Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

It's an isolating feeling to be standing alone on one side of the street while the rest of your family is already safely on the other side because you were too chicken to follow them. But now they are standing there across this vast expanse of moving honking metal and are snickering at your cowardice and distracting you from the focus needed to judge the best moment to step into life-threatening traffic all on your own.
Ho Chi Minh City is in the southern part of Vietnam. It was formerly known as Saigon. Now the locals refer to Saigon as the downtown area. It is a busy bustling noisy place. Scooters are everywhere and most riders wear face masks to try and create some barrier between their lungs and the pollution created by all the vehicles.

Another Perspective

We visit the Cu Chi Tunnels just outside of Ho Chi Minh City that the Vietnamese built during wartimes. It is a well protected underground city with a complicated web of passageways, meeting rooms, kitchens, dining areas, hospitals, and camouflaged entrances and breathing holes. We are regaled with story after story of their wit, determination, and deception in order to hide and survive. We visit the War Remnants Museum, a heartbreaking but defiant memorial to the costly Vietnam War.

Vietnamese Coffee

I am thoroughly enjoying the Vietnamese coffee now that I've succumbed to using ice. All travel advice strongly advises against ingesting even one drop of tap water. Even the local people don't drink the tap water. We devise intricate processes to brush our teeth and to ensure the Beamer doesn't swallow any water in the shower. This means that in this hot hot climate we can't eat things that we crave like fresh fruit that we don't peel ourselves, salad, and ice. We religiously keep to this practice until we can no longer resist. We're choosy where we commit this act of gastronomic defiance but defy it we do! First we try to confirm that the ice is made from bottled water. And then we go wild! Strong rich Vietnamese coffee with sweetened condensed milk in a glass loaded with sparkly, clinking, crackly, gorgeous ice! It is a very worthy Starbucks substitute!

Happy Birthday Daughter!

The Daughter has realized that the advantage of having her birthday while in Vietnam is that it starts a full 11 hours before it starts in Toronto and lasts a full 11 hours after it ends in Vietnam! How good is that?!

Although the Daughter's heart is mostly back in Toronto it has still been such a luxury to have us all together for these couple of weeks. We tend to revert to childish ways together a lot of the time and we really do "Hanoi" each other the rest of the time but there are precious and much appreciated moments when it all works as it is supposed to.

I have to say that the Daughter isn't perfect. But this is good because our flaws are what make us interesting. She tends to hold her cards close to her chest, to use a card playing metaphor. And she tends to be a little cynical and tough on people who are not as smart as she. I'm certain she inherited these traits from the Hubby.

She is a most excellent euchre partner. Girls rule!

I do at times mourn the loss of earlier years when the Daughter, and the Adolescent for that matter, loved us parents unconditionally and thought everything we said and did was golden. But when I get nostalgic I force myself to acknowledge that I worked really hard to make sure that the Daughter grew up to have her own mind, a strong will, a large heart capable of great love for people other than her mother, and the confidence to make her own wonderful mark on the world. And the Daughter is such a creation!

When I was pregnant I tried my best to prepare the Hubby that his keenly anticipated first born would likely not look at all like him since Asian genes are strong and dominant. In my mind's eye she would be slim and long with a shock of dark hair and dark eyes. When they laid the Daughter in my arms for the first time I looked down on this round-faced, fair, chubby, blond-haired little bundle and thought "Who are you?"! The answer to that question has been slowly revealing itself over the years and it's a very beautiful thing!

Happy Birthday to my darling Daughter!

Ahhhh...!

Who knew Vietnam had long stretches of turquoise water rolling onto white sand beaches?! We are in Hoi An which is at about the midpoint down the length of Vietnam's coastline on the South China Sea. The water is warm and clear. The air is hot and humid as it's been all the way through our travels so far. This photo is taken right outside our cottage door!

The town of Hoi An is small, old, and lovely. The only negative is the presence of nasty scooters. They are everywhere buzzing all around us like a pesky swarm of bees. The same rules of the road apply as in Hanoi. We have become somewhat desensitized to them but they are still annoying!

Hoi An's big draw for tourists is that there are many skilled tailors who can make you a silk suit in 24 hours. Cobblers abound and can custom make shoes in the same amount of time. Lots of great places to eat. We are enjoying the slower pace for a few days.

La Verticale Restaurant, Hanoi

Chopsticks resting on cinnamon stick curls. Star anise and nutmeg decorating the white-clothed table. Individual stone dishes holding a perfect rectangle of butter sprinkled with sea salt to spread on our warm crusty rolls. I am in foodie heaven! The chef is Didier Corlou who came to Hanoi years ago from France. An amuse bouche to whet our appetites of two mini bowls, one holding pumpkin soup and the other tomato soup. An appetizer of artichoke petals arranged in the shape of a flower holding the tiniest doll sized clams basking in a rich curry sauce. We have fun figuring out how to suck the clam out of the shell and scoop the sauce up on the artichoke petal and scrap the scant "meat" off with our teeth. A sensual experience. The chef is a master of flavor combinations. A delicate moist fillet of sea bass cooked in a banana leaf and flavored with 5 spices of which I distinctly and appreciatively identify two as vanilla and passion fruit. It is divine! The dessert, of course, is my favorite course. Passion fruit clafouti topped with a scoop of curry, yes CURRY!, ice cream surrounded by a rainbow mixture of diced tropical fruit. The spicy and the sweet, the crunchy and the silky smooth. It is bliss! I devour my own and eat the Adolescent's too!

Hanoi, Vietnam

Crossing the street in Hanoi is a leap of faith. I imagine that when a person is taught to drive here that they are told "generally stay to the right but don't feel limited by that, pass on the left...or right...it doesn't really matter, don't hit anything, and try not to stop if you can at all help it". We diagonally cross the middle of a large traffic circle. The key is to walk slowly but at a consistent speed. This way, the hundreds of cars, motorbikes, trucks and buses that are barreling down on us from all directions can swerve to avoid us. The first step into the fray was the hardest and after that I was distracted by the urge to stop in the middle immobilized by fear!

We visit Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum where he lies in state some 40+ years after he died at age 79. Ho Chi Minh was the man who motivated the Vietnamese people to fight against French occupation. He is considered the "father" of Vietnam and although he wanted to be cremated with his ashes scattered in the north, south, and middle of Vietnam, the people decided they wanted to preserve his body as they loved him so. So we wait in the blazing sun and thick humidity with hundreds of mostly Vietnamese tourists to walk by Ho Chi Minh's body for a total of maybe 30 seconds. No loitering, picture taking, or talking is tolerated by the very stern and numerous guards.

Annoying Each Other

We are starting to get on each other's nerves. There's a lot of bickering going on. We're no longer used to spending 24/7 with each other. We exacerbate this by playing cards together. Euchre and Rummy are our current favourites. The one who annoys us the most is the Hubby. I can't properly describe what he does and says that is so aggravating but he's almost elevated it to an art. He usually wins and gloats. If he loses he somehow still sounds as if he's gloating! Even the Adolescent, who is usually pretty cool about these things, finds that the only way he can continue to play cards is to have his iPod on and the music turned loud enough to muffle the sound of his father's voice!

Halong Bay, Vietnam

We drive 4 hours east of Hanoi to Halong Bay. Cruising on the jade green water among the towering rock formations is reminiscent of our cruise along the Li River near Guilin in China several years ago. We pass a floating village where the main occupation is fishing. We hear what sounds like loud buzz saws echoing among the rock mountains jutting from the water. It is the sound of cicada type insects in the high heat.