From Hong Kong (Wednesday, 2 July, 2008: 10:15am)

After three more nights in Saigon, Seth and I packed up, said good bye to my parents—who would fly back to North Carolina the following day—and we took a plane up to Hong Kong. We have spent the past four days here on bustling Hong Kong Island, visiting with our good friend, Synni, and her partner, Dan. Synni was my exchange student roommate during my third year at UNC and she became quite close to me and Seth. After three years, it has been great seeing her and finally meeting Dan, whom she called every night and made little gifts for while she and I roomed together.

We were able to spend all Sunday and Tuesday with Synni and Dan (Tuesday was a public holiday celebrating the reunification of Hong Kong and China), and they showed us all the neatest places to visit and introduced us to the best foods to eat. Luckily, it is cheaper here than in the US (and much cheaper than Australia), so Seth and I have not felt too guilty eating out for meals and splurging on new foods to try. It has been great hanging out with those two—they have been taking us to places we would have never been able to find on our own, particularly those shops and restaurants that are located in the upper floors of buildings (it is hard enough to decipher signs written in Chinese, let alone have a quick peak in a shop that is not on the ground floor).

Our first night out in Hong Kong: Synni and Dan took us out for steamed Shanghai style dumplings (Xiao long bao).

Garlic and wasabi, inside a shopping mall

Waiting at a popular place for dessert...

...it was worth the wait! Durian pancakes, black sesame rice balls, and mango with sago

Running in the rain down the completely empty promenade (it was pretty early)

Hong Kong is similar to how I remember it being 12 years ago: busy, energetic, and modern. However, this time around I can also appreciate how clean, safe, and extremely quirky it is. It is nice to have Synni with us to explain to functionality of silly toys and to describe what certain human/animal animated characters are supposed to represent.

Play-doh sushi set

I wonder what they cook here? (Actually a pet shop next to noodle place)

Char shu (BBQ pork) and roast goose for brunch

Papaya with sago (which is like tapioca) drink and bubble waffles

Chocoolate Burger King... I don't really understand this shop (Causeway Bay)

Though I really like this city, the one thing I find frustrating is that the walkways are chaotic. Designed under the British system, like Australia, traffic flows on the left-hand side of the street. Also, when on the jogging path in Victoria Park, signs remind walkers to keep left and joggers to keep right, and escalators going in the forward direction are on the left side. The enigma here is that pedestrians seem to be biased to the right: when using an escalator, people stand to the right, letting those in a hurry pass on the left; and on the sidewalks people seem to ignore signs and want to walk on the right side of the road. The result is that pedestrians don’t keep to one side or the other and just run into each other, literally—we are constantly being bumped into! This is particularly annoying when running because people scatter everywhere and don’t seem to be aware of other people trying to get around them. Even in Saigon, which was also densely populated, it was comparatively much easer to run through and navigate than Hong Kong.

With Synni and Dan, we have spent the past few days taking buses, trams, subways, and the Star Ferry around Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. Yesterday afternoon they took us to The Peak to look down on the city in daylight, then after poking around the shops for a few hours, we saw the city at night. We even waited until 8pm to watch the nightly laser show—a group of buildings on either side of the harbour have a light display, but it was so unimpressive we didn’t even notice it was in progress after we had been watching it for 15minutes!

View from The Peak

Evidence of Seth's 'misplaced' McDonald's Coffee (at the mall on The Peak)

View from the other side of The Peak

The four of us have also been exploring lots of shops and arcades, the most interesting of which are not in the most obvious locations, so it was great to have the local guides. At every corner we have also been indulging in heaps of Hong Kong snacks, such as fruit juice with sago (which are like tapioca pearls), fried pork burgers for afternoon tea, Shanghi-style dumplings, morning dim sum, bubbly waffles, milk tea with bubbles, egg tarts, durian pancakes, red bean and green-tea sundaes at McDonalds (I figure it is ok to have McDonalds while in HK—it seems to be the popular thing to do), and especially, the freshest sushi we have ever seen. Like in Vietnam, everything is so interesting, delicious, and reasonably priced, it is hard not to go nuts and eat everything we see. It has also been fun shopping for small clothing items, particularly since the clothes here are unique, interesting, and fairly cheap, and also because I need to restock my wardrobe after dumping a good amount of it before leaving Canberra! In fact, I have not really shopped for clothes in about three years—I barely bought anything while living in Australia, knowing a lot of it would be chucked away.

View from the tram (near Causeway Bay)

Star Ferry--on our way to Kowloon (the mainland)

Some clock tower (Kowloon)

We are fitting in with Hong Kong people by going to a McDonalds/McCafe! Even Seth was there (in the red jacket in the background). Notice the green tea with red bean sundae, iced coffee, and Synni on her mobile phone.

We are on the Kowloon side, looking over to Hong Kong Island
(actually right where the promenad

The Olympic mascots (only in China...)

A stupid dog

Afternoon tea: Fried pork sandwiches, iced milk tea, omelet with toast, and satay noodles

Shopping at the massive and crowded electronics mall

Dinner at the popular Itamae Sushi in Causeway Bay

Extremely fresh sushi!

Morning exercisers in Victoria Park (Causeway Bay)

Back alley markets in Central

Our lunch in Central

Bamboo scaffolding (the view from the giant escalator, near Soho)

View from the escalator

Inside Man Mo Temple, near Soho (so much incense!)

Markets near Soho

Causeway Bay at night (view from the winter-melon soup shop)

Strange beasts: view from the winter-melon soup shop

At the restaurant -- Seth took this photo in the mirror (Causeway Bay)

Winter-melon soup!

During our run: Happy Valley Racecourse

Putting on free tester sunblock (North Point)

Super tall apartments in North Point

Rock star academic tutors (near Nathan Road, Kowloon)

Ladies Market, Kowloon

Not sure what it is, but it looks good

On the MTR

Annual Reunification Day protest, Admirality

Annual Reunification Day protest, Admirality

The hostel where we are staying is in bustling Causeway Bay, amongst giant shopping malls and right across the street from Victoria Park and the Promenade. It is nice to be in a convenient, lively area when visiting a big city! Though the hostel does not have a common room or kitchen (which we don’t really need because we have mostly been eating out), it does have a small fridge and we get to stay in our own bedroom with private washroom. It is essentially something like a cheap hotel. We will stay in this hostel all five nights (Seth will be leaving after me and will be here one extra night).

The hostel in Causeway Bay

From Saigon, Vietnam—Nice to be back (Thursday, 26 June, 2008: 6pm)

It felt nice to be back in Saigon this morning. Not only is it familiar and we know our way around this area (we are in the same hotel as before), but the people here seem so much more easy-going and ‘cruisy’ than in the other cities we visited. Though Seth and I do make an effort to keep away from the overly touristy parts of Saigon, in the areas we explore people don’t chase us down trying to get us to fork over our business. No one is trying to pretend to be happy to see us and no one attempting to lure us into their shops. People are more openly quirky and good-natured towards us, not because they necessarily want our money.

Seth running in Saigon (in the road with the traffic)

Our hotel in Saigon

Here are a few overall observations from the trip:

Saigon, Hanoi, and Driving:
The driving is a big indication of the laid-back nature of Saigon—though the roads are more densely packed with motorbikes than the other cities (even Hanoi), the drivers are so smooth and keep the traffic flowing so effortlessly that the chaos is kept to a minimum. What’s more is that despite the mayhem, and owing to the fact that it is quite easy to watch people’s faces as they drive by, I have never seen any indications of road rage. In Hanoi, drivers appear frantic and aggressive, and in Hue motorbikes would hesitate and seem clumsy when crossing through traffic—their expressions sometimes revealed their panic. Crossing the streets in Hanoi was more frightening than in Saigon (where drivers could easily read the pedestrians’ movements and flow around them), and it seemed at times that Hanoi-ites were actually trying to run us down.

It is strange that so many people love going to Hanoi, and many Australians never even venture south. Hanoi has such the reputation of being the small, modest town developed and toughened by hardship, but I’d say that Saigon is more relaxed yet rugged and scrappy, and Hanoi is showy, western, and superficial. Also, in Saigon the food is so much nicer and the bakeries more delicious and plentiful!!

Smoking:
It is everywhere. Like public urination, smoking is so widespread amongst males that I am almost surprised that it is not allowed on aircrafts. The doorman/security guard at our hotel in Saigon always has a cigarette in his hand, and street vendors selling your next meal will lean over their pans with a half-smoked cigarette hanging between their lips, dripping ash into your rice, or banh xeo, or bread, or fruit. When Seth and I ordered clothes at the tailor in Hoi An, a runner pulled up in a motorbike with a pile of clothes in his lap. When he dismounted, his cigarette dropped some ash onto a black pair of pants sewn just moments before. He just wiped it off and handed it over. For some reason all this smoking—even around food—doesn’t offend me, not like it does when the little kids in the internet café let their cigarettes smolder right next to me, which makes me feel ill.

Cigarette ash makes noodles taste good

'Massage' and 'Hair' Parlours:
Massage parlours are very common, yet I don't know where a person would go in order to get an actual massage. If you peer into a massage or hair parlour in Vietnam you will find something far removed from a ‘typical’ massage parlour in the US. However, they are no different from what you would joke about (we all know of at least one windowless, back alley ‘massage parlour’) or would expect to find in a developing country that relies so much on tourism. Large glass windows let passersby watch flocks of young, attractive girls lounging around on giant, plush couches, reading magazines or drinking coffee. These girls have brightly painted faces and wear uniform dresses that seem to be too tight and short to provide very thorough massages. When I walk by the parlours during the day they are usually empty, except for all the girls, of course, but every so often you can see a young man inside getting his hair cut—however, I am not sure what the girls do because there is usually one hair cutter, almost always male, and all the girls just continue to lounge. These 'masseuses' seem to have fantastic jobs, and I would love to be paid to hang out all day with other working girls, look pretty, watch people walk by, and sit on cushy sofas while drinking tea and reading. The street our hotel is on seems to be a hot spot for these hair parlours—there are 5 or 6 on the block. Maybe I should apply for a job...

Tourism is good and bad, but mostly it is just annoying. It seems that a good portion of Vietnamese' incomes rely on tourism, directly or indirectly. Some occupations, like perhaps xe om drivers, probably don’t get more than a few sales a week, so they fight and struggle to rope in as many tourists as possible so they can feed their families. This leads to the average tourist walking down the street having to, at best, shake their head at countless xe om drivers’ calls of ‘ride?,’ ‘motorbike?,’ or ‘where you going?’; or worse, having to ignore or argue with a very persistent driver who would follow the tourist for several minutes, trying to convince them they actually do want a ride. It is not uncommon for a seller to thrust something into a tourist’s hands and say ‘now you give me twenty thousand’ then refuse to take the item back and only accept cash. Vietnamese salesmen are also not afraid of physical contact—grabbing at shirt sleeves or slapping the backs of shoulders—while trying to get attention (this is especially aggravating because it is harder to ignore and usually leads to the tourist, particularly me, flipping out).

I have found that in places where there are more tourists, like Sapa and Halong Bay, the English spoken by the locals is much better, the education level seems to be lower (compared to the bigger cities), and the vendors seem to be much more numerous and aggressive. Saigon is a good example: as a whole, the ratio of locals to tourists is lower than in other cities we visited. The education seems to be a bit higher (more school students, professionals, etc), yet it is hard to find someone who speaks much English. In addition, when walking down the street, I rarely get bombarded by vendors, and in fact, I sometimes have to actively seek out people to help me or I would need to wait for a few minutes if I want to buy something. *This, of course, all goes out the window when walking through the city’s tourist hot spots, such as the Central Market.

Busy, touristy, Central Market (Saigon)

In areas with greater tourism, it sadly becomes impossible to trust anyone. Everyone you meet or come across wants you to buy something. Taxi drivers will, in many cases (it is hard to estimate, but I’d say at least 50% of the time), try to confuse the passenger and drive longer routes in order to get more money, or tamper with the meter so it clicks by faster. Many Vietnamese also love earning commission from you without you knowing. In one situation in Hue, Seth and I were walking from our hotel, and it was past lunch time and we were hungry. A woman appeared right across the street and asked us if we needed help. I knew right away she wanted something but I gave her the benefit of the doubt and figured it wouldn’t hurt to get her opinion about a good place to eat. She got super excited and said we needed to try the local dish, Cao lau, and said after lunch we ought to visit her clothing shop next door. The shop was not the only thing she was trying to sell: as she lured us in the direction of a Cao lau stand, we saw her rush ahead to the woman cooking and say something to her. I knew right away she was telling the Cao lau woman she was responsible for bringing us in, and I am sure she would have gotten commission. We turned around and heard our ‘guide’ shouting after us as we looked for someplace else to eat. I should have known it was impossible to get an honest opinion from anyone: the day before we asked the hotel staff where a good place for lunch would be, and they refused to suggest any place other than the crappy hotel restaurant. Taxis and tour-group drivers also drop you off at places where they can get commission. Taxis will take people to hotels (whether or not the traveler already has reservations elsewhere), and tour buses always make unnecessarily frequent and long ‘pit stops’ at sterile, overpriced pottery warehouses, where they waste the passenger’s time, yet they get some sort of perk for making the stop. As a traveler, this all makes me feel like I can’t trust a single person, and it seems that everyone is working together to get money out of me. I suppose the tourism has reduced the number of beggars and pick-pockets, which of course is very very good, but in exchange people are much craftier and you can’t get around without getting conned out of money. (I don’t mind if prices are blatantly higher for westerners than they are for locals, but I don’t like the feeling of being cheated—it is just as bad as being pick-pocketed).

Obviously, not everyone is trying to cheat travellers; it is mostly in large tourist destinations where it is particularly bad. Clearly, we had met many honest people throughout the country, but it is easy to get annoyed when you are surrounded by westerners who actually seem to enjoy all the attention locals give to potential consumers. For example, the several Australians I know who have been to Sapa couldn’t get enough of the annoying girls who would call them by name and follow them around all day.

Waiting outside our hotel (to try to sell us stuff)...

Food:
Basically, why in the world would a person want to go to Vietnam (or any foreign country) and not want to try the local food? For Seth and me, Vietnam was perfect for trying new and unusual dishes and treats because it was all so inexpensive. If it were more pricey, it would have been harder to eat out and experiment for every meal, so on this trip we took full advantage of the opportunity to enjoy the cuisine. Eating with the locals is great for several reasons:
1) Great experiences with local people: even if the person you are sitting next to doesn't speak English, there is still a basic human understanding between you as you are both eating a meal together.
2) Few Westerners: why go to an Asian country if the people you care to be surrounded by are just like you?
3) Fantastic food: especially at road-side stalls, there are usually only one or two dishes to choose from, so the food is probably that person's specialty. Also, the service will almost certainly be quick because the food is pre-made and only needs to be dispensed from a giant pot.
4) Cheap: if you eat with the locals you usually pay what they pay. A typical meal costs from $0.75 to $1.25. At restaurants that cater to westerners meals start at about $4 (still relatively cheap, but much more expensive and not nearly as high quality food).

Lots of travellers, like my folks, are afraid of eating on the side of the road with the locals because they are afraid it will be dirty. All I can say is that it can be just as dirty inside a fancy restaurant, and despite all the 'risky' foods Seth and I ate over nearly a month (we never held back, except that I don't like to eat animal organs), we never got sick or queasy once.

We had to convince my parents to eat at this shop in Saigon. They were hesitant at first but later agreed it was a great meal! *Notice the mini plastic tables and stools. They are standards of any great outdoor eatery*

From Raleigh, NC (On Hoi An)

The next day we made the four-hour drive south from Hue to Hoi An in a hot bus, and we checked into a really nice backpackers/resort. This is the type of place meant for people who think they are young and rugged but it was actually extremely plush; at the same time it had the feeling of year-round Spring Break. When touring Hoi An's small downtown, the first thing I noticed was the beautiful clothes sold at the shops. (Seth's friend Luko had warned us that people often go nuts here when they see the fashion!) As with other tailors, a customer picks out a design and material and a day or so later the article is ready. The city is known for its silk as well as these clothing stores, which can imitate anything you show them from a catalogue. After having the local specialty--Mi Quong (Cao Lau)--for dinner, I ordered several pairs of pants and two coats to be made by the next day. Seth later ordered a long wool overcoat and bought a few silk ties for himself, too. Though I do get annoyed by the effects of tourism, this was perhaps one thing I didn’t mind indulging in!

We spent the next day exploring the city on very fun rusty old bicycles which were provided by the hotel. The city was preparing for its part of the Miss Universe Competition; though the actual event will be held in a nearby city, Hoi An was getting ready to help film sequences for it. This resulted in the downtown area being completely decorated in silk lanterns, lights, banners, etc., and the locals were definitely excited about the event. It was very cute!

Beach at Hoi An near sunrise (on our morning run)

House near the beach (Hoi An)

Getting ready for Miss Universe (Hoi An)

One of very many tailor shops (Hoi An)

Downtown Hoi An decorated in lanterns for Miss Universe

Silk lantern shop (Hoi An)

Down by the river (Hoi An)

Cao Lau! (Hoi An)

The following day we took a morning tour of My Son, home of Champa Holy Land. It was basically a small version of Angkor Watt, but just as ancient (nearly 2000 years old) and extremely beautiful. Once again, however, it was hard to get over all the other visitors, and it made getting around much slower and harder. This was particularly annoying because it was extremely hot, and I despise just standing around in midday sun. The ruins themselves were fascinating, though; it's a shame that so many of them were destroyed and damaged in the war.

Off the beaten track (another early morning run in Hoi An)

Tombs in the rice paddies

Early morning rice paddies

Near the beach (Hoi An)

Champa Holy Land (My Son)

Champa Holy Land (My Son)

Champa Holy Land (My Son)

Champa Holy Land (My Son)

Champa Holy Land (My Son)

Downtown Hoi An is lit up and ready to party!

Our last day in Hoi An was spent having a few more pairs of pants made (right on the last minute!) and picking up three silk lanterns we had ordered, then in the afternoon we left the city with a driver who took us towards Danang via the Marble Mountains and China Beach. We then flew back to Saigon and checked into our old familiar hotel in District 1.

One of the five Marble Mountains

China Beach, near Danang

Mom kite shopping at China Beach, near Danang

From Hue, Central Vietnam—Eager faces (Saturday, 21 June, 2008: 6pm)

I am really behind in my writing (thanks to some computer problems) and I unfortunately need to summarize the events from the past several days, but today was so quirky I thought it deserves a more thorough description.

Seth and I got up for another early-morning run (about 5am). On our way out the door we passed the lobby where the four or five hotel workers were fast asleep on a few blankets on the floor. One quickly jumped up and opened the door for us to exit. I noticed this routine at a few of the other hotels we stayed in, where the person working the front desk would sleep in the lobby and be on 24hr duty. This time it seemed a little sillier because there are five workers, and throughout the day they all seem perpetually bored out of their minds. If I would enter the lobby late at night sometimes I would catch them playing games on the computer, and when they noticed me they would quickly stand up and sit on a nearby chair and just stare at nothing. Or they would be watching TV, and if someone entered the room they would mute it or turn it off. If I sat at the computer, one would quickly bring me a glass of water, and when I would stand up another would rush over and take the empty cup from me. I want to tell them to relax, but that would also seem a bit awkward. Why do they need five workers on call 24 hours a day?

We went for a run along the inside of the Citadel, which was much shadier and cooler (thanks to the river) than what we dealt with yesterday. After cleaning up and having something to eat (we even were able to stay in our upgraded hotel room, breakfast included, for a reduced cost), we brainstormed for things to do and see for the rest of the day. Originally we wanted to go to Bach Ma National Park to do a few hikes (so far we have not been able to do any real tramps since leaving Kakadu), but we would have had to hire a private car for the day to get us out there, and with the hotel earning commission on booking the transportation, it would have been very expensive (even by US standards). We settled on exploring a few of the tombs and pagodas the the city is famous for. Hue was at one time the capital of Vietnam and in the 19^th century to mid-20^th century was home to the royal family (the Nguyen dynasty); the emperors from this dynasty were buried in tombs—sometimes as large and elaborate as castles—scattered around the city and along the river for miles to the south.

Running just inside The Citadel (Hue)

Hue

Delicious green bananas (Hue)

We left the hotel and found a few xe om (motorbike) drivers, which felt weird after getting so annoyed at their persistence in tying to get us to ride with them yesterday. We bargained with one man for quite a while, and he eventually agreed to take the two of us around with one of his comrades on two separate bikes to two sites for 2.5 hours, then drop us off in town for about $4.50 total (80,000 dong). He had initially demanded about $18 (300,000 dong), but we told him we didn’t have much money on us, which was true, and after one of the men saw Seth’s ripped up straw hat, I think we earned ourselves a little sympathy. We actually bumped into Bargain-Queen Mom at one of the tombs we went to and discovered Seth and I got a much better deal than her and Dad, and we felt a little bad for our drivers (so we tipped them well).

The motorbike rides were a really fun way to travel short/medium distances (a total of about 16km) in a relatively short amount of time, and we still got to see quite a few interesting things along the way, like giant cemeteries and rural back roads, plus we got to be a part of the weaving and winding traffic. As a bonus, the two drivers were really nice, jovial, and very importantly, drove safely. Seth's driver even taught him a few new sayings in Vietnamese (most of which had to do with beer).

The first site we visited was the tomb of Tu Duc—the Vietnamese version of King Tut—yet this tomb does not actually hold his body; his actual burial site was kept secret. (The 200 or so servants who buried him were subsequently beheaded.) We explored the massive grounds, and though it was built around 1865, like the Citadel, the ruins already looked overgrown, cracked, and ancient. It was still fun to tramp through the beautiful enclosure and imagine what it looked like when it was used by Tu Duc when he was still alive. (Yes, he built it for himself to enjoy before death.)

Tu Duc's tomb

Tomb of Tu Duc

The tomb

Tu Duc's stone warriors

Tu Duc's stele

The xe oms then took us across the Perfume River to Thien Mu Pagoda, renowned for its seven-story tower, massive bell, many different images of Buddha, and gigantic marble turtle holding a stele (I really like those turtle-stelae). I would have liked to poke around a bit more but the heat and sun were really nasty and our drivers were waiting, so we pushed things along a bit more than usual.

Thien Mu Pagoda

Three Buddhas

Stele

More Buddhas (I think?)

The car that brought a Buddhist monk to Saigon, where he burnt himself alive (in lotus position) in protest for religious freedom

The drivers dropped us off near the Dong Ba Market, and we left them with extra money for bia (beer). We hopped into the Co-Op Market to fill our bottles with water from the food court, then we poked around the outdoor market looking for lunch. Why is it when we are actually looking for food we have a hard time finding something decent, when any other time we seem to be surrounded by appealing eateries? We wandered around for quite a while, and since it was getting late (nearly 2pm) most little road-side stands had packed up. During this search we bought some of these amazing, crazy brown fruits that look like big kiwis but taste like brown sugar (*insert name here*)—they were near the very verge of being over-ripe, and the woman was selling them for super cheap (about $0.25 per kilo), so we stocked up on those puppies. They are typically worth their weight in gold (and they would later prove to be a lucrative bargaining tool).

Dong Ba market, where you can get just about anything

We took our chances for food down a back road and still had no luck—not only was it full of dentist shops and electronic stores, but it was extremely hot and we were thirsty. After turning a corner, we jumped on the first place that sold recognisable food. The meal turned out to be crap (at least mine did—one of the few pretty bad meals we have had so far), but the husband was totally mad. He was nuts about America and wouldn’t stop chatting with Seth long enough for Seth to eat his soup. It didn’t help that Seth used the man as another tool to help him learn new words in Vietnamese!

After lunch we were still hungry and stopped at two different stands for lots of che Hue (a bean/jelly/fruit/coconut-milk snack that is typically served in a tall glass over ice), then we reckoned up the rest of our money—we ran out yesterday and in the morning borrowed a small amount from my parents, just enough for the day—and planned to blow it at the markets. We bought a giant bunch of mini bananas (for about 50 cents), 100g of Vietnamese coffee, which is roasted in butter (also for about 50 cents), sesame cakes (a Hue specialty), and a few sweet buns. After the spending spree we swung by the indoor market food court to top off our water, and as I was returning from the loo I saw a teenage kid standing just a few inches behind Seth, looking into the large hole in his hat, which he had hanging down over his back. The kid saw me watching him stare at Seth’s hat, and he ran back to a table full of his friends and they all started to crack up laughing. Seth had no idea any of this took place!

Ultra che Hue

It was getting late, so we started to walk back to the hotel. Along the way a young girl (maybe 10 or 11) tried to sell us silk, painted cards for 5,000VND each. Despite our efforts, she wouldn’t let us alone and we tried to tell her we didn’t have any money. We emptied our pockets and Seth pulled out two small coins equaling 1,500VND (about 10 cents), a folded up map of Hue, a wad of tissue, and mini plastic spoon. She seemed disappointed and incredulous but noticed the bag of brown fruits he was holding and asked to trade a card for one piece of fruit and the 1,500VND. After a long deliberation (it was a tough call, particularly since the fruit is so delicious and we were determined to eat them all within the next day), we decided to part with one of our five remaining brown things and a few cents in exchange for a lovely card. Deep down, I think the little girl got the better deal, but I guess being the rich westerners we felt obligated to extend our generosity (aka special brown fruit) :P

Totally vegetarian dinner (even the "deer meat" in the right corner)

Fruits commonly found in Vietnam: stubby bananas, green bananas, dragon fruit (red skin with long green flares and white inner flesh with tiny black seeds), and sa po che (Seth and I affectionately call this our 'brown fruit')