Mekong Delta

My dad, Heather, Jeremy, S and I have spent the last 3 days exploring the Mekong Delta in the south of Vietnam. After picking Heather and Jeremy up at their hotel in HCMC, we got on a public bus to My Tho, pronounced Me Toe. It was 3 hours, hot, packed and the bus was stopping every 20 minutes to pick up more passengers, who were shoving their cargo between the seats. Once we got in to town, we negotiated with a man at our hotel to take us on a 5 hour boat ride through the delta. My dad, S and I got on a put-put boat and, after having a delicious lunch, visited a coconut candy factory, took a row boat through the delta's narrow canals, and stopped by the coconut monk pagoda- a worshipping shrine for a monk who gave up his wordly possessions and supposedly only ate coconuts for the rest of his life. We watched the sun set and headed back to have dinner with Heather and Jeremy who were jetlagged and having a rest.
The next day we took a car to Can Tho, the most populous city in the Delta. Some highlights of our time there was this funny Aussie named Sean who seemed to pop up every time we sat down for a meal and our massages from blind people, which was quite enjoyable. Without question, the most memorable part of our time in Can Tho was our day-long boat tour with Ms. Ha and Thai-oye, our boat conductor. Ha and Thai-oye took us to visit the floating markets in the delta. Floating markets are boats that sell rice, produce or other goods in the middle of the river. We started our boat trip early so we could see the market at its most lively time. Thai-oye rowed us through the middle of the markets and she and Ha purchased many fruits and snacks for us to try. They also took us to a small rice noodle factory and made Heather and me jewelry from coconut tree fronds.
Tomorrow morning we will catch a ferry to Phu Quoc Island to spend a few days on the beach before my dad, Heather and Jeremy head back to NYC.

Theme Park and Cu Chi Tunnels

We have had a great last two days, although truth be told it is not the same without Izzi and Dave. Trying to recover from our dear friends' departure, we consoled ourselves with a day trip to HCMC's nearby theme park Dai Nam. It was a seriously strange experience. A quarter of the park is a worshipping zone where the park holds Vietnam's largest temple and man-made mountain. You can walk through the "caves" of the mountain where there are many worshipping altars to pray to different dieties. Another quarter has a theme park where you need to pay for each ride, which is totally lame and explained why no Vietnamese people were on any of the rides. For every ride we went on, we were the only 3 people on it. The place was completely desolate and it took 5 minutes to walk from one ride to the next. The park felt very sterile. When we got on the log flume, which was the park's most popular ride because it was so hot, the operators tried to give us raincoats. We laughed at them but wound up being the only fools on the ride who were soaked from head to toe. It was a great way to cool off. We ended the day at their water park, which had 2 huge wave pools. We went in the fresh water pool and cooled off during the hottest part of the day.
Yesterday, S took the day to relax and my dad and I had some bonding time on a day trip to Cao Dai Temple and the Cu Chi Tunnels. Cao Daoism is practiced by 2 million people in Vietnam and is a mixture of Hinduism, Buddhism and Catholicism. The temple was quite ornate and we spent the afternoon watching a prayer ceremony at this temple. After lunch, we headed to the Cu Chi Tunnels, bunkers from where Cu Chi guerrillas fought the American and South Vietnamese armies during the war. Our guide showed us different Cu Chi guerrillas' booby traps, holes to hide in (I climbed in it) and we crawled through one of the tunnels, which was awesome. We ended the tour with a nice propaganda film about "evil enemy Americans" disturbing "peaceful and harmonious Cu Chi people". My dad walked out of the film after 30 seconds.
In 30 minutes, we are going to meet Heather and Jeremy at their hotel in town before we set off for the Mekong Delta. So excited to see them!!!

'Nam

Written by S:

My friends from college, Dave and Izzi, joined me in Hanoi on the 16th. We were then joined by Vickie and her father Frank on the 19th. Vietnam so far has been pretty great. The natural scenery here is stunning, and the cities are an elegant fusion of asian and french influences. motorcycles are ubiquitous and the traffic is intense
(though nothing is quite like the traffic in india). vietnam is world famous for its distinctive cuisine, but unfortunately the one big disappointment here has been that the cuisine isn't particularly amenable to vegetarians. on the whole, the food has been disappointing, at least for me. food highlights have been limited to regional fruits like durian and rambutan, both of which i highly recommend if you ever get the chance to try them.

so far we've visited hanoi, ha long bay, hue, hoi an, nha trang and ho chi minh city (aka saigon). hanoi is the political capital of the country, but it still has a smaller town feel to it, and probably the heaviest french influence in terms of architecture. highlights included seeing ho chi minh's preserved body, and the lake in the city that john mccain parachuted into after his plane was shot down. hue
and hoi an are ancient capitols, where the heavy chinese influence is palpable. today these really are small towns, and we were able to bike out to some of the outlying areas to see the rice paddies and beautiful river/mountain scenery. nha trang is the huge beach resort here. we headed to what can only be described as a hippie commune guesthouse about an hour north or city. this had the nicest beach
we've seen in 8 months in asia. totally private and just stunning. saigon is the modern business capitol of the country, and here we can feel the energy, vibrancy and intense pace of economic growth most acutely. today we visited the war remnants museum (formerly named the 'museum of chinese and american war crimes'), where there was a predictably lopsided account of the vietnam war, but it was quite
moving nonetheless.

sadly, dave and izzi left for home early this morning. we had fantastic time together. they proved to be first-rate backpackers, energetic and resilient, and we're thrilled that they were able to make it. moving forward, vickie, frank and i will be heading to the mekong delta region for the next 10 days or so. after that vickie and i will head to cambodia, followed by thailand, malaysia, singapore and
indonesia.

i have a few more notes on vietnam i'd like to share but it's probably
best to save those until after we leave the country.

Back to Asia...

After a very intense week and a half of interviews and demo lessons, my father and I are about to set off for Vietnam this evening. We are meeting Dave, Izzi and S Friday afternoon in Hanoi and will probably head south to Hue that evening or the following. It was great to be back in New York and see my friends and family. Happy to report that this afternoon I have received a few job offers, while the other schools are supposed to be contacting me in the next few days. I feel as though my visit home was very productive and I should have a decision about my job situation this Wednesday. Excited to see my best friend and travel with him again. I have really missed him.

Trinco environs and Old Sights

By S:

From Sigiriya, we headed to Trincomalee, on the east coast. Just a few years ago Trinco was the center of the almost 30 year civil war here, but with the war's recent conclusion, it's now possible to visit. Still, there was a huge military presence around town, with fortified checkpoints every 500m on the road into town. We visited a stunning beach at Nilaveli, huge and with extremely fine white corral sand. The Indian Ocean here is ridiculously warm, and you can stay in the water
for hours. We snorkeled around some nearby corral islands, and saw some tremendous fish.

Next we headed to Anuradhapura, a place of pilgrimage and the heart of Buddhist Sri Lanka. We only had a short time here, but were able to visit a number of the major temples. Yesterday, we returned to Colombo, so Vickie could catch her flight out. I'll spend today and tomorrow here, before flying to Bangkok on the 5th.