Spring Break (4/4)

I've been back in Austin for nearly a week, and it's rough.  I adapt quickly to the luxuries of little responsibility and bounties of delicious food.  This is my final entry on Vietnam, designed to fill in the gaps from my other bowlegs.  After arriving in Saigon on Monday, Thal was sick and slept all afternoon.  Liên came home from work early, and we went fo Japanese food and bubble tea.  By the evening, Dad felt ill.  The rest of us took a bus downtown to book our tour to Nha Trang and find dinner.

On Tuesday, Mom showed George and me the building she lived in when she was growing up.  Her family had lived upstairs and owned a book shop on the ground floor.  A third floor has since been added, and the shop on the bottom now sells Western clothing.  We bought lunch and my favorite fruit, pomelo, from the same market my Mom had gone to every morning.
Mom, Liên, and I spent the afternoon at the salon, where we were well looked after for three hours.  After returning to the hotel and waking up the guys, we went downtown for a remarkable dinner.  My mom's friend Kristie Stovall had graciously invited us to her workplace, a five star hotel called the Windsor Plaza.  We joined Mom's friends for endless sushi, hot pot, spring rolls, intestines, etc.

The entirety of Wednesday was spent on a bus ride to Nha Trang.  I slept and fought off my cold, waking up only to consume the best of Vietnamese subs and grumble about the Rubik's cube.  George studied the countryside of Vietnam and held me sweetly.  On Thursday, we took a boat tour of four islands, where we discovered that Thal and I are horrible snorkelers.  During Happy Hour, everybody else watched our family jump off the boat just for a free drink of sangria.

Friday was our free day.  We spent the afternoon at Thap Ba, soaking in mud and hot mineral baths, enjoying water massages, and loitering about in giant mineral hot tubs.  That evening, we had the best grilled seafood imaginable.  Their cuttlefish is not something I shall ever forget.  We rode back to Saigon on a night bus, where Mom, Liên, and I slept like babies.  The three six-foot men stayed awake and watched us nearly crash every five minutes.

After returning to Saigon on Saturday morning, we took a trip to Núi Bà Đen, or the Black Virgin Mountain.  In sweat-soaked shirts, carrying nothing but extra water, we glanced up the stone stairs to see this woman.  We rode down the mountain in rickety carts on a curvy metal chute where we had control of the breaks.  By accident, George and I slammed into Liên pretty hard.  Thal, who was in the cart behind us, was utterly horrified.

And that's the end of this story.  Sunday morning we had a plane to catch, and Monday morning we had work to do.  Such is the nature of vacations.  George referred to Vietnam as a "paradise," which I find to be fitting.  There is no place I would rather have been, and I feel very lucky to have had my entire family there.  We even got along, mostly.

It would be remiss for me to neglect to mention any sort of culture shock.

Top Ten:

10)  Food - delicious.

     (Seriously, what are we doing over here?)

9)  Traffic - heavy.

8)  Littering - common place.

7)  Power lines - spaghetti.

6)  Fashion - anything goes.

5)  Coffee - it's a different drink.

4)  Street markets - so fresh.

3)  Bargaining - expected.

2)  Bills - worth a tenth of a penny.

1)  Mannequin stores - too many.