripped it's head off. I ate one fish when KA returned from "getting the camera". She was forced to eat one fish too. My other uncle was already putting a new fish into my plate as I gave KA a "look". KA was spared from having to try the "good" parts of the fish (parts that I thought were usually thrown away in Canada but eaten in Vietnam). KA was lucky she sat on the outskirts of the group - next time we have "fresh" seafood I've got to find a spot on the floor that is away from my uncles.
• We both had to swallow some pepto bismal when we got back to our rooms.

The Tour Operator

Day 11 - March 27th

• KA got up super early to go for her daily morning run. I think she's royally nuts as it's stinking hot already. But she's a woman with a purpose. Such dedication! Though her early morning jogs make her tired by 8pm and she retires to bed. Some of the cousins think she's the "weaker" one of the 2 of us. Might be because I'm beefier so they assume I'm "healthier" - most girls over here want to be weak and delicate. Which aren't too bad of traits when combined with the mentality of the boys (who want to dominate and take care of things).
• Anh Nong (one of the brothers of the cousin we're staying with) came into Nha Trang this morning and was screaming at the store's front door (they don't have door bells here and all stores have a metal gate then the inner door). Between his wailing then half and hour the morning news blaring on the city speakers then KA wanting to be let out of the building to go for her run - no one got much sleep. Anh Nong came in from Saigon for a few days to hang out with us and needed to crash here. So we invited Chi Trang to sleep in our room (as she's the only girl cousin of the bunch). We've got a considerable large room in comparison to other rooms and it's the only in all the houses that has air conditioning.
• Chi Trang is funny. We keep the room a comfortable 20 degrees (which means the air conditioning is constantly on and the door is kept shut at all times). Chi Trang finds this too cold so she's huddled under the blankets while KA and I lay outstreched - trying to cool off. We give Chi Trang a strange look - we don't understand how she can be cold when all I want to do is sit around in my underwear.
• We went out for breakfast with mom and Auntie-7. Had some Banh Beo and Banh Cuon with 2 doses of ice coffee. KA gets headaches if she goes without coffee for too long. The coffee over here is too strong (my dad refers it to chinese medicine) so we usually drink ice coffee (which has condensed milk in it).
• KA checked the weather network today on the computer. 32 degress out but the "feels like" section says 40. Yesterday was hotter - 36 degrees. We're not fending very well and are sweating like crazy. It doesn't help when KA tries to cover her body and face during the day. Though as the days progress we're wondering if we should adopt the "white people" attitude and just wear as little as possible and not worry about sun damage.
• Today we tried to hunt down a tour operator that would be willing to take us to the north. No many would go on such short notice. There were some that offered private tours but the prices where horrendous. They might as well rob us straight up!
• Chi Trang has a friend that might be able to set something up for us though - a 7 day tour of the 3 cities we want to go to (Hue, Hanoi and Halong).
• KA has run out of cash and needs to change her travellers cheques. My parents warned us prior to the trip that everything is in cash in Nha Trang. They were right. I've been changing my CDN money with this local lady that "swears" to us she's giving me a good rate. I can't do the math (there's too many zeros involved!) - I'm oblivious to whether or not I'm getting a "good deal".
• KA and I were hungry by lunch but didn't want to go over to our grandmas house as we we're kinda getting tired of hanging with family. Hence the escape to the North part of the country.
• We had to walk quite a bit farther in search for food. Darn those siestas...nothing is like open from 1-3pm. In the more tourist bound areas then there are vendors that stay open. We found a sandwich stand, asked her how much a sandwich is (4,000 Dong was what she quoted for us). We agreed and bought 3 (bought one for Chi Trang too cause she was stuck watching the internet store).
• We went back to Chi Trang's house as KA was doing laundry over there (they have a washing machine). But KA still had to take the wet clothes back to Anh Hoan's place to hang dry. KA is getting quite the workout with just laundry duty. The laundry lines are on the roof and it's super hot up there at high noon.
• We're all packed and ready to go on the tour. Unfortunately it's nearly 4pm and the tour operator still hasn't called back with the itinery - probably taking his sweet time.
• Tonight we have to have dinner with our Aunt-9 at her farm house. We're not really excited as there's nothing to do out there but entertain the little cousins. Who want to play games or fold origami. The games they play are odd - such as this tag game except you're safe if you squat.
• A boy walked by the store today and I recognized him as he was holding a wooden pipe and hitting it with a stick. He plays quite a delightful little song on it. I mentioned it to Chi Trang and said that some of the kids here are pretty talented. Chi Trang laughed and said that was the Pho man walking up and down the streets. He advertises his food by playing that little tune on his wooden pipe. Apparently there are street vendors that roam around with their carts. They find a place to park the cart then walk around advertising the food with songs.
• There's an icecream cart lady. She rides a bicycle with a little cooler strapped to the back of it. The cooler has pictures of icecream pasted to it. Under the cooler she has strapped a little gettoblaster which plays this tinkling-metallic song. She rides up and down our street twice a day. Maybe I will buy some icecream from her later - just to see what it's all about.
• The bugs are bad today. KA and I smell like Eau-du-Skintastics with a hint of prespiration. Yummy eh? :-)
• At night I don't really care what I wear down in the store. So I sit here in my pjs (which totally look like pjs as they are laced lined) and play on the computer. The other customers sometimes look over in curiosity. They probably just think I'm a nutty foreigner. Sometimes when the store is busy then I'll pull up a chair and sit infront of the store and watch the local traffic pass by. The blender lady is usually open and I'll grab a bag of blended fruit from her to drink while I people-watch. Yes - this is probably creepy behavior in Canada so it must seem even odder here. :-)
• We got good news tonight though - the final draft of the intinery is done and that the tour guide will bring it by tomorrow morning for us to review it. I'm looking forward to sightseeing!

75 cent Xit-Lo rides

It's about 10pm sunday night and I'm waiting for the "right" time to call Vancouver. I'm still on my quest to get my mom a flight home with the rest of us. The attempt the other day was very disheartening.

• We didn't do too much this evening. KA and I layed around in our room (as we always do) from 12 - 3pm. We've rendered ourselves useless during those 3 hours of the day. Too hot to go out and do anything. But lying around got boring too. We've finished listening to book 2 of the "The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe" series. We've started book 3 of the 6 book series. It's so much easier listening to the audio books - that way we can pretend to do stuff at the same time.
• KA got into her homemaker mode and decided to sweep and mop the floors in Anh Hoan's place. I felt guilty so I went to the bathroom and did some more laundry. We're doing laundry on a daily basis now. Throwing a few pieces into the bucket, washing it and then taking it to the roof to hang dry. I'm careful not to lock myself out on the roof now.
• KA did her best with the floors but they didn't seem any cleaner after her hard work (the first time she dipped the mop back into the bucket - the water turned black...so she mopped the rest of the house with black water) - she actually broke out in a sweat as there are 3 floors in this building. Not including the bottom floor which is the internet station part - VERY dirty down there. The problem in Vietnam is that it's so dusty here. :-) Definately not a good place for my "white" obsession. But I wear tons of white anyhow - old habits are hard to break. To make up for it I have been bleaching my clothes on a regular basis. KA said she discovered little black bugs that would crawl away as the mop headed towards them. The mop is strange too. It's basically a clamp on a stick. So you can put any kind of cloth in it - there were T-shirts in it. I think that if KA had to mop the ground on her hands and knees she would refuse.
• In the afternoon we called up a "xit lo" (which is a guy who bikes your around in a big chair thing). That's our third mode of transportation (first being our feet and second is the motorbikes). We bargain for 10,000 dongs (which is about 75 cents) for a ride to the supermarket area. Both of us climb into the little chair (realistically it's only meant for one person but the xit-lo guys here are greedy and don't want to share in the money so they insist that they can push the both of us). I sat in the chair as I'm much bigger than KA - she manages to squeeze her little bum onto whatever leftover piece of ripped plastic is left. It's really easy for me to find these guys on the street as I'm pretty much a magnet for anyone who wants to make a buck (darn those short vietnamese girls!).
• Our xit-lo guy today was pretty scrawny and was huffing a bit when he reached the supermarket (which is 7 or 8 city blocks away). He was doing much better than this other guy we used - who was having a REAL problem with us as he lost his momentum on a hill and was starting to roll backwards. It was our fault really - we passed by a bicycle stand and waved at it. KA and I were only commenting to ourselves that we should check out the prices of a bicycle as some of our younger cousins want to exploit us and have been hinting of what kinds of "gifts" would make them happy. KA has already had requests for bicycles, watches, clothes, origami books/paper, etc. Most of the kids don't ask me as as I hold a more formal "title" here. KA is really good with giving money to the "cute" beggar children. She tries to change some of our larger currency into coins in the morning so that she has money for the kids. We don't want to give them large currency. KA and I basically carry 50,000 and 100,000 Dong bills. :-) Hard to bargain with vendors when they see your wallet full of red and green bills. Lol - we've got to start looking "poorer".
• That's one thing that we're still getting use to. The whole use of titles. We're not known as "Kim" or "Kim Anh". Depending on which house the person is from and where they rank in the immediate family - our titles and theirs change appropriately. KA still uses the wrong word for "aunt" (there are 4 versions of "aunt" in vietnamese - depending if the aunt is a sister on your mom's side or your dad's side and if she's older or younger than your mom or your dad). So it works the same with "uncle" as well. To complicate matters worst is that it's not like Canada where you would say "Uncle Jerry". Here it's about ranking. So you would say "younger-aunt-on-my-dad's-side-number-6". The numbering system is off too. I hold the "big-sister-number-2" title (which is the top title for a girl in any household). The kids are named 2, 3, 4, etc. I'm not sure why there is no "1".
• So I'm "big-sister-number-2" to all cousins who are children of aunts or uncles that rank lower than my dad. The cousins if they want call KA "big-sister-number-3" but some of the younger generations drop the formalities and just address her "big-sister-Anh". :-) When I'm not being called by one of my titles then everyone here uses my "real" Vietnamese name - which is "Hoang". It's strange having everyone call me that for such a long period of time. KA is not use be being called "Anh" either (which can also mean "big brother"). I get called Hoang every now and then from the older folks in Vancouver but they visit on such a rare occasion. I'm not use to it and forget to respond sometimes when an "older" person calls me. :-) The fun thing with ranking is that age has no effect on your title. I have to call all the cousins on my mom's side "big brother" or "big sister" because my mom is the youngest in her family. So one of the cousins we hang out with is in grade 6 and his title out does mine! Lol...I told him that he should treat me out for coffee/dinner as he's my "big brother".
• My sisters and my parents refer to me as "chi hai" (big-sister-number-2) at home so I'm use to that title. KA finds it unfair as she says it's much more respectable than "chi Kim Anh". I laughed and said "too bad" - so she continues to call me Chi Hai for my parents sake.
• In the afternoon as we wandered around the supermarket (MaxiMart) area. I found a store that actually had some shirts my size. Yah!! I don't know the misery I have had in the last week and a half in terms of find something that would fit! Goodness - I need to go to Saigon (so much more in the big city). So I bought 6 shirts for 60,000 Dongs each (approximately $5.25 each). They don't bargain in these "modern" stores but I was happy enough to find something that fit so I didn't care.
• I found a really nice bracelet in a jewelery store but the girl wouldn't lower the price for me. I was mad so I didn't buy it. KA bought a pair of silver star earings for $5.50 there. My bracelet cost too much (in Vietnamese standards) so I passed up on it. I'm sure I can find others.
• On the way home KA and I stopped by a bakery. There was so many pasteries that looked yummy and the prices were just cents! So we bought 3 bags worth - ended up costing us $8. We didn't need that much food but it's so cheap and we haven't had pasteries in awhile. We were craving "snack" food. Life over here is different - no fridges means that everything is bought in the morning and cooked right away.
• With afternoon "siestas" - it's super hard to find a local vendor selling something edible or drinkable from the hours of 1-4pm. Right beside my cousin's store is the Blender-lady. She makes fruit smoothies for everyone. So good as the fruit is super fresh...mmm. Nha Trang has awesome fruit!
• Kay - I haven't killed enough time yet. I'll stop boring you for today.
• I was on the net surfing for tours out of Nha Trang (looks like we might need a "plan B" for our tour of the north). We haven't been able to find a tour operator who is leaving in the next couple of days that will take us. We might have to just find our own transportation and accomodations in each destination.
• Here's a someone else's blog that I came across - which I found fun to read as it's similiar to our impressions of Nha Trang. Tales of Asia. You can read if you are absolutely bored of my bantering and want to read something more witty. :-)

Bug Bites and Bruises

Day 10 - March 26th

• We haven't done much today. KA got up at 5am to go for a run. I was too lazy to go down to the beach for a swim so I layed in bed.
• We went out for breakfast with Anh Hoan and his friend. Had rice today instead of soup. After breakfast we stopped by a tourist spot to take some pictures then headed to a coffee shop.
• The coffee shop was gorgeous. Japanese style with fish ponds and little pillows to sit on. We took some pictures. Had ice-coffee (which is standard here) and dried watermelon seeds. This is the second nicest coffee shop we've been to on our trip.
• For lunch we went down to our grandma's house for lunch - sat on the floor with a mat in the middle for the food. Eating on the floor is common here as not many houses have tables.
• After lunch is siesta time - KA is napping right now. I finished my audio book so I came down here to update the blog and check out the store customers. It's very busy in the store right now - all the kids are noisily playing their online games.
• This afternoon Anh Hoan has agreed to help us find a tour operator so that we can get out of this place and see the rest of Vietnam. This is our second week and we have to get a move on it if we want to see other things.
• KA and I surveyed our arms and legs last night. We have many bug bites and bruises. I'm not sure where most of them come from. The mosquito bites here look pretty nasty (big red welts) and don't go away for days! I think some of the bruises are from riding on the bikes during the day.
• Everyday we lather ourselves in sunblock and bug spray. At lunch we rinse off and in the evening we lather ourselves up again. Fun! We've been pretty good with trying to stay "white" - covering our bodies from head to toe in the afternoon sun. Other tourist probably think we're nuts but the locals cover themselves up pretty well over here. I'm amused with our full face masks...such pretty fabrics. KA wants to buy full arm length gloves so that she doesn't have to wear a cardigan each time we go out.
• We were taking pictures on the motorbikes on the way home from coffee this morning. I was more concerned about my hat blowing away (so I held it down with both hands). Throw caution to the wind I say! :-) We were traveling pretty fast on the bikes too but no one here cares about holding on or about wearing protective gear. We saw one guy wear a helmet the other day and it was the oddest thing. He stuck out like a sore thumb.
• I still have to practice driving the bike more. I'm more scared of the traffic then the actual skill of driving the bike. People here are nuts when it comes to traffic laws (or lack of them). Maybe I'll take one of the smaller bikes out tonight and practice - the bigger ones are too heavy to lift and I'm scared of burning my leg on the exhaust pipe (as we're just wearing shorts).
• Did I mention the dogs here are so cute?! The family dogs are nice - though one of them nearly bite me the other day when I went to pet it too quickly. We are fond of one of them so we feed it more often. The monkey was hording food today and we were playing with it - pretending to steal it's food. It's a smart little monkey.

Tailor Made

Day 9 - March 25th

• Didn't do too much today. Woke up late as we partied too hard last night. KA had a hangover. Went out for breakfast with our parents and uncle (who has returned from Saigon). Had Bun Bo Hue (again). Seems like my cousins enjoy eating hot soup in the boiling hot weather. :-) It's a spicy soup too so I was sweating at the table.
• Paper napkins in Nha Trang is not what we're use to. We each pack our own little pouches of Kleenex. The paper used in the restaurants reminds me of writing paper - little squares of Hilory paper. Not absorbant at all.
• When we enter restaurants that are a bit higher class than the local street vendors - they put bag of "iced" towels on dishes. When KA and I first encountered this service we eagerly popped our bags and wiped our bodies with it. Our little cousins didn't use their bags. We later found out that they charge for this "service". :-) But we don't care as it's like 40 cents a pack in CDN. So much more cleaner and more refreshing. Apparently they only offer this to "foreigners". Lol - everywhere I go I'm treated as a foreigner. Sometimes this is good and sometimes it's bad.
• KA and I have gotten to know the local beggers. We see certain ones daily. Some of them keep pestering us. We liked this little girl and bought some gum from her the other day. So now when she sees us walking around she waves and says "hi auntie" (in vietnamese).
• I got my skirt and dress back from the tailor this afternoon. I really like the skirt (as I gave him one of mine as a model). The dress is alright but cost of fabric and labour - the skirt as a MUCH better deal (about $9). I think the key now is to find high quality fabrics for cheaper. That or find a seamstress that doesn't charge as much for labour. KA and I are still waiting for our suits to be finished. Hopefully we'll get them in the next couple of days.
• We had lunch with my grandma on my mom's side. We like going to her house more than my grandma on my dad's side as it's much more peaceful (she doesn't have extended family living with her). Plus she is the one with all the pets. One of her dogs has taken a liking to us and we adore it as it reminds us of a skinny version of Meiko (Carol's dog).
• We went to see the giant white budha today. Budhism and prayers are big over here. I realize how lucky it is that my dad has not made the alters in our house the size of some of my uncles alters. Wow - some of them take up a whole room with multiple sections. We did some praying to various gods and took lots of pictures. KA and I bought some rosary bracelets for Micheal and Chicky - to bring them safety & luck for their cars.
• We had dinner with my grandma on my dad's side. That house has so many people living in it - it's like a circus over there.
• We passed by my grandma's neighbor - who had someone pass away the other day. They oldest son was still dressed in the ceremonial costumes. I think that he has to wear that white outfit for a month or more. Everyone else had white bands tied around their heads. My mom is superstitious and doesn't like us even looking towards that house as she's afraid that it will bring bad luck to our family. Apparently Vietnamese ghost hang out on earth for 49 days before "moving on". Plus they're really polite when asking about who has died. They refer to it as "gone to sleep" - referring to the dead person as if he had just went to his room to take a nap.
• KA and I checked out a travel agency today to see if we can book a tour to go to the northern region of Vietnam. We're done with waiting for our parents to get away from the main family - as it looks like they're stuck with the routine that they've established. There's a bus tour that we might sign up for. A greyhound bus ride up north 10 hours of driving - costs $9.
• My mom has decided to come home with us - instead of coming home a month later. She can't take more than a month with the relatives. So she came by the store last night and wanted me to book her flight home. Of course the time difference between here and Canada is like 14 hours - it was really frustrating trying to reach the travel agent. I gave up at midnight. I woke up at 6am to try again - found out that she was away for a couple of days. The company wasn't helpful at all and referred me to Eva Air Saigon. I called Eva Air Vancouver as I didn't want to try to change plane reservations with my limited Vietnamese. Eva Air Vancouver wasn't helpful either (chinese woman with limited english skills). To make matters worst my mom forgot to give me her plane ticket so I was trying to get them help me with not much information. Very frustrating for both parties. I gave up after awhile as each time I call - I have to use the VOIP (computer phone) here and the connection isn't always good. I will get my mom to call Eva Air Saigon later in the week - at least they will be in the same time zone as us and it will be more convenient.
• Going to bed now. Have an early morning. KA is going running again and I said that I would go down to the beach for a morning swim with Anh Hoan (he and I aren't runners). There's 3 things people do here: get up super early for a morning swim in the ocean or a stroll on the beachfront, ride motorbikes and go for a walk on the beachfront at night.
• I forgot to mention. The store is across from the city speaker - which are posted all over the place. Every morning and night the speakers come blaring on with the news. I think it's cause people don't own tvs so that's how they hear the news - through the speakers. They're really loud too and tend to wake KA and I at 5am. The store opens for business at 6:30am - there are kids that come in to play games at that time. Not everyone goes to school over here - drop out rate is SUPER high.

Wedding Crashers

Just got back from crashing a traditional Vietnamese wedding! :-) What have we been up to since?

• Gave our fabric to the seamstress to make us our clothes. One of my dresses will be ready by tomorrow afternoon - hopefully it will fit well. Otherwise I'm off to find another seamstress. Though the guy across the street looks trendy so hopefully his stuff will be good too.
• Got the pictures back from the temple - they're pretty good. I sure wish I had an SLR camera now!
• Went to the wedding with our "dates" - I was my cousin's date and KA was his friend's date.
• There goes doing our hair. Riding on the bikes to the wedding gave us a "wind-blown" look. No one wears helmets so at least we didn't have helmet-hair.
• We're really comfortable sitting crossed on the motorbikes now that we're taking pictures of each other while the guys drive us around. :-) Don't worry...I won't drop the camera this time! It seems that guys are better at driving people who sit sideways as they're use to it. My girl cousin tried it once with me and we were really wobbly - after that I only ride with my guy cousins when wearing skirts/dresses.
• Vietnamese wedding: about 1.5 hours long in total! Bride and groom don't have a table and don't eat. Their only job is to walk around to the table of guests and make sure everyone is having a good time. There was a band there and they invited guests to come up to sing. Lots of guests came up to sing.
• After the wedding we had a lot of time to kill so they took us clubbing.
• Clubbing means going to the "discoteque". We went to one called "007". Clubbing here is much different than back home. Every table is assigned a server - who hovers near your table and tops up your drinks. Our server even followed us to the dance floor when all of us went to dance! :-) I have to admit - the hospitality over here is 10X better than in Canada. There are countless times when our servants/servers/drivers wait for us to ask them to do something.
• Bar food is a plate of "fresh assorted fruits" here. So strange but nice at the same time. We offered some fruit to our girl - she ate a piece with us. We took pictures with her. :-) We're such tourists!
• I think we were the only ones in the club that was having a good time. I know we were like the only ones on the dance floor most of the time. :-) It's so much easier to be foolish when you're on vacation!
• We've been taking lot of pictures of food - almost each time we eat we will take a picture of the item we're munching on. KA is still learning how to use her camera.

Time for bed soon - it's 11pm over here but about 8am in Vancouver. I have to call the travel agency over there and book my mom a flight home with the rest of us. She's changed her mind and doesn't want to stay longer than we are staying.

Temple Photographers

Day 8 - March 24th

• Went out for breakfast with Anh Hoan and his coworker. They're working on Chu Cuong's "playland" site - which we will tour later on in the weekend.
• Had coffee with our parents and Anh Hoan at a very nice coffee shop - lots of opportunities to take pictures.
• Took a taxi up to one of the temples to take some pictures. The taxi drivers here stay with you as they don't want to lose business. It's kinda like having a personal chauffeur.
• There were "professional" photographers there who were eager to make some money off of us. We ended up taking 20 shots - we'll get them later on in the day. We figure they have better cameras (SLRs) and know which spots look good in photos so why not - plus the price is dirt cheap too.
• I bought some postcards from some girl who was selling them on the streets - she tried to sell them to me in US dollars and I laughed at her. We've decided that paying in Vietnamese Dong is much cheaper (as the conversion is $1 CDN = approximately $13000 Vietnamese Dong).
• Last night KA and I went to buy some fabric to go make some clothes. There's a seamstress across the street - hopefully he's skillful. The fabric prices are ok...so many to pick from though. I think we're going to get one outfit made first and see what the quality is like before we make some more. There are so many seamstresses here.
• It's noon right now so after this post I'm going to go upstairs to our air conditioned room and rest.
• We're going to our first Vietnamese wedding tonight. Going to crash Anh Hoan's friend's wedding. He says it's ok as weddings over here are different then in Canada - lots of people "stopping by". :-) It should be fun!

Rooftop view

It's day 7 of the Vietnam trip. I had posted just a couple of hours ago but there less people in the store now so I'll quickly write something before the network gets clogged up again.

• I went up to the roof to get my clothes that were hung out to dry (after we lost our servant girl, KA and I have decided to handwash our own clothes then have someone else's servant do it for us). We fear she might have ran away because she wrecked our white clothes (turned them blotchy blue). KA had to go out and buy bleach and Tide to remedy this problem. While I was pulling the clothes off the line - the roof door closed. I discovered that it self locked. I contemplated my situation and wondered how long it would take for someone to notice that I was missing. Probably a very long time as we huddle in our rooms alot so our cousins usually leave us alone. I surveyed the roof and thought about many heroic escape routes (such as jumping onto someone else's balcony). I decided that I'm not agile enough and have already heard the horrid hospital experiences from the cousins. So I sat there and banged on the door. The thought of throwing stuff off the roof to get someone's attention came into mind - but with my luck I would probably hit a pedestrian and get into trouble. Finally a lady in the next house went out to her roof and get her laundry and I screamed at her to get help. :-) Despite the desperation and urgency in my voice and in my request she told me that she has to "get her laundry first". She proceeded to take her time and fold her laundry on the roof. I found this infuriating so I screamed through the glass door again - hoping that someone would hear my cries. The lady then proceeded to yell her her kid to go back in the house and eat dinner. This took many minutes and she didn't look like she was in any rush to rescue me. She silently left the roof with her basket of folded clothes and I wondered to myself if she was going inside to feed her kid first then come next door to tell my cousin I was locked out. So I sat down and groaned. Luckily she did remember me and headed next door in a leisurely pace and told a customer in the store that there was a person on the roof. Luckily the customer told my cousin! Yup - no one over here does anything "quickly". My cousin says it's a very laid-back lifestyle. Even the ambulances don't "rush" to and from an accident. This is not a good thing to hear when you're a type-A personalilty like me.
• Yesterday I accidently locked our room door too (it's becoming a pattern with me). KA luckily showed us her skill of breaking into rooms with the use of safety pins. Forget nursing - she should have a career as a robber!
• I've mastered the art of sitting on a motorbike sideways (as it's unlady-like to straddle it with a skirt on). I've also overcome my fear of jaywalking and developed the local attitude of walking whereever I want regardless of what the traffic patterns are. :-) Lanes mean nothing over here.
• I like the uniforms that the school kids where over here but I haven't been able to get pictures of the differents outfits for each level.
• Walking down to the beach has become a daily night time routine. The heat is only bareable after 5pm. During the afternoon it's almost 30 degrees outside but it feels like 40. I need more clothes as we're washing the ones we've brought on a daily basis. The consequenses of wearing so much white stuff is that it gets dirty fast!

Please Work!

I've been having some problems posting to this site in the last couple of days and have discovered that if I write long emails then they don't go through the system. :-) The network speed is not as fast over here.

So here's a quick jist of what's happened in the last couple of days (too much to mention).

• Went out to the family graveyard to pay respect to the dead - lots of incense burning. Poor KA - I think she was going to die from it all as she can barely handle the few incence that we burn at home. She's pretty sensitive to smells - must be her clean personality. She carries travel wipes everywhere - they come in handy every now and then.
• Our family went to a VIP spa with 2 of the cousins ($28 for all 6 of us!)...had a lovely time in the mud bath and hot springs. My mom thought the mud was stinky and didn't want to lather herself in it. I've got a picture of KA pouring it all over herself (as if it were as fresh as spring water).
• Bathing suits over here consist of shorts and a tank top...but I've managed to wear my bikini twice! lol...of course it was with clothes on top. KA was smart and bought a tankini before we left.
• We went to the "country" side to hang out with more family...seems that we have TONS of cousins. Rode in a dinky little boat to the farm. KA got tons of bug bites - they look really nasty! She's trying not to pick at them.
• Our servant girl ran away the other day - must be KA and I! Maybe she was scared that we would yell at her once we found out that she ruined our white clothes (she washed them with a crappy blue towel - which turned everything a bluish tingy).
• I learned how to ride a motorbike last night (as everyone here seems to know how to!)...almost crashed into a parked taxi...doh...need more practice. It's fun and scary at the same time. KA doesn't want to learn. But she's not eager to have me chauffeur her around either. I think she's happy enough just walking or calling up on of the peddlers.
• Shopping has been good - everything is super cheap but there is no clothes for me to buy. KA is an XXL over here...what does that make me?!?
• Saw a funeral this morning - pretty cool...lots of fanfare. There was a band blaring their horns and lots of buses loading people.
• Taking TONS of pictures to show everyone when I get back. Basically anything we've eaten we've taken a picture of.
• I really appreciate taking my laptop with me - has provided me with afternoon entertainment. The computers in my cousin's place is usually occupied by paying customers so KA and I only go on them in the early mornings or late at night. It doesn't really matter as KA is there only to check emails and I get on to update this blog.
• The weather is still scortching hot but we're getting use to the "siesta" mentality. Everyone is laid back in the afternoon. No one really wants to go out with us as some of the girls fear the sun as if it's rays were acid on their skins. So they cover themselves from head to toe in fabric.

Going to end it here and cross my fingers that the post will work! Talk to you later!

Connected Finally!

Hi Ho from Nha Trang, Vietnam!

Sorry for the late post as I've been having some connection problems with the internet cafe over here. It's 10:30pm in Nha Trang right now so it's probably 11am back home. So here are the hightlights from the last few days. Warning: This is going to be a doozer!

Day 1 - March 16/17/18:

• We checked into the airport at 11pm Wednesday, March 16th.
• Our flight was at 1am Thursday, March 17th.
• We had our first meal on the Eva airplane at 2:30am (our time).
• After that the airline fed us every 2 hours.
• The plane ride to Taipei was 13 hours long and Kim Anh and I were bored out of our minds as the movies on the flight were so horrible. They were so bad that I don't even remember half the names of them. Except for one....Zanthura....not even worth renting!
• We landed in Taipei at 5am Friday, March 18th. Now I'm going to start talking in Vietnam time.
• There was a 2 hour lay over in Taipei then we were back on a smaller plane. The pilot on this flight wasn't as good so it was a bumpy ride.
• We reached Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) at 11am and stepped off the plane to 30 degrees celcius. I was literally melting as I had worn my Lululemon outfit for the plane ride.
• We went through customs in Vietnam - paid them $5 - which was enough to make our paperwork more "speedy".
• On the way to the luggage pickup, I suffered a "wardrobe" malfunction and had to put on my hoodie to cover up. Unfortunately this only caused more distress as I was barely surviving in the heat as it.
• At the luggage carasoles I discovered that there were these people dressed in blue who were taking luggage off the ramps and hording them. I found this very odd behavior and just ignored it. I went on my merry way to hunt down some carts (as we had a lot of luggage). I found a couple and were guarding them with my life (as people were trying to take them from me). As I walked back to the carasole, I hear someone calling "Kim Le...Kim Le....I have your luggage..." (in Vietnamese). This was weird but I didn't pay much attention as Kim is a SUPER common name in Vietnam and I was told not to pay attention to people calling your name as it might be a ploy to rob you. I stood around the carasole and waited (I left Kim Anh to guard our carry on luggage and our prized carts). I didn't see any of our luggage come down the ramp. Till finally I saw one piece (we had tied bright green fabric to our stuff). I grabbed it and waited some more...still nothing. Then this man comes over and points at my luggage and the piece of cloth. He asks me if I'm Kim Le. I say yes....and he says he has my luggage. I'm pretty startled as I'm thinking "what does he want?!?". So I smile politely and follow him (as it'd be stupid not to and let him do what he wants with our stuff). So off in the corner he had picked up all 7 pieces of our luggage. I guess the reason why he left the one that I found was that it was labeled with my uncles name while the others were all labeled with my name and my uncle's address. I thanked him for getting my stuff (though deep down I wanted to yell at him). He proceeded to find carts and load my luggage onto them for me. I knew where this was going. My parents finally came along and my dad stepped in - handed him some money and told him to go away. I learned really fast that everyone here wants to make a quick buck or two.
• I was able to change into another top so I felt better as I didn't have to wear my hoodie into the city. I could see from the windows that it was super hot.
• When we walked out of the airport it was quite the fanfare. Nothing I've experienced before. Tons of people waiting for loved ones and waving signs. I felt as if I was walking onto a stage for all to look at. Being the picture-crazy girl, I took some pictures of them looking at me! Lol...that make me more of a spectacle.
• We didn't find our family right away and had to search for them. We had many people offer us "help" in finding our family but we declined (as they were more annoying than anything else).
• Finally the family came in a Mercedez Benz van. We packed everyone in and headed to a restaurant for some lunch. Our van played the Happy Birthday song when it was in reverse gear. It was funny.
• At the restaurant my cousin orders french fries as he thought Kim Anh and I didn't know how to eat Vietnamese food. The strange thing is that they don't have ketchup there so you eat fries with butter and sugar. Kim Anh and I didn't know what to do as we didn't want to seem rude. So we ate it and smiled.
• Everyone has been very gracious to us and at first it made us very uncomfortable as they would go out of their way to do things for us. Such as that restaurant we went to - we went to the "international" room (which was this airconditioned room in the back). I was nice but no one was there and all the locals were in the front eating. We felt segregated.
• We discovered very quickly that the traffic patterns are chaotic in Saigon (actually in Nha Trang as well). Lines in the roads mean nothing. I had thought about learning to ride a moped over here but after staying here a couple of days I have changed my mind. I was happy our driver is skillful and gutsy.
• We went shopping at the big international market (which reminded me of the one in Hawaii). After shopping we got back into the van and had dinner.
• The one strange thing is that Saigon has "valet" parking. At first I thought someone was stealing a car but then my cousin said that the valet attendants walk up to your car. Find a spot for you on the street by "pushing" another car out of the way. I tried to get a picture of this attendant pushing a car out of the way so that we could park. It's hilarious.
• After the international market we were all hot so our cousins took us to a "white" shopping mall with air conditioning. The mall was nice and had many high end stores - not really my kind of place to buy stuff though. But it did have a KFC!
• For dinner we went to this restaurant that had many food vendors that situated on the perimeter. So you would walk around - look at the vendors, figure out what you want to eat then go back into the main facility and tell them and they would go get it. Our driver gave us "front door" service (which meant he drove on the sidewalk and parked there and waited for us). Apparently this is "normal" for foreigners.
• The drive from Saigon to Nha Trang was 6 hours long. It was deja vu of our Vegas road trip. I adopted Kim Anh's philosophy of keeping my eyes shut as the driver was scary and everytime I looked up were we whipping around a semi or motorbikes in the opposite lane. Yes...super scary. And honking means nothing as everyone honks for any possible reason.
• We arrived at my uncles house at 2:30am and had to bang on the door as they thought we were coming there much later. We all took a much needed shower. The shower facilities are much different here - I've taken pictures. Took me a bit to figure out a system in which I could clense myself.

I have to stop here as it's late and my cousin wants to close up shop for the night. I'll write more later.

Fingers & Toes

Only one more day till departure! I had the day off from work today. I thoroughly enjoyed getting out of bed at noon, eating a peanut butter sandwich for lunch then crawling right back into bed to spend some quality time with my laptop watching some anime. Tonight we finished off some of the "major" packing. All gifts for relatives have been stuffed into 4 large boxes (weighing 65 lbs each!). I can forsee twisting a major muscle group when we have to unload the luggage.

As a tradition for any kind of vacation - I like to paint my fingers and toes. It helps to have a mom who use to be a nail tech. Saves me time and money be not having to go to the salon. I'm proficeint enough to do my own feet but I have not mastered the art of painting my right hand.

It's almost 1am and I have a Wendy's spicy chicken burger craving. Michael has volunteered to go for a Wendy's run so I'm excited. Of course if I'm going to be bad and eat Wendy's at this time of night then I have to go ALL the way - yes...I'm indulging in the full-meal-deal. Yummy!!!

Twinrix

Wow - I'm not so good with keeping up with this site eh?! Only 2 more days till we leave for Vietnam. This weekend has been full of last minute activities - including vaccinations for the trip. I discovered that the travel clinic is an "appointment only" facility and had to succumb to the chaotic waiting rooms of the walk-in clinics. I had decided not to get all the vacinations recommended from the travel prep website. After 5 hours my parents and I managed to get inoculated against Hepatitis A and B with Twinrix. Word of advice - get your shots 2 weeks in advance and save yourself the hassles of waiting for a doctor or running into pharmacies that don't have the drugs on hand.

On Saturday, March 11th, I went to Motown Meltdown at the Commodore Ballroom. It was a mix of local blues/oldies bands. I really enjoyed it as it was the first time that I actually knew the songs that were being played. :-) I've posted a picture from the show in my picture gallery.

On Sunday, March 12, mom and I went to Ikea to try out their $1 breakfast special. It was pretty good food for a buck. The store was super busy though - which is not surprising as Ikea is such a family oriented place. I LOVE Ikea accessories - they are so much fun.

Kim Anh got a camera for her birthday from Michael. It's a Pentax Optio S6. This is great as we'll be able to take TONS of pictures while on vacation. Even more pictures to add to my picture site. All we need now are accessories for our cameras. Hopefully there will be cheap stuff in Vietnam. I'm looking forward to buying some electronic toys while there. :-) Life wouldn't be as fun without the latest and greatest gadgets!

Snoozer Cruiser

It's been a couple of days since I've posted something here. I have not forgotten about this site. :-) I've been working on the "background" changes to both sites - not that any of you have noticed! At the rate I'm going, I should be complete the "look" by the end of the year. Check out some of the new links I've posted. I'm sorry but I tend to post pictures to the image gallery more often (as it's much easier to just send pics then think of something to write).

This week has been good. I only have 5 days of work until VIETNAM 2006! That's right - as of March 15th I will be aboard Eva Airs on my way to my homeland after 25 years. It should be quite the adventure and I'm looking forward to all the sight seeing and FOOD! ;-) I'll try to write more about Vietnam when I get closer to the departure date. I can't wait for the weekend - time to pack!

So what did I do today? I got up at 5am - which is the "normal" time if I want to take the West Coast into work. They have a "snoozer cruiser" - which is the cab closest to the engine car. The top level of this car is meant for those of us that enjoy some shut-eye on our early morning commute. It's dark and warm up there - which makes it really easy to miss your stop if you're not careful. I then spent the day talking to people who know how to use computers but are just confused and those that are just plain out confused.

This evening Josie, Cindy and I had dinner at Samosa Garden. Nothing better than engorging ourselves with East Indian food! Yummy! I've posted a picture of the girls to the Gallery.

It's always great hanging out with the girls and I hope to have more opportunities continue with our soulful-banter. Till the next Dim Sum outing!! Alright - I have to call it a night here. See you later.

First Steps

Today is the first day of my "online" life. I have just spent seemingly endless hours trying to come up with information to fill into the settings section for this blog. Who would have thought it would be so complicated! Hopefully this will be a new means by which I can share my life with the people I care about. You are probably wondering why I chose 'westcoastexpress' as the blog name right? It's because the other things I wanted to name the site were all taken! Yet someone asked me what I do everyday that makes me "too busy" to get in touch with my friends, I said with an amused smile "take the West Coast Express". If you're not from Vancouver: the West Coast Express is a train that runs from Coquitlam to downtown Vancouver. 3 hours of my day is spent on this train! I had this great idea that I would try to meet a new person each day on the commute and write about them here in the blog. So far that idea is more fantacy than reality. I have to stop writing here though. I will have to tell you about my adventures later!