January 30, 2012

Some of the restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City are very fancy. Ngoc Sung where we ate Saturday night was one of those. It's a seafood restaurant and the lower level had long tables, outdoor seating, and a row of fish tanks on the wall with live seafood. There were four of us, so we took an elevator upstairs to another level which was air-conditioned. It had a bar on one end and several tables in a very modern setting. We noticed a third level upstairs too that also looked elaborately decorated. Our meal consisted of a red clam salad with small really hot red peppers, scallops Saint Jacque which was scallops in a cheese sauce and put back in the shell, and live shrimp in coconut juice. Of course they weren't really live, but they were gigantic. The plate had a ring of fire below a coconut shell and the shrimp were draped over the edge of the coconut. There were small plates of nuc mam, more of those red peppers, and a salt and pepper combination for dipping. For desert we had 4 scoops of ice cream - vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and coffee and little cups of coffee. Ron and I had a glass of Chardonnay with our meal and Carie and her mother had soda water in which they added a sugar syrup from a tiny pitcher and lemon juice from another tiny pitcher.

Yesterday was Sunday. The maids don't come on Sunday. I actually had to make my own bed and clean up my own kitchen! I hate that!  We mostly stayed in - caught up on some e-mails, swam in the pool, read, and tried to keep my leg elevated. It's still swollen. We watched the final of the Australian Open which was the longest final match on record, and retired early.

January 28, 2012

WOW. I've been here a week already! This is my home away from home for quite a few more weeks. This is a picture taken off of our balcony here at the Somerset Apartments. It's in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City. Ron and I have never lived in a big city before, and the sights and sounds on a daily basis are quite different from where we live in Lubbock, Texas!

My leg is still too sore to run/walk on the treadmill. In fact, yesterday my whole foot was swollen and black and blue. I tried hard to keep it elevated with an ice pack all day and today I think it's getting better. I'd show you the picture I took of it, but you might be eating your lunch! Consequently, I swam this morning while Ron ran on the treadmill. We have a beautiful pool here and they keep everything so clean.

We took a cab to the Co Op market. What an experience. The last time we were there, it was right before Tet and very, very crowded! Today, even though it's Saturday, it wasn't too bad. The picture is of the fish market section. We bought some pork, produce, cheese, bread, etc. I also needed some body lotion, and what I bought says Nang Dong Ca Ngay Voi Lan Da Tuoi Tre. So I'm not sure that's exactly what I've got. Oh well. I also had trouble deciding which milk to buy. One said Sua Co Duong and one said Sua Khong Duong. I thought maybe one was skimmed, but Carie said she thinks the Khong one has added sugar. They did have Coca Cola Light, Seven-Up, and pretty good wine. We bought a red wine from Dalat, and a white Sauvignon Blanc from Chile called "Passion."  Buying eggs was tricky, because they aren't refrigerated - just in a display in the middle of the store. And I had to make sure I was buying chicken (ga) eggs, and not duck (vit) eggs!

                                                       This is Ron buying thit heo (pork).

Tonight we're taking Carie and her mother to a seafood restaurant call Ngoc Suong. Ron has taken his students there when they're here for Study Abroad, and he said the food was excellent. The restaurants here serve food family-style. You order several things, and then share with the whole table. I like it that way because I always order the wrong thing at home and wish I had what the person next to me ordered. This way, if I don't like one dish I can just help myself to something else!

January 25, 2012

Did I mention that we have maid service here at the Somerset apartments? Every day the maids come and clean the bathrooms, replace the towels, they make the bed, wash any dishes I have in the sink, and clean the floors. During the last few days of Tet, the maids have had the days off, so I have had to do everything myself! There is a restaurant here and a small store and they have both also been closed. The restaurant does open up a short time for breakfast, but that's all. Last night we walked down the street (very carefully) and stopped in at a restaurant called Ocean Palace. We think it was more Chinese and the food was very good. They displayed ducks near the kitchen and had live fish tanks in case you order fish. We had a duck dish that was bar-b-qued, and a rice dish with shrimp and lobster along with some vegetables. We were almost finished when they brought our vegetable which was broccoli and a green onion of some sort. I passed on the onion. Then we ordered fried ice cream. It was chocolate incased in a sort of donut. Wonderful!
But today we took a cab back to Carie's house. After Vietnamese families have had the traditional Tet meal for 3 days, they fix chicken soup. We were invited to share this with them. There was a salad which was cabbage, chicken pieces and mint. In the center of the table was a big bowl of chicken soup which was made with rice and more creamy than my chicken soup. Next to the soup was a platter of chicken which she had boiled. The chicken had been cut into small pieces and the whole chicken was there. Even the feet! It was very tasty, but I didn't try the feet. They do use the whole chicken!
For desert they brought out some triangular shaped leaves wrapped in a very gummy substance made with coconut milk. It was sweet but chewy. Another one was made with green beans, but I didn't care for it at all. We had taken them a bottle of champagne but Ron, Carie and Luon had Coors Light. And there's always bottled water to drink too.

January 23, 2012

I walked on the treadmill this morning, as my leg was feeling better, but looks horrible. It's still swollen and very red and blotchy. They had a ceremony in front of our hotel with a man in a dragon costume climb real high up a pole and dance. Several men in bright colors did tricks breaking bricks on their heads, and hitting each other with sticks. Not quite sure what that was all about. Carie and her mother picked us up in a cab and drove us to a pagoda. Her father and brother's ashes are placed there as are hundreds of others and the crowd was amazing. People with their incense, praying to pictures and artifacts of their loved ones were everywhere. They could buy a cage of birds, and let them loose to symbolize releasing all cares into the air for the new year. They would take several sticks with numbers on them, then they hit them together and when one broke, they would take the number on that stick to a monk and the monk would tell them exactly what that meant for the future year. If it was bad, that would ruin their whole year!

We returned to Carie's house for another lunch of that wonderful feast. This time she added egg rolls, hard boiled eggs, and her brother had a delicious red Bordeaux from France. After lunch we got to talk to her mom about her life after she married and her husband was in the reeducation camp. They took him away and told him to take enough clothes for 3 days and he was gone 3 years! She had little communication with him either. Ron is going to write an article about his life and the connection with Harley Davidson motorcycles.

We tried out my microwave/convection oven on the rest of that pork for supper and boiled some noodles. Not bad. No maid service today because it's still a holiday.

January 22, 2012

Chuc mung nam moi! Happy New Year! It's the year of the dragon. I could hear a parade down the street and this is the day everyone is festive, wears bright colors and welcomes in the new year. We were invited to Carie's house for dinner. Her mother took all day to prepare the food and she won't be cooking again for another 3 days. She had everything imaginable from pigs ears,tongue and hearts, pork, shrimp, some kind of bitter fruit (so we won't be bitter this new year), a crab pate, bean sprouts, and rice paper which you moisten, then take a leaf of lettuce and load everything on top of that and roll it up. I must admit I didn't try the ears, or tongue, but I tried to taste everything else. For desert we had pomelo dipped in coarse salt with red pepper and watermelon that was out-of-this-world. Carie's brother bought some Budweiser for Ron too. It was a lovely lunch. Her aunt and uncle joined us but they couldn't speak any English. Carie translated everything to them as we spoke. We lit incense and placed it next to pictures of Carie's brother and father who have passed away. Her father was in the military, fighting for the south, and after Saigon fell was taken to a re-education camp for 3 years! When he returned he opened up a Harley Davidson shop where he repaired and built motorcycles. That was the first connection Ron had with Carie when they met.

My leg was not propped up well enough, and started to swell again, so we went back home. Oh by-the-way, they found my shoe!!

January 21, 2012

Today is Saturday (I think) and it's New Years Eve. Local people spend time with their families and the stores, restaurants and bars are closed. We ran on the treadmill again, and around 10:00 took a cab to the Opera House and met Carie and her family (mother, brother, sister-in-law and 1-year old nephew) and walked down another flower street. You just can't imagine the beauty of all of the flowers. Of course it was very crowded and quite warm so they took Sushi the 1-year old home and Ron and I ate lunch at Chao. When we got back to the apartment we sat by the pool, did a little swimming and after our showers, Ron said we should walk down the street so he could show me the university where he will be teaching.

It's very difficult to cross streets here because motor bikes are everywhere, and they don't stop. I was instructed to walk carefully but swiftly and make eye contact with the drivers. What I wasn't prepared for, however, was a possible motor bike on the sidewalk and as I made a quick turn to my left - WHAM - I was hit on my left leg by a woman and man coming full speed. It surprised me more than anything and the driver came over and grabbed my leg to see if it was broken. I felt sure it wasn't, so we kept walking. About 2 blocks later, my leg began to swell and burn like crazy. I felt like I was going to pass out, and Ron set me on the grass and I put my head between my legs. He hailed down a cab and took me back to the apt. In the lobby there just happened to be a family going out to dinner. The husband was a Vietnamese doctor from Australia and he examined my leg and suggested I go to the hospital to have an X-ray just in case. The manager of the apt got a wheel chair, and a cab and off we went. Ron has a list of recommended hospitals that Fullbright published and one of them was fairly close. They couldn't have been nicer at the hospital where they were waiting for me with another wheelchair and took X-rays of my leg. No broken bones thank goodness. They prescribed aspirin and an anti-inflammatory and the whole bill was $165! The manager of our apartments stayed with us the whole time too. They gave me an ice pack, wrapped it up and sent us home. As we were waiting for a cab, I said to Ron, "OK, you can hand me my other shoe now." There was a startled look on his face and I knew right away that he didn't have it and probably left it in the cab on the way to the hospital! We also left the wheelchair from our apt in the trunk of that same cab. The manager called the cab company and they said they'd try to find it, but good luck with that! They were brand new running shoes too.

I propped my leg up the rest of the evening with ice and Ron fixed me a nice dinner with some of the pork we had bought at the market. It's New Years Eve and at midnight there were fireworks, and noise in the streets everywhere. We looked at all of the apartments across the way and everyone was out on their balcony lighting candles and ushering in the new year!

January 20, 2012

What a beautiful day this is. Warm, but not too bad. I woke up pretty early, but Ron took me all around and showed me the surroundings. We ran on the treadmill for 30 minutes, then had breakfast at the restaurant here at the apartments. My stomach said it was night time, so I wasn't very hungry. We took a cab to the Co Op market to buy food for a few days because during Tet, a lot of restaurants and markets are closed. I think everyone else in Ho Chi Minh City was at the market too, and I saw things for sale that I've never seen before! We got a big pork roast, some fruit, snacks, wine, and huge bag of salt - which we couldn't use in a year, but that's all we could find!  Carie picked us up in a cab around 4 and we drove to the flower market and flower street. Because of the Tet celebration of their new year, the street was one stall after another of beautiful flowers and plants. When it got dark the lights were unbelievably beautiful. We took plenty of pictures, had dinner at a french bistro and took a cab home. I almost fell asleep in the cab!

January 18, 2012

This is the day I've been planning for. My friend Anna picked me up at 4:00 AM. I said goodbye to Buster and got to the airport in plenty of time to weigh in my bags (my heavy bag only weighted 49 lbs. - YAY), and get through customs for a 6:00 flight. While I was waiting, the flight attendant came on the PA system and said our flight would be delayed 1 hour and they would try to re-book everyone that had connecting flights! This was completely unacceptable because I am flying to Dallas, then LA, then Tokyo, then Ho Chi Minh City with only a small amount of time between each flight. As my blood pressure was rising, she came back on and said "Never mind. We're going to take off as planned after-all!"

My flight to Dallas was short and sweet. I proceeded to take the sky train from terminal B to terminal D. However, it by-passed terminal D and a recording came on saying because of security reasons it was not stopping at D.I got off at terminal C and asked a man who worked there how to get to terminal D. He said the sky train. I told him it wasn't stopping at D right now and he said to just stay on and eventually it would be back to normal! NOOOO. I asked him if I could walk to the sky bridge which connected to D and he told me which way to walk. Well, it was really far and my window of time between flights was narrowed down considerably, but I made it.

The flight to LA was fine. I read, and slept most of the way. This is where it becomes complicated. I was switching from American Airlines to United Airlines in LA. I had to go from the American terminal to the International United terminal and the signs gave me no help at all. I asked a security officer and he said I had to exit the building (which also means exiting security) and walk down from terminal 3 to terminal 7. That took me a really long time. And that also meant I had to go through security again and the lines in LA are quite a bit longer than the lines in Lubbock! By the time I got to my gate, they were already boarding.

The flight to Tokoy (Narita, Japan) was 11 hours and 53 minutes but was very comfortable. I read, saw a couple of movies and slept some more.

In Narita we had to go through security again and I only had 50 minutes to get to my next gate. United Airlines uses All Nippon Airlines in Japan and that flight was very crowded with people traveling to Vietnam for Tet. This flight was 6 hours and 40 minutes. A man helped me place my carry-on bag overhead and I forgot to take out my book, so I could only watch TV but with a nice snack in between.

Ho Chi Minh City airport is very crowded at the baggage claim area. Everyone claimed their bags but me. One came out, but the other 3 didn't. I was on my way to the claim area already worried that they wouldn't understand me when I glanced way down the hallway and there they were just sitting there! This whole procedure took 1 hour! Ron and his student friend Carie and Carie's mother were waiting for me outside. As soon as I exited the building I saw hundreds of people waiting for 3 flights that arrived at the same time! But standing up on the wall was Ron waiving his arms and I knew I was safe.

We took a cab to our new apartment which I will live in for 4 months. It's very nice and very clean. It has 2 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a kitchen and a living room/dining room combined. It was dark outside (11:00 PM) but I could see a very large swimming pool and tennis court. I unpacked my suitcases and went to bed with a buzz in my head not knowing what time or day it was! I'm home.

8 Days and Counting

     Preparing for 4 months in Vietnam is not an easy task. Ron will be gone for 7 months and that makes it even harder for us to wrap our thoughts around this daunting task.

     We were prepared though. Way before Christmas we went into our bank and asked them questions about opening up an account over there. They couldn't help but advised us to open up an account with an Australian bank. In order to do that we need crisp, new $100 dollar bills as they will not accept any that are wrinkled or folded. We ordered them through Wells Fargo and the man said that at Christmas they get new bills and would put aside a few thousand dollars for us.

     A week before Christmas, Ron decided to go to Angel Fire to read final exams and do his grading because he can get the solitude he needed. While there, his tooth began to hurt when he put anything cold or hot in his mouth. I called the dentist and luckily he could get an appointment as soon as he returned. That appointment turned into a root canal with a temporary crown that would arrive in plenty of time for his departure on Jan 5. The days his replacement crown arrived he also had a teeth cleaning and the hygienist broke off another tooth in the process. Panicking,  they prepared it for another crown and after several shots of Novocain, the Dr. very securely placed a temporary crown on top of that tooth which should hopefully last him 7 months.

     Wells Fargo called and said the crisp $100 bills didn't arrive after all. Sorry. I scoured every Wells Fargo and Bank of America branch in Lubbock and only came up with half of the amount we'll need. My good friend Anna's husband works for American State Bank and was able to make arrangements for me to bring in old bills in exchange for brand new ones, even though I don't have an account with them. But it is still leaving us short.

     Ron decided it would take one whole day to pack his 2 large suitcases and one carry-on but it took at least 3 days in all. United Airlines charges $70 for a 2nd bag and $200 for a 3rd. Needless to say he decided to try to fit everything in those 2 bags plus a carry-on. Just in case there was a problem, on the day of his departure I pulled an extra bag to the airport and sure enough, one of his bags weighed 1 pound too much. He took out his cowboy boots, placed them in the bag I had brought and he was good to go. Except.....he had 7 months worth of daily contact lenses in his carry-on that have liquid in them, a pacemaker checking devise, and a blood pressure gauge which both look slightly like potential bombs. I waited for him to clear security and they must have put his suitcase through the metal detector 3 times, gave him a pat down, interrogated him, and finally I got the signal of all clear. Leaving the airport was a relief because of all we had gone through to make it this far. I was only in the airport a few minutes, but when I passed through the exit, the teller asked me to please wait while they changed out tills. I probably waited 5 minutes for this transaction. When I gave him my ticket he charged me $2! (it's free it you stay less than 30 minutes) I said "How long was I gone?" He said "35 minutes." I said "But I've been sitting here 5 minutes waiting for you!" Crazy! On the way home I got a rock thrown into my windshield with a gigantic crack! This hasn't been easy! But then, we don't do anything easy.