Lost in Transition...

Xin Chao (Sin jow) from Vietnam! We are writing to you from Ho Chi Minh, our first stop on our 3 month SE Asia adventure. To get here Gabi traveled from Boston to Seattle to San Francisco and Lisa from Mexico City to San Francisco to visit with friends overnight. Thank you Jakob for your hospitality and Ariel and Ashley for kicking it. Our 17 hour flight included a stop in Seoul, 5 full Korean meals, 12 glasses of juice and enough wine to make us wish we were in a Vietnamese bar already.

With a sigh of relief our visas were cleared at immigration and customs had no problem with Gabi's highly comprehensive emergency kit and pills. At midnight we shared a cab with a firecracker Vietnamese woman who said she was 61, but we remain skeptical that she was more likely 30. Despite her insistance to the cabi, he still tried to charge us 3 times the price. Little did we know this would continue with every transaction.

We have found that the Ho Chi Minhites are friendly, humorous, helpful and delightful all around. However, they'll blatently cheat us out of 1,000 dong ($19,000 dong=$1USD) at any chance with a smile on their face. Little do they know who they're messing with.

Today Lisa bought a pair of faux purple Ray Bans for $100,000 dong, originally priced at $150,000 thinking she got a steal. Later, exhausted and enjoying our first round of $15,000 dong Tiger and 333 beer at a street stand, another man came around offering Ray Bans at $50,000 dong. Appalled, we explained that we were charged double earlier, at which the man laughed and offered us other trinkets (in which we indulged). He then sat at the table behind us calling to his fellow Ray Ban salesmen to come hear our story and enjoy a beer. We proceeded to learn Vietnamese phrases and interact with passers by. Soon enough the original salesmen, currently refered to as "the robber", showed up to sell us more Ray Bans. We outed him in front of our new group of friends, who we assume outwardly shamed him in Vietnamese and got cackles from our waitress. Indignantly the robber said "f*** you" to Lisa and sat down smiling smugly while ordering a beer. He proceeded to joke with us during our round 2 and we took photos with our friends, minus the robber, who will certainly have bad karma. All in all, it was a peaceful goodbye, while Lisa got an F-bomb, "Gabi got a "You're beautiful, I love you" and we were off. Thank goodness Lisa is forgiving.

Other than that, we have been proper tourists, visiting the War Remnants Museum, the Reunification Palace, a Mariamman Hindu Temple, the Jade Pagoda Buddhist Temple, the Ben Thanh market, and eating pho and other local treats. All filled with adventures and enrishing lessons of course. Namely, we have appreciated learning about the Vietnamese War from a Vietnamese perspective.

We're off to dinner and will have more stories to tell you soon as we continue to explore this beautiful country. Tam Biet (dum bee et)!