So here we are, in Saigon! We almost can’t believe it. This trip has been a long time coming…
The preparation for this trip has been monumental with many “checkpoints” along the way: do we have our clothes for Rick & Gayla’s wedding? Check!; did we inform Amy & Rob about all of our kitties’ idiosyncrasies? Check!; did we make sure we didn’t leave the stove on at our house? Check!; did we pack our camera in our carry-on? NO!!!! We started freaking out, thinking we had left it in the hotel in Dallas or somewhere along the way. We hoped it got packed into our checked bags and we would find it when we arrived in Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh City street scene
We had planned on sleeping during our flights to Vietnam, but it ended up being a movie marathon. We never go to the movie theater so this was our time to catch up on current movies. We watched Avatar, Sherlock Holmes, Crazy Heart, The Proposal, Up in the Air, and The Blind Side. They were all great!
So after 24 hours and almost 10,000 miles, we finally arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
As we walked out of the airport, we were greeted not only by a wall of people waiting for friends and family to arrive but also the heat and humidity of Vietnam. If we closed our eyes, it felt just like the day we arrived in Suriname for Peace Corps. The feel of the city, the smells, and even the Vietnamese people induce a flood of memories of Paramaribo, Suriname.
We find ourselves using our Peace Corps language a lot in certain situations since it is something that only we understand and we can talk “strategy” while we are haggling cabbies or vendors at the market. It is pretty cool to have this secret language since the locals prey on “white” people.
We woke up this morning in a new country, to the sounds of the city… mopeds! And then set off for our new adventures. We have only been here a day, but we think we have our travel legs back… and as you can see, we did find our camera! Hooray!!
