So Long... and Thanks For All the Pho

We left Saigon on Thursday and made our way to Phu Quoc Island. We wanted to give you a taste of the food we ate in Saigon.

Somehow, this guy got Adam to hold his coconuts, then made the hard sell. 

Pho

More pho. This it's lunch, but they usually east it for Breakfast. 

These were the most delicious bananas ever. 

Sour soup. 

We wandered into this restaurant randomly. It was full of lunching workers. It ended up being one of the best meals in Saigon. We were the only tourists in the restaurant. 

Ice cream comes for 3000 dong each. That's about 15 cents. 

Watermelon, dragon fruit, tangerine and mangosteen. 

Inside the dragon fruit. Tasted a bit like kiwi. 

Mind the Crocodiles

Yesterday, we embarked on a tour of the Mekong River Delta. We decided to go with a slightly more expensive company that promised to take us places where other tourists don't normally go. The guide picked us up at our hotel, took us to a waiting van, and we were off to the dock (via crazy HCMC traffic).

Crocodile's Eye View

Houses on stilts.

We started southwest down the river and had second breakfast on the boat. It consisted of ham croissants and tropical fruits (delicious bananas and mangosteens). As we journeyed down the river, we saw houses built on shaky stick foundations over the river. Land is expensive in HCMC, so they build these during the night over the river, which nobody owns. With our boat leaving a significant wake, we thought it was possible that any one of them might collapse into the river at any moment. We also passed many fishing boats, tug boats and barges. Most of these had eyes painted on the bow that were intended to ward off the crocodiles. Crocodiles are no longer in the river, since they've all been eaten, but now they say that they still ward off their spirits.

Breakfast on the boat

Tiny, delicious banana

First, we stopped at a local Buddhist pagoda. It was a very new pagoda, built in recent years. The monks that live at this pagoda are vegetarians. They spend their time praying and meditating. They also buy live fish from local markets and release them back into the river.

Pagoda

Good thing meat doesn't require refrigeration

Our next stop was a market in a small village. We saw all kinds of interesting animal pieces for sale. The old women couldn't stop touching the cute, blonde 6-year-old Australian boy on the tour with us. Apparently, white children are lucky, so they like to touch them. The boy was not amused. They also commented to our guide that I am a very beautiful woman. I suspect that they just thought I was very tall, and were too polite to tell me that my hair was frizzy. (editorial note from Adam, who is transcribing Emily's spoken instructions: It had nothing to do with her height or frizzy-ness)

Local watering hole.

Next up was a tour of a village along an offshoot of the river. We saw a house that held 10 people, including 4 generations (ages 9mo to 90 years). While it had only dirt floors, it had a very new, flat-panel TV. We also saw a rice field, sugar cane field, tapioca field, chickens, ducks, turkeys, fish, coconut and banana trees. We stopped at the local bar for a quick drink. It was a shot of Mekong whiskey.

before

We loaded back into the boat and headed to our lunch stop, a Vietnamese orphanage. The staff there prepared a 5 course lunch for us. It included spring rolls, sweet & sour soup, stir fried chicken and beef, a deep fried whole elephant ear fish, and tropical fruit for dessert (pineapple and star apple). After lunch, we visited a local Cao Dai temple. This religion seems to combine the major religions of the world in a very confusing way. They have pictures of Confucius, Buddha, and Jesus in the temple, among others (including, improbably, Victor Hugo).

After

All in all, it was a great trip. We feel like we got a great taste of Vietnamese culture. It was well worth what we spent.

Welcome to Vietnam, may I take your money?

We just finished our first day in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC - formerly Saigon). It's a nice enough city, fairly typical of other large cities in developing countries. A few interesting facts about HCMC:

• It's hot! Let me repeat that. HCMC is HOT! We went through our water very quickly. We each drank a coconut and probably a few liters of water each throughout the day. We sweat most of that out. By 2:00, we were exhausted and overheated, so we came back to the hotel for a shower and nap.
• Moving from one place to another can be hazardous to your health. Take, for example, walking around the city. Sidewalks are for pedestrians. They are also for street-restaurants with plastic chairs and tables. Also for various street vendors. They are also a great place to park your motorcycle. Turns out, they are also a great place to drive your motorcycle, especially when you want to go the wrong way on a one-way street. Trying to cross the street is even worse. There are crosswalks and stoplights, but we haven't figured out what they're for yet. The only way to cross the street is to just go for it, and hope the motorcycles avoid you. If you're lucky, they'll honk before they cut you off.
• People want your money. That's true everywhere in the world, but here, they are not afraid to ask for it. I suspect it's a factor of being in tourist areas and being obviously a tourist. We received several offers to polish our tennis shoes. We were offered lots of cheap trinkets and maps. We could have ridden in any number of cycle-rickshaws or on the back of motorcycles. We did not choose any of these.
• The people want to keep the city clean. Despite what you might expect from a large city like this, the streets were actually relatively clean. There were workers cleaning up in lots of places. There were gardeners in all the parks. Some of these were sweeping the lawn with long brushes of some sort. Never figured out why they were sweeping the lawn.
• The food is delicious, but often intimidating. It can be hard to find a place to eat, because many of the restaurants are a bit intimidating. Either they don't do menus or the building doesn't look like a place you want to eat. The smells make you hungry, and eventually you cave. We had a really good bowl of pho today. The fruits are exotic and delicious as well.

Pho. yum!

Today, we went to independence palace. It was  built in the 60s as the presidential residence for the recently formed Republic of Vietnam (south Vietnam). After the war, it was basically turned into a museum, and is occasionally used for state functions still. Much of it is still decorated in the original 60's modern style. There's a bomb shelter in the basement with a lot of the old equipment that was there during the war.

The cabinet room

Not sure what the official purpose of this room was. The guide called it "the most beautiful room." 

Gambling room. Pretty sure there isn't one of these in the White House.

Radio room.

Well, time to go to sleep now. 

We're in Vietnam!

We arrived in Vietnam safely last night after about 27 hours of travel time, 20 hours on airplanes. We got to our hotel at 11:30 pm local time, but I have no idea what time it is body time. We woke up before 5 am today. Hope we adjust soon.

More from Ho Chi Minh City later, after we've had some time to explore.

And we're off!

We're in the airport, waiting for our slightly delayed flight to Chicago. The lady at the counter told us it was delayed an hour, but the board at the gate says half an hour. Either way, we're prepping for a run across the airport at O'Hare.

We both packed light. Adam's suitcase weighed in at 33 lbs, and Emily's was 27. Lots of room for souvenirs. Our flights in the middle have a 44 lb limit, so that was our target. Thankfully, our destination is 90 degrees currently. There was still room for a repackaged Carcassonne in a tennis ball can.

It's a niece!

My brother Adam and his wife Courtney had a gender reveal party on Saturday. They gave the sealed ultrasound results to the baker who baked the gender color into the cake. My parents, her parents, and her grandparents were there to watch them cut the cake. It was pink!

Here's my cute little brother.

Pears and Butterflies

Well, summer is coming to a close. That means that we start to harvest and put away our produce for the year. This year we had the first fruit from our urban orchard. That's right, we got a pear!

Ok, it's not the prettiest pear you'll ever see. But it's the only pear we got this year. One pear tree blossomed, and the other did not. Somehow, one blossom got pollinated. Despite a very rough year with early thaw, late frost, a hot, dry summer and a brutal attack from pearleaf blister mites, our solitary pear survived! What you see in the photo above is the good side. The other side had some mite damage. The good news is, the mites don't really hurt the fruit other than cosmetic blemishes. After the requisite ripening period, we cut the pear in half and shared it. We both agreed that it was, hands down, the best pear we have eaten. It was pretty amazing.  Here's hoping next year is more productive.

This summer saw the planting of some new things in the yard, including our apricot tree. With that, our urban orchard now contains: pears, plums, cherries, apricots, blueberries, kiwi fruit, grapes, cranberries and raspberries. Throw in the garden produce, a patch of rhubarb and the odd morel or two, and we've got a pretty productive little quarter acre.

After UGM, Emily was ready for some time off, so we had a long weekend this past weekend. We went up to Wisconsin Dells to play mini golf at Pirate's Cove (we tied). After that, we had lunch at Paul Bunyan's Cook Shanty, followed by a trip on the Upper Dells boat tour. It was a good day.

On Saturday, Adam rode his bike to Devil's Lake with some friends. We took the long way to get there, hoping to stretch it to a metric century (100 km). Unfortunately, there were 20+ mph winds, complicating matters significantly, and slowing our pace to a crawl. We cut off the last 10 miles, making it to the park in 50 miles (80k) instead. Oh well. It was a nice ride with some good friends.

On Monday, we went to Olbrich Botanical Gardens. It was a great time of year to be there. There were a lot of late-summer plants blooming, and we caught a flock of cedar waxwings eating crabapples. We also saw a lot of butterflies. Some pictures of the butterflies are below:

It was a good weekend. It won't be long now before it's time to cover the hoophouse, plant the garlic, and pull the last of the green tomatoes off the vines. It's a sad time of year for a gardener, but it's just part of life.