sayhitojohn

Reflections, where to start in a little looking back? I guess I will start with what comes to mind. The dollar has such relative strength that it makes it easy to see all of the sights that there are. So much different from Europe where you had to pay $40+ dollars for the family to see things. Here $2 usually get the whole family in. The average dinner was about $8 for meals and drinks for all. The ice cream, to which we added 16,17,18,19,20, and 21 on Monday afternoon, was a steal at $0.15. I am really starting to take to Pho as my main meal. Pho is a traditional Vietnamese soup made with a rice noodles in a broth with some meat and other flavorings. It is served everywhere and very easy to order. In Hanoi we had our first Pho of the trip. We walked into a street corner place and they said how many, we said 3 (Patti is a special case) and they just bought It right out. It was very good. It also does not hurt that noodles are the girls second favorite meal after plain white r

On Monday we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels. This is a labyrinth that was constructed for 20 years from the 1940s to the 60s and is a network of 150 miles of multilayered tunnels. Cu Chi was considered the gateway to Saigon, the seat of power for the South Vietnamese government. Cu Chi was also at the Southern end of the Ho Chi Minh Trail and as such it was supplied with food and munitions from China coming down from the North. The tunnel system was the bane of the US Army as there seemed to be no way to completely destroy it or it's occupants. The tunnels ranged in height from 15 inches to in some places to a max of 4 and a half feet in others. The tunnels had multiple layers, some over 30 feet deep. It was a tight fit in, the original hole here was about 80% of the current width. Covered with some debris the covers were virtually undetectable. There were a number of booby traps that we set up in and around the tunnels. These were adapted from traps that the original occupants

NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH  I have a long history of weak stomach-itis. My earliest memories of this gift was with my Mother, in the car, throwing up on the way to the doctor. I think it happened every time. When on trips to ski jumping meets we would stop for breakfast and I always wanted hot chocolate which did not stay long on the inside. From a previous post you are aware of my amusement park illness. When I first started working in London, home of the blandest food on the planet, I got sick. I have issues. The Agony of Re-food began 120 minutes before starting a marathon 36 hours of travel, free tickets have their price in the form of a near half day layover in Tokyo. The funky dropped in uninvitedly when we arrived at the Saigon airport to check in. I was hoping it was something else, but as time passed I knew that I was in trouble. For the next seven hours it was coming out from high and low with the most intensity that I can recall. Out of my nose it flowed as well because

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At 5:20am we climbed into a boat on the Cuu River to visit the floating markets with SEn our guide for the morning. The first thing she asked was "Can you swim?" She insisted on an answer, so we let her know that we could and that the kids started taking lessons when they were 2 years old, that seemed to satisfy her. Knowing that boat travel has its relative hazards that seemed a natural question. I better understood the need for the question when I discovered we were aboard the smallest vessel on the river. We were occasionally sloshed with one near swamping miss, but we stayed above river the whole morning. This added yet another mode of travel to our Mekong Delta tour of the last two days. We were able to see Vietnamese life from a different perspective. Our first stop was a largest of the floating markets. This place of exchange is no different then any other in the transfer from seller to buyer and water is the most efficient physical space to conduct this busine

I brought along my TRX and Patti and did a workout just about every other day. About 8 years ago I abandoned the free weights and machines and started using this device and other body weight exercises as my sole weight training. Whenever we go anywhere for a week or more it comes with and it has been mounted in some strange places. After the morning workout and before bed last night we took showers 'Mekong Delta Style'. That is, a cold shower. There was only one pipe feeding the shower control knob and there was nothing hot about it. After the initial shock and the realization about finally being cool I wised up and enjoyed. Here is my hammock of the morning. Today with our guide, Nnung, we took the back roads from An Binh to Can Tho and visited some small towns via roads that were a little bigger the a golf cart path. But before rolling we first dropped by the market in Vinh Long where I picked up a few shuttle cocks and the girls picked up a few more fans. Not air mov