Vietnam Day 1 Summary

Well, we had a very long but nice flight from Seattle to Taipei, Taiwan to Saigon, Vietnam.  Everyone slept pretty well and had a pretty nice time on the EVA airline.  We landed, got our baggage without problems (the customs people were not very nice), and met up with My's brother, Kahn.  He was such a nice gentleman waiting for us at the airport, arranged a very nice shuttle bus to pick us up, and helped us with our luggage.  Our driver was Sun, who was actually Kahn's cousin.  

They took us on a little sightseeing tour of Saigon, where we saw so many motorbikes on the road (the motorbikes outnumber the cars 100 to 1) carrying 1-3 passengers, boxes of supplies, glass sheets, trees, and so many things!  The city consisted of a variety of people(poor to rich), automobiles(motorbikes to buses), buildings(old looking shacks to new towers, and shops(Vietnamese to American).  We made our way to Bienhoa, My's hometown, toured around a little bit, and then finally arrived at Kahn's home.  We were able to meet Kahn's lovely wife and his nice son.  They own a nice house out in the countryside of Bienhoa.  Kahn's wife prepared for us a very wonderful first meal in Vietnam and we all enjoyed it very much.  Afterward, My brought us on a little 3 mile walk around the countryside where we were able to see and talk with the local residents who all seemed very interested in seeing us Americans, especially Mike and Jolene who are white skinned.  We saw a couple schools close by, went to the local market and bought some fruits (dragonfruit and some weird one that My says is a type of plum), and went back to Kahn's house.  

After getting showered, we got ready to go to downtown Bienhoa to drop off our luggage at a nice hotel and went to have dinner.  We ate a nice fried tofu appetizer, drank a eggflower with corn type soup, and had this tasty chicken dish.  After dinner, everyone was tired from the day's travel so Dr. Maebo, Mike, Jolene, and I returned to the hotel and My went to stay at her brother's house.  

That's the brief summary of day 1 in Vietnam which I thought everyone enjoyed for the most part.  I think most of us were expecting Vietnam to be worse than what it really is so that is good.  In our contest of who would be the highest maintenance, My is in the lead with 3 points followed by Jolene, who has 1 point.  Dr. Maebo, Mike, and I are dead last with 0!  Does this shock anyone?  Yay, way to go Dr. Maebo, Mike, and myself!