Peace out!

Saying that this trip changed my life barely scratches the surface...it changed my whole being! I want to thank my parents, uncle and aunts, and bosses for making this trip possible for me...and all my friends for reading!

Until the next long ass vacation...

(I couldn't leave the country without trying on one of these hats...)

Okay I gotta have a Sally Struthers moment...

Vietnam is a beautiful country with beautiful people. It is also a country where 70% of the people live in poverty. I had a lot on my mind before I took this journey...and seeing some of the things I saw, well, made my own problems seem ridiculous. If you are reading this, chances are you not only have a computer, but also a roof over your head, food to eat, shoes to walk in...WE are ALL privileged...




Because no one should have to live like this...

Saigon jazz bar

Outdoor street market in front of Saigon hotel

I love that this is in front of our hotel! Every night, vendors and merchants come out and set up down the street from 7 till 11pm. You can find anything...


Yummy street food...


Sizzling grilled pork kabobs and fish!


Then when you're done, you can go search for cute "Louis Vuitton" and "Prada" purses!(Okay, just to be fair, there's a lot of cool handmade souvenirs and stuff too...)

Shop! Shop! Shop!

My family loves to shop!

For jewelry...


For fabric (you can get tops made for roughly $10 in Vietnam btw)...


For dresses...


And when it comes to negotiating lower prices, they will descend in a pack and hunt till they get those "Burberry" polos discounted!!!

I feel sorry for these street vendors!

I'm not even gonna go there...

In front of our Saigon hotel

Did I mention our hotel is called "Anh va Em"? Which roughly translates to "You and Me" (as if a guy is saying it to a girl). Cute. The tiny room I am sharing with my mom? Not so much.

A few locals I spotted today.

I want these in my front yard

But I would also want a unicorn to go with my elephant and dragon!
Saw these walking around a park this afternoon in Saigon...

My family used to live here...

So we found where my mom, aunts, uncle and grandparents used to live! All eight of them...in this TINY one bedroom/one bathroom home. "There was a small family room, dining room, bedroom, kitchen, mezzanine area where all the kids slept and courtyard for the chickens," one of my aunts said. That's it. My great grandma lived next door. My dad and his family lived down the street (we weren't sure which one it was).


My Aunt Thuy accesses the situation. "We used to have a front yard!" she commented. My mom and other aunts wouldn't get out of the car for fear that neighbors who still live in this hood would start swarming them.


After my family fled during the war, the Commies took it over and turned it into one of their offices...which it still is today.

The church

My family spent A LOT of time here! The neighborhood Catholic church.

My Aunt Trinh and mom.


My Aunt Tuyet snaps away.

The neighborhood

My family lived in an area of Saigon called District 9. It was a little bit of a trek but we found it after much searching.

This is the river that faced their backyard. "We had some water front property man!" my aunt Thuy said. "I used to bike everyday across this bridge...sometimes with grandma on the back too!"


Part of the street they used to play in...

The schools down the street

This is the grade school my mom, aunts and uncle all attended.


Their high school...

Homecoming: Part 2

My aunts and I search for my Uncle Lang's old house. We had to turn off a really busy street, park, then walk down this alleyway. There was a temple right by where you could hear them chanting and praying over loudspeakers that permeated the whole neighborhood.


FOUND IT! A bonus - he found neighbors that still lived across the way and got to catch up with them.

Bad knock off alert!

Okay, if you're gonna knock something off...at least get the initials correct! GEEZ!!!

The HEAT is ON in SAIGON!

It really is sweltering here. And AC is a rarity. And even then, the people that live here don't like to blast it high for some reason!

As we go through the city, we notice people (esp those on bikes) BUNDLED UP. In sweaters, gloves, tights. WHAT??? We figured out that it's because they don't want to tan and get DARK! Total opposite of American culture cause everyone here wants to keep their skin porcelain white.

Saigon is clogged with bikers

French influences in Saigon

We are in Ho Chi Minh City, but us non-Commies prefer to still call it SAIGON! Vietnam was once a French colony. It shows in the architecture. Here's a the city hall...


The opera house...


Oh, and the BIGGEST Louis Vuitton I have ever seen! OUI, OUI.

The Vietnamese wear Marc Jacobs!

His boutique in Saigon.

Dat baby got a weave on its head!!!

Vietnamese babies are ridiculously cute

No wonder Angelina adopted one of them...

Strange exotic fruits

Dragon fruit is huge over here!


WHOA!


These prickly things are called durians. It supposedly smells really funky. According to wikipedia, "the smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust." A google search says it smells like stinky, dirty socks. Why would anyone eat it? Feet fetishists would like it.



My mom looking glam at the fruit stand at some random rest stop.

The BEST beach resort ever

We transferred hotels. AGAIN. In the city of Phan Thiet at a little slice of heaven called PANDANUS RESORT. A small little town. After 4 hours of driving through some rocky barren terrain I thought, "Where the HELL are we going?!"

Well, PARADISE it seems.


The open-air lobby


Pretty pretty details all over the place


And it faces the warmest beach I've ever swam in!