Surely, You Can't Be Serious!

I am serious. And don't call me Shirley.

Tina and I have been traveling all over Saigon and the Mekong Delta, and yes, we do things other than eat. However, some of the highlights so far have definitely been food related, especially the exotic edibles we've had the opportunity to try, like ba ba(turtle), pictured above. Although I've had little pieces of sea turtle in soup before, having an entire turtle that looked like Norman, my class pet in the third grade, made me a little squeamish. And that was before Tina's cousin, Huy, opened it up:


We quickly realized that this cooked version of Norman must actually be a Normina, as those yellow balls you see are premature turtle eggs:


The turtle meat itself was pretty good, but Tina's Vietnamese taste buds preferred it much more than mine. The eggs, on the other hand, were excellent. They tasted sort of like quail eggs. If you ever eat ba ba, I highly recommend asking for a female.

Hmm, that actually sounds sort of gruesome, so please disregard that suggestion.

We've also tried several different versions of se se(sparrow):


You can eat their little grilled bodies whole, including their legs, and they taste like the best barbecued chicken wings in the world. I just wish they had an option for buffalo se se.

Oh and I finally got to try the aforementioned "cat poop coffee", aka ca phe cuc chon(literally translated as civet poop coffee). Despite my excitement, deep down I feared that the coffee would taste just like normal Vietnamese coffee. Upon my first sip, I discovered a completely unique brew unlike any coffee I've ever tried. The taste sort of hit me in my nose, like a hoppy beer. I'll try to bring some back with me if I can.

Finally, we visited a monkey zoo, which was actually more of a human zoo for wild monkeys , but I'll post pictures of that next time. The one animal in a cage was our good friend, the civet, who is responsible for the wonderful coffee. Civets are sort of a cat/weasel/racoon animal that apparently love to eat coffee beans:


Tina's Uncle is supposedly cooking some Civet for us tomorrow. Tonight we get to eat snake!

More pictures coming soon.

I Think I'm Forgetting English

So we've only been here for 3 days and it's been a whirlwind. Currently, we are in Can Tho (Dan just corrected me on the proper spelling of a Vietnamese word- I originally wrote To), which is a beautiful city in the Mekong Delta. We are waiting to get on a floating ship for dinner, and tomorrow we will wake up to see the floating markets by 5am. We are hoping to post up lots of pictures within the next few days, but for now, my words will have to do!

This morning we went to one of the four islands off of My To, where we saw monkeys, went on a kayak, saw a coconut candy factory (except that it was less of a factory and more of an outdoor work area) and the land of the Coconut Monk, who ate only coconuts for years and founded the Coconut religion, which died along with him in 1990.

I can't begin to explain how helpful my relatives have been, as they've taken time off of work to take us on personalized tours that would cost foreigners much more. Actually, I don't even think expensive tours can provide the caring insight that my extended family is giving us and I am extremely grateful. Oh and their English is even better than my parents!

Yesterday, we ate so well in My To- a 7 course meal for 7 people cost a whopping $35. Seriously. Then, we went deep into the Ben Tre Province, where my parents grew up. The guidebook mentioned the area, but we dove much deeper into the thick of things. There was an outhouse covered in rice paper for privacy and I peed with a tree frog right in front of my face. TMI much? It poured rain for maybe 10 minutes, which was fun- offroading in mud. We visited my grandparent's graves and my uncle's house where we watched people climb ladders made of bamboo to cut down coconuts- something that tourists in Hawaii pay money to see (my relatives were really amused by that fact). We ate fresh caught crawfish and rice porridge with banana flower, a very unique rarity.

Vietnam has changed incredibly since I came here 10 years ago. There are less beggars (due to government control), and much MUCH more development. It is especially interesting to explain America to Vietnamese people. Just as most Americans cannot imagine Vietnam, the Vietnamese are in awe that American stores all have private doors and that American freeways prohibit pedestrains and do not have people selling food on the sides, etc. It makes me wish I could take everyone back home with me to show them.

Lastly, I cannot even begin to explain what the streets are like. It's constant- there are no stoplights, no stop signs, and absolutely no flinching when people cross the street. At first we were terrified, but now I feel like a natural. There are little kids on motorcycles hanging on their parents that are totally calm. Dan took a ton of pictures so that we could post them. Our first day in Saigon, my cousin took us to a fancy coffee shop downtown (I felt like I was in Paris- more on that later) and when he went to parallel park his car in a tight spot, a policeman came and literally pushed the car in front of us so that he could fit. Awesome.

More to come within the next few days- we will be returning to Saigon to do all the touristy things there. By then, my English will probably be much worse off. Dan is totally making fun of me because I'm having such a hard time translating things into English for him (even my cousins are correcting me) because I've been using my Vietnamese so much. Until then, chao!

The Artist Formerly Known as Saigon

Well, we've arrived and Ho Chi Minh City, or as everyone here still calls it, Saigon, is crazy! We rode on the back of motorcycles and almost died, but apparently almost dying is how one drives here. Tina's family has been great to us and they are showing us things that no travel book in the world could have led us to, so I am pretty happy. However, I still haven't found the elusive cat poop coffee: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_Luwak

Oh and our flights were actually really nice and I would especially like to thank all of our Korean friends for having such a wonderful airline in Korean Air. The seats were comfortable, the bibimbap was great, and the flight attendants were beautiful(even Tina said so). And don't worry Phil, I'm still pissed about Starcraft.

I'll do a bigger post with some pictures in a couple of days when we return from the Mekong Delta. Hopefully, we'll have eaten some strange animals by then.

The Rough Cut

Vietnam in 3 weeks

Saigon, Mekong Delta, Buon Ma Thuot, Da Lat, Nha Trang, Hoi An, Hue, Hanoi, Halong Bay, Sapa

Laos in 1 week

Louang Prabang, Vang Vieng, Vientiane

Thailand in 3 weeks
This is really rough- (I still have a lot of reading to do on Thailand)

Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Ayutthaya, Ko Chang, Phuket, Ko Phi Phi, Ko Samui

Cambodia in 1 week

Siem Reap, Angkor Wat, Phnom Penh