My First Rat

I think the title really says it all but I'll elaborate... 

On our way to dinner I saw my first Vietnamese rat.  Now, don't think I am totally oblivious - I knew they were here but prior to seeing one I could pretend that they only lived on the outskirts of town or in garbage bins.  This rat was happily living in an alley across the street from our apartment building.  Coming from rat-free Alberta, I have always thought of rats as dirty, disease-ridden, large mice.  Bad news - forget the part about large mice.  This rat was the size of a small cat.  Good news - I didn't have much of an appetite tonight.

A Tight Squeeze at the Cu Chi Tunnels

We spent Sunday on a day trip to the Cao Dai Temple and Cu Chi Tunnels. The two stops really had nothing to do with one another with the exception of their proximity to each other. The Cao Daism is a mixed faith including Catholic, Hindu and Buddhist participants. The Catholics wear red, the Hindus are in blue and the Buddhists in yellow while those dressed in white are the true Cao Dai worshipers.

After our Sunday service, we lunched at a questionable location near the town of Cu Chi where Kevin informed me that many of the crops still contained Agent Orange. I was so traumatized by this information that I only picked at my lunch. Thank goodness for the ice cream freezer at the Cu Chi tunnels.

The Cu Chi tunnels tour was very interesting. The tour started with a video about the Cu Chi guerrillas and how they conquered the American and South Vietnamese armies. The Cu Chi guerrillas fought for North Vietnam and the Communist regime even though they were from the south. We then viewed a number of the traps set by the Cu Chi guerrillas and how they worked. These men and woman were extremely crafty when it came to sharpening bamboo into painful spears. The tunnel trip stopped by a range where you could shoot an AK47. We gave the range a pass but crawled through the tunnel network. Kevin made it about 30m and took the optional exit and it was a good thing he did because a few meters later, the tunnel became smaller and I even had trouble wiggling through. The scary part was that the tunnels were actually enlargened for tourists from their original 60 cm x 80 cm size.

Bring on the Rain

It has been a good week of getting ourselves set up for life in Vietnam. We have discovered some amazing restaurants, opened a bank account, joined a gym, started Vietnamese lessons and have even cooked a few meals at home in our little closet of a kitchen. This week also brought the unofficial start of the rainy season to Ho Chi Minh City.

The rain is on a schedule where it rains for under an hour between 12:00pm and 1:00pm. This just means you have to plan lunch accordingly. The thunder begins about an hour before and is continuous until the rain starts. Just before the rain, the temperature seems to go up a few degrees and following the downpour, the temperature drops and it is rather pleasant outside!

Trying to learn a new language with 29 letters and six different tones has been less than pleasant. Don't get me wrong - it is fun but challenging beyond anything we expected. Our Vietnamese teacher, Tran, is very focused and rarely gives us time to breath in between practicing the various sounds. Her favourite English word is 'continue'. We are taking open lesson spots as others cancel because we are pretty sure that we are going to need more than one lesson per week! So far, we can say a couple two letter words that begin with 'b' or 'm' and count to five. It's a start.

Matthew and I

I got to hold my new nephew tonight!  What a cutie!

Cruising the Mekong

We spent the weekend floating down the Mekong River, visiting both the Cai Be and Cai Rang floating markets.  Leaving the city, we got to see how the majority of southern Vietnamese live and work - an incredible 19 million people live on the Mekong Delta.

Local produce buyers hang the fruits or vegetables they want to buy off of a tall pole on their boats.  The farmers bring in the produce and sell to the buyers who take the goods to markets around the area.  Note the pineapple hanging from the pole in the photo.  There was even a woman selling Vietnamese subs from a boat - fast food on the Mekong.

We also walked around an orchard and sampled a selection of the local fruit.  We saw how rice paper was made and even the local rice krispie making process.  I had no idea that only one rice grain grew on each blade.  We had heard there was a worldwide rice shortage but apparently not in Vietnam - we ate rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner in the Mekong and there were kilos of rice ready to be shipped out from the husking facility.

Before the long bus trip back to Saigon, we stopped at a local market and purchased fruit and bread for breakfast where this lovely Vietnamese woman showed us the proper way to serve a pineapple.

A Day in Vietnam

We have almost been in Vietnam for a week and are already getting into a rhythm.  A typical day starts with a visit to the tiny gym in our building.  Just entering the gym brings on a sweat so we must be burning tons of calories.  After breakfast, Kevin heads to work.  You can see he is quite comfortable in his cubicle.

After a day of errands, checking out the city, and dodging traffic, we meet up to walk home.  Rush hour is quite a site.  This video was taken around 6:00pm.  Most of the day the roads are full of traffic, mainly motorbikes, but the 6:00pm rush is particularly entertaining (press play to see and hear the video below - it may take a minute to start).

After more motorcycle dodging which is just like a live version of the game 'Frogger', we find a peaceful place to enjoy a great meal!

Cheers to Baby Matthew!

Kevin and I celebrated the arrival of little Matthew with dinner in the Pham Ngu Lao area, also known as the backpacker district.  We filled ourselves up on spring rolls, salad rolls, rice and calamari for a few dollars.

Kevin discovered Beer Larue which he says is as good as a Canadian beer but with a price tag of only 75 cents.  I cannot get enough of lime sodas - fresh lime juice, sugar, and soda water. 

News from Auntie Lori & Uncle Kevin

Congratulations, Kim & Michael, on the arrival of Matthew Robert (4 lbs, 15 oz).  We are so happy for you both and look forward to meeting our little nephew!

Kevin's First Day of Work

I feel like a proud mom.  I sent Kevin off for his first day of work for Talisman Vietnam today.

I just talked to Kelli, Bryce, Mom & Dad via Skype.  This is the desk in the spare room where we have the computer setup.  Now you can see the view we see while chatting.  Still no baby.  I should get an update in another few hours.

News from Home

We have safely arrived in Vietnam.  Our day has been full of unpacking and talking to family back home.  There has been lots of news from home.  I should be an aunt to a new baby boy in the next few hours.  Now I am trying to stay awake long enough to hear if my sister, Kim, has had her baby yet!

Farewell Tokyo

We finished our Tokyo trip off with a visit to Asakusa, the oldest part of Tokyo.  The cherry blossom festivities in the area included a drum band, women demonstrating how to fold and wear kimonos and both men and women walking through the parks in traditional clothing.  It is a beautiful part of the city complete with temples and shrines.  It was not all perfect though.  Kevin was not smiling when he discovered that Belinda was determined to visit every souvenir shop Asakusa had to offer. 

On the other hand, Belinda was ecstatic when she discovered Monchhichis for sale.  These little monkey-looking dolls were apparently popular in South Africa - did anyone in Canada have a Monchhichi?

Before jumping on the train back to our hotel to pack up and head to the airport, we enjoyed a soft serve ice cream.  Belinda and I chose the thematic cherry blossom flavour while Kevin could not resist the full Japanese experience - yes, that really is wasabi-flavoured ice cream!

We absolutely loved Tokyo and look forward to a visit back to this amazing city!  

The Happiest Place in Asia

So where does everyone go when they visit Tokyo?  The happiest place in the world, of course... or at least in Asia... Tokyo Disneyland!  Belinda and I were thrilled to join Kevin on his first Disneyland adventure.  Tokyo Disneyland is a replica of the California version complete with Splash Mountain and It's a Small World.  The Japanese are crazy about Disneyland resulting in wait times of over three hours for some rides.  Our favourite ride was definitely Splash Mountain which I remember also loving at the age of five on my first visit to the Magic Kingdom.  

After Space Mountain and the Honey I Shrunk the Kids 3D Experience, we headed to the neighborhood of Shibuya for an authentic Japanese meal.  We ended up following a few locals through a small doorway and down a flight of stairs into a great little restaurant where we sampled soba noodles, salmon lotus salad, squid with vegetables and plum wine.  

The Cherry Blossoms of Tokyo

Being in the world's largest city is both exciting and calming.  The streets of Tokyo are alive with black business suits and stacked freeways while the quieter backstreets and gardens surrounding the Imperial Palace are full of locals enjoying a picnic-style lunch and wandering tourists.  Our timing could not have been better as our arrival in Tokyo coincided with the blossoming cherry trees, an event which lasts only one week each year.  The streets are lined with the pink blossomed trees and as the petals fall to the ground they appear to sparkle.  

We arrived in Tokyo last night where we met up with Belinda in the area of Roppongi.  After enjoying a late night feast of udon noodle bowls and a sampling of Japanese chocolate, we were more than happy to be heading to bed to conquer our jetlag.  Today, we spent the morning walking through the cherry tree-lined streets of a Japanese cemetery and the vast gardens surrounding the Imperial Palace.  We stopped to lunch on huge bowls of scallops with noodles in the district of Ginza.  Ginza is Tokyo's premier shopping district with huge stores full of everything expensive and also what appears to be the oldest building in Tokyo, the Kabuki Theatre. We grabbed tickets for the third act (the entire show would be a whole day event) and made our way to the fourth balcony for a taste of a Japanese melodrama.  The all-male actors dressed in traditional Japanese costumes took us through four or five different stage settings ranging from comedy to romance to drama - my personal favourite being the sword fighting act.

We are off to Shinjuku for dinner and some Japanese nightlife.

Destination Asia

On our last night before departing for Asia, we just wanted to thank our family and friends for taking time to enjoy lunches, dinners and parties with us over the past week!  

The final house party with our wonderful neighbors, Dru and Carolyn, and friends, Alyson, Jared, and John...

And a much emptier townhouse shortly after the movers packed up....

The Oriental Phoenix Party - thanks for the great map, Shane!

The Meyer Family Farewell Dinner at Cafe Select.  Travis was not the only one who had dinner.  He just took a bit longer than the rest of us and he finished every bite of steak and did not leave one pomme frites on his plate!

Jeff & Joanne posing at Cafe Select

Kevin & I

The Jacula Family Dinner at Bauk Hauk - my parents, brother (Shawn) and sisters (Kim, front, & Kelli).  Everyone seemed to enjoy the Vietnamese and Thai dishes (thank goodness... they may actually come to visit now).

And we also got to celebrate Mike's 29th Birthday at dinner tonight.  Congrats, Mike!  Enjoy the exciting year to come.