vietnam, the wrap up

our comments and observations of vietnam:

• we love vietnam!
• the vietnamese are smiling, lovely, and gentle people. we have thoroughly enjoyed our interactions with them.
• same as the chinese, the vietnamese are very hard workers.
• vietnam is an incredibly popular tourist destination and is choke full of tour groups and independent travelers.
• the food and coffee in vietnam is fresh, cheap, and fantastic.
• we fear we may have acquired a hard-core caffeine addiction, due to our over consumption of café sua da.
• how much pho soup can you eat in a month? loads - luckily, we love it!
• the vietnamese can ride motorbikes like champs.
• how many people can you fit on a motorbike? a vietnamese family of five: dad, mom, and three mini children.
• the only western fast-food restaurant we saw in vietnam is kfc, which have been sparcely located in hanoi and saigon.
• diet coke costs more than regular coke in vietnam. we presume it's because very few vietnamese are fat or on a diet.
• we continue with the norm of being giant in size. the vietnamese are super-mini and are even smaller than the chinese or koreans.
• vietnam has unbelievably cheap draft beer.
• vietnam is loud. it seems there are only a couple of quiet hours in the day - which are somewhere between 2 and 5am.
• the american dollar rules in vietnam.
• memory and remnants of the war are still everywhere.
• crossing a busy street in vietnam is an artform. after almost a month, we consider ourselves masters of the art.
• we love conical hats!
• relatively speaking, toilet conditions in vietnam are optimal and are only rarely of the squat variety. woo hoo!
• vietnamese bus travel is terrifying. we determined the best way to cope with it is when we feel near death, we simply close our eyes and think of beautiful, heavenly thoughts.
• same as china, blogs are subject to censorship and restriction in vietnam. although we have been able to upload new posts and photos to our blog, we've still been unable to view the final format online.
• disregarding the advice of guidebooks, we ate ice all throughout vietnam and never once got sick.
• also contrary to guidebook warnings, we encountered 0% pickpocket, theft, or crime of any sort directed towards us. we traveled throughout vietnam completely at ease and with absolutely no feeling of threat.
• they tell me i have a vietnamese face. funny, because in china they said i had a chinese face. wait a minute - someone once said i looked hawaiian…
• you get a lot of bang for your dong in vietnam.

what things cost in vietnam:

• the border crossing fee at customs to enter the country $0.12 per person
• draft bia hoi at an outdoor café in hanoi $0.12
• café sua da in a coffee shop $0.75
• fresh squeezed juice $0.60
• a fruit plate $1.10
• a fresh bagette $0.12
• an order of cau lau $0.70
• a doner kabob sandwich from a street stall $0.72
• american breakfast at a nice café $1.65
• a banana pancake $0.65
• pho soup at a street stall $0.60
• pho soup at a nice restaurant $2.25
• a large bottled water $0.36
• 12 oz can of diet coke in a restaurant $0.70
• 12 oz. can of tiger beer in a restaurant $0.65
• a fresh fruit smoothie $0.90
• a three course prix-fixe dinner at a casual vietnamese restaurant $3.25 per person
• a double ensuite room at than van hotel in hoi an $15.00
• hotel laundry service $0.90 per kilo.
• postcards $0.30 each
• postage to the u.s.a. $0.63 each
• a 15 hour sleeper bus ticket from ninh binh to hue $15.00
• manicure and pedicure $5.00
• a 1.5 hour tandem (4 hand) massage $8.00
• the vietnam mask $11.00
• a premium silk scarf $3.70
• a silk change purse $0.40
• a hand-made hemp i pod holder $2.25
• a pair of ceramic earrings from a market vendor $1.00
• entry to my son champa ruins $4.00
• tour + entry fee to cu chi tunnels $9.00
• entry to the war remnants museum $1.00
• david's street barber haircut $1.80
• an inclusive 3 day, 2 night tour to the mekong delta region with transfer to phnom penh, cambodia $36.00 per person

what's next?

tomorrow we're leaving saigon on a 3 day bus/boat tour that will take us to the mekong delta region then continue on to phnom penh, cambodia. also called the "rice basket" of vietnam, the delta yields enough rice to feed the entire country, and although the area is primarily rural, it is one of the most densely populated regions in vietnam. nearly every square mile is intensively farmed and the area is lush with rice paddies, fish farms, and extensive cultivation of sugarcane, fruit, coconut, and shrimp. the tour will take us by boat to visit floating markets and river villages of the mekong delta. we will stay over night in the cities of can tho and chau doc, a small city near the border of cambodia. on day three we will cross the cambodian border by boat then change to a bus for the final land transfer into phnom penh.

if we come across a decent wifi connection while in the delta, we'll be sure to upload some photos or drop a post regarding life on the river. otherwise, we'll see you in the capitol city of cambodia!

onward!

alina