Complete posts from Jan/Feb 07 trip

We originally kept a blog on a different site. Here is all the material we posted from that trip.

We're Ilene and Robert. She's traveling to Vietnam for 5 weeks this winter for research, and he's traveling there for 2 weeks to try and distract her. We both love weasel coffee.

The planning begins North America » United States » Connecticut » New Haven	26th December 2006
Welcome to our travel blog. We're going to try and keep friends and family updated while we're in Vietnam. Now that we're past Christmas, and Ilene's sabbatical has begun, we start planning in earnest. Ilene leaves on January 16 for about 5 weeks. Robert leaves on January 31 for 2 weeks. The "to do" list includes things like: -Second course of Hep B shot (Robert) -Get the laptop and camera rigged for travel. -Finish reading our guidebooks. -Keep listening to language tapes. -Buy those little travel size toiletries. -Sweet talk the house sitter. (You know who you are.) -Sweek talk someone into driving Robert to the airport at 5 a.m. on 1/31. (Any volunteers?) -Research the best places to get weasel coffee. We hope we'll have lots of stories and photos to share this way. Stay posted!
Do you speak Vietnamese? North America » United States » Connecticut » New Haven	27th December 2006
Do you speak Vietnamese? Of course we don't. Robert thinks both of us are constitutionally incapable or learning a second language. After the years of high school and college French, Latin and ancient Greek in college, Spanish courses in grad school, a year living in Japan (including lessons), numerous fits with Pimsleur and Berlitz, buying enough reference books to fund another year abroad (we even have one on Egyptian hieroglyphics), scribbling on a mountain of flashcards and endless mortification in front of nous amis internationale, basically all we can do in any foreign language is order coffee. On her previous trips, Ilene has had Thuan and Trieu Vu as travel companions and translators. This trip she plans to go to a language school every day. And we're both on a two-week crash home-study course. Wish us luck. "You like?"
Toi hieu mot it tieng Viet! North America » United States » Connecticut » New Haven	30th December 2006
Hi All, it's Ilene. The old enthusiasm is returning. *This* will be the time a second language finally sticks. After three years of French in high school a summer in Japan three years of Ancient Greek in college three years of Latin in college another year in Japan one semester of Spanish in graduate school and two previous three week trips to Vietnam none of which I can honestly say has lead to long-term foreign retention, unless you count the swirling polyglot they now produce in my head when I sit down to practice any of them. . . Si, j'aime sushi tabemas. O helios c'est tres atsui ce matin, desu ne? J'ai mucho livres parce que j'adore legere. Etc. But, as the song goes, I'm a believer, and its Ms. Multilingual that I can't quite leave. Vietnamese is great in many ways--it's monosyllabic, its verbs are regular and have no tenses (there are particles to indicate past and present actions), its nouns are stable (no gender! no declensions!), it has a roman alphabet of sorts. But. Complications have ensued this time around. Sudden inexplicable hearing loss (both the loss and its inexplicability confirmed by Dr. Lee) in the left ear (I can't complain, it is minor in the grand scheme of things and plenty of people, my own sister for example, has it far worse in both ears), but still, it's making the process of dealing with a tonal language more of a challenge. . . Because it isn't just hearing less in one ear, it's more like having a speaker on your car stereo go out. You're not left with all of the sounds half as loud. You're left with some sounds and not others. Bass is lost, but treble not, for example. It's more like that. Low tones are gone. I was trying to watch Robert Altman's *Mrs. Miller and McCabe* tonight and had to give up because I just couldn't hear enough of the sounds several of the rather important characters were making to piece their speech together. Well, that is a bit of a dramatic example. But sound rings in the left side of my head differently now, so some sounds can get in and cause a racket and others not penetrate at all. Younger readers will have to take my word for this, but hubcaps used to be made of metal (shortly after the invention of the telegraph), and when you dropped the lugnuts into an upturned hubcap, they made a certain metalic pinging sound. I am reminded of this sound fairly often these days in environments with a lot of background noise--say, Circuit City the other day--and suddenly a child's voice will get in the left side of my head and richoche around, but the murmurings of the teenage salesboy will fail to penetrate. So, as I listen intently to my Mot It Tieng Viet CD-ROM, trying to hear and reproduce the six tones for each of the Vietnamese alphabet's three"A"s, I worry about this. But I believe. I know it's going to work this time. Ilene
Photo preview North America » United States » Connecticut » New Haven	4th January 2007
Hi All, it's Ilene. Language study procedes apace. I wanted to title this "I like to take pictures" but, alas, I don't know how to say that yet. I can tell you I like to drink coffee: Toi tich uong ca phe. I can also tell you that I like to eat rice: Toi tich an com. However, I do not like to drink soft drinks: Toi khong tich unong nuoc ngot. Enjoy a few photos from my January 2005 trip. This upcoming trip (a mere two weeks away, I realized today) will be my third trip to Vietnam. I've been writing about the effects globalization has had on Vietnam, and young urban women in particular, as well as writing about the act of travel itself. Vietnam occupies a certain place in the American imagination, and it tends to be frozen in time circa 1975. I find that being there produces an interesting clash between my "memories" of Vietnam (I was born in 1970) produced from news footage, iconic photographs, and popular films and its present reality. Both of these pictures are from my second trip in January of 2005. (My first trip, in July of 2002 was pre-digital age--amazing how much that changes things. When we lived in Japan for a year in 1992, it was before email, before the internet. Hard to believe now that we were still communicating via paper letters and once in a blue moon two-minute phone calls.) On both trips I traveled and worked with my good friend and colleague Thuan Vu, who is a Professor of Art at the universtiy where I am a Professor of English and Women's Studies. Thuan and I took a day tour with his brother Trieu and their cousin Trang, also one of the women I've been interviewing, to the Mekong Delta, where the first photo comes from. Though we arrived too late in the day to really see the floating market that was advertised in the Sinh Cafe brochure, we did enjoy yummy candy and snacks made in other villages in the delta--kind of like the Vietnam version of a day at Sturbridge Village. Who knew you could do so much with rice, coconut, bananas, and peanuts? Sweet and salty snack food heaven. I took the second photo from the top of the Riverside Marriott (about the 25th floor if I remember right). I've always loved how it captures the commuter traffic just coming off of the ferry. From that high up, it was silent--the bikes roll down the ramp without a sound. Vietnam Mekong Delta Vietnam HCMC
Ilene's work in Vietnam: FAQs North America » United States » Connecticut » New Haven	12th January 2007
Hi All, Ilene posting here: If you are unsure of what I am doing in Vietnam, fear not, dear reader—you’re not alone. People ask me all the time how I got interested in Vietnam, what I do in Vietnam, and what I write about. Here are some pithy soundbites to digest and/or share. What do you do in Vietnam? I travel in Vietnam looking for experiences, people, artifacts, language, images, and sounds that help me question my most familiar ways of thinking and knowing. I also investigate the effects globalization has had on Vietnamese people’s lives—especially the effects of communications technologies, foreign language literacies, and the shift to a market economy. I use that material as the basis for my writing. On this trip I’ll be taking Vietnamese language classes, re-interviewing women whose literacy narratives I began collecting on my 2002 and 2005 trips, conducting interviews with additional people I recruit, collecting pre- and post- Vietnam War-era photographs and postcards and maps, photographing Ho Chi Minh City and places in the Mekong Delta, finding books and journals I can’t get in the US, and visiting museums and historical sites. The interviews always lead to other opportunities—on previous trips I have ended up teaching an English class, meeting University faculty and visiting campuses, visiting a convent, and speaking with the nuns about the nursery school they run and the conflicts they have with the government. Since my last trip, one of my interviewees translated portions of Hillary Clinton’s autobiography into Vietnamese and I plan to meet other members of the group she worked with. I also plan to talk more with artists I have connections to about the production and circulation of their work. What have you written? I have presented conference papers and published journal articles and book chapters geared toward academic audiences. (Do not feel obligated to request a bibliography. Seriously.) Here’s a sampling: In one piece I use my experience crossing the street in Vietnam as a metaphor for doing university teaching and academic writing that is both timely and effective. In another, I show the ways young Vietnamese women are compelled to acquire English literacies and discuss why learning English can be a mixed blessing for them. In another, I argue that the imperfect roles we to play to be able to travel at all—exchange student, tourist, ESL teacher—all come with their own baggage, but that we can learn to play them in new ways and question the Us-Them dynamic they often create between us and locals. Why Vietnam? I was born in 1970, so I have no memory of the events of the Vietnam War, but I’ve always been interested in how iconic mass media images have implanted memories of Vietnam in me and given me a point of view about Vietnam nonetheless. I’ve also always been interested in the kind of shift in perspective that physical movement and traveling can create. How do you know what you know? How can you be persuaded to perceive and to know differently?. When I became friends with my colleague Thuan Vu, who is a professor of Art at Southern Connecticut State University where I am a professor of English and Women’s Studies, we decided to apply for a research grant that would allow us to travel to Vietnam together and jointly explore the questions that our work takes up. He studies traditional art techniques in Vietnam and gathers images and experiences for his drawings and paintings, which explore identity, perspective, and memory. What are you writing now? I’m working on one academic piece I’ve proposed for an edited collection called Rhetorica in Motion: Feminist Rhetorical Methods and Methodologies. I’ll describe why I needed to devise methods of working suited to Vietnam’s complex material conditions while gathering women’s literacy narratives. I’m also working on a collection of essays geared toward a broader audience that I’d like to publish with a trade press, rather than an academic one. I’ve long wanted to write for a less academic and a more popular audience. Tenure has its privileges. I have about a dozen ideas for different pieces I want to actively research and develop while I am in Vietnam. Together, they’ll create a narrative about Vietnam in the midst of the changes globalization is bringing and they’ll make an argument about learning to see Vietnam on its own terms. Dhong Khoi, HCMC Jan 05 "The question is how to keep the ethnocentric Subject from establishing itself by selectively defining an Other." --Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, "Can the Subaltern Speak?" Mekong Delta Jan 05 "Like most moderns in the West, I was brought up to believe that distance gives needed perspective, that difference leads to insight, and that travel is quite figuratively 'broadening' . . . Who benefits and who suffers from the attitude that distance is the best perspective?" --Caren Kaplan, Questions of Travel
Are you sure you have your passport? North America » United States » California » orange county	16th January 2007
We spent the weekend enjoying New Haven a little. ("Little Children" at the Criterion was pretty good. What's with the voiceovers with the guy from Frontline? We hit the last sale on summer stuff at Bottega, so we'll be stylin in the tropics. A lot of the YCBA is closed off now while they build the next exhibit, so we went up to the 4th floor and enjoyed the sunlight. And we made our first stop at Barcelona, the new place at Temple and Crown. There were a couple of tapas we liked a lot.) And we played with Robert's new digicam and got Ilene's bags packed. Robert dropped Ilene at the aiport this morning, and now she's in Orange County until tomorrow evening when she and Thuan start heading across the Pacific. Robert's playing the role of lonely bachelor for a couple of weeks. At Barcelona con leche I Kahn see you. No traveler's tummy How am I going to fit all this in a one-quart ziploc baggie? Really? You can't go abroad for a month without Herodotus? Terminal B in Windsor Locks
Is the Hard Part Over? North America » United States » California » orange county	17th January 2007
Hi, it's Ilene writing from California-- Glad I built in the one-day buffer in California. You'd think leaving CT in the morning would give me plenty of time to reach California, but I almost spent the night in Dallas. 12:15pm EST my plane leaves 30 min late from BDL. 3:35pm CST I miss my connection in DFW by 5 minutes because we take an extra 40 minutes in the air to go around strong headwinds. I ran and ran. No avail. 6 others also miss the flight. Why is it better to reroute all of us than holding the plane? There should be a word for the feeling you get watching your connecting flight pull away from the gate while you're still on the runway in your first plane. 3:45pm CST I'm put on standby for the next flight to Orange County and assured no problem getting on the flight. 7:00pm CST the flight is actually oversold and I don't get a seat. The last flight out to Orange County has been cancelled. Would I like to fly into LAX? My bags have already gone to Orange County. No, but it seems like a better bet than waiting until morning in DFW. 8:55pm CST The flight to LAX pulls out of the gate. Wow, the guy next to me says, I'm so glad I got on this flight because my last flight was cancelled for mechanical problems. S*&t, I think. Thanks a lot for saying that. 9:05pm CST The flight pulls back into the gate. Funny engine noise. Also, a seat is broken. 2 guys come on to fix the seat. Another checks the engine. 30 people flee the plane to catch the absolute last flight to LAX tonight. I don't have another sprint in me. It's a 50/50 crapshoot. I take my chances with Funny Engine Sound Plane. 9:55pm I win!!! Funny engine noise no problem--it's just cold. Our pilot explains he didn't know this kind of 757 engine can sound funny in the cold. Off we go again. I should say that nothing about this story is unusual in comparison to everyone else on the flight--the details were different, but everyone had the same story to tell at that point. 11:30pm PST Thuan picks me up curbside at LAX. And surprise! He and Trieu went to Orange County and got my bags. No problem showing up and taking someone else's bags out of the airport, apparently. TSA already in bed? 12:45pm PST. (3:45 EST). Home at Trieu's. Shower. Bed. Innoculated against further bad luck, at least for the next few says, I hope. No real harm done. Doing final packing. Heading back to LAX 8pm this evening for a 11:40pm departure. 14.5 hours to Taipei, then 4.5 hours into HCMC. Bon Voyage.
In flight North America » United States	18th January 2007
Did you know when you check flight status online these days you can see a map of where the plan actually is? Check this out. Ilene's flights are the Jan. 17 EVA Airways flight 01 (L.A. to Taipei) and the Jan. 19 EVA Airways flight 395 (to Saigon). Slow progress
Ilene's first check in from Saigon Asia » Vietnam » Saigon	19th January 2007
Ilene emailed Robert, to say . . . I'm here-- it's 1:30pm Friday here. We just got in and I'm firing up the laptop. We are at the The Palace Hotel after all, with wireless internet in the room--actually there is supposed to be wireless on the executive floors above us, but I correctly guessed that I could pull in a signal anyway. So we're cheating a bit, but it's working. We left LAX almost 2 hours late. Got into Taipei 2 hours late, but the connecting flight was waiting--no point sending it half empty, since half of our first plane had that connecting flight. That was the only hitch, really--we sailed though customs faster than we ever have. Thuan's cousin was waiting for us to say hi. We're grabbing a shower and some food now, then we'll head out to try and get cell phones set up. Its 92 degrees and humid. Palace Hotel at night
Robert, what are your plans in Vietnam? North America » United States » Connecticut » New Haven	21st January 2007
First, a little update from Ilene . . . She got there, early early a.m. Friday eastern standard time. She's been busy getting set-up errands done, so no blogging from her yet. I'm hoping we'll start to see pix from her soon. She has been in touch with me a lot, though. We've had "IM dates" each of the last 3 days to chat on yahoo messenger. That was the big leap forward in technology on the last trip--on this trip we also have the ability to see and talk to each other with the webcams and microphones on our computers. It's essentially like having a videophone with a slow video transmission, and it doesn't cost any more than the cost of internet access itself. She also has a cell phone she's carrying, though it's expensive for me to call her. This is all a dramatic change from her trip in summer 2002 when she was pretty much incommunicado except for a few emails when she could stop at internet cafes. People ask me what my plans are, and honestly I don't really have any. I've only been able to skim a couple guidebooks briefly, and I have a mental wish list. Mostly I plan to head out of the hotel on the first day with my journal a paperback and some sun screen and see if I can arrange for: -a trip to Phu Quoc Island. -or a trip to Mui Ne Beach. -a trip to Cat Tien National Park. -a bicyle tour of the Mekong Delta. And in Saigon proper, I'm interested in: -Trying every bit of food and coffee. - Shopping at all the street markets and along Dong Khoi and in Chinatown. -Finding the nightlife and live music.
Greetings from Duong Ngyuen Hue, HCMC Asia » Vietnam » Ho Chi Minh City	22nd January 2007
This is Ilene saying hi from HCMC-- I'll give you some fun touristy things to look at here. I always get a kick out of the Ben Thanh market scene--It's just as interesting to watch the tourists navigate it as it is to look at all of the things for sale. Americans tourists are few and far between, though--many more Asian, European, and Australian tourists. And it's hard to find any tourists my age. Most seem 40+. I start Vietnamese lessons tomorrow. I found a private tutor through a friend of a friend who teaches foreigners. The first thing we will do, he informs me, is work on pronunciation. Yes, please. HCMC at dusk, from Palace Hotel View from the balcony of the Palace Hotel, downtown HCMC. Weasel Coffee in Ben Thanh market Worth the trip? Oh, yes. Fish in Ben Thahn market These are not the ones I saw killed.
Email updates from Ilene North America » United States » Connecticut » New Haven	25th January 2007
Robert here . . . Ilene's not able to spend as much time posting to the blog as she'd like, so I thought I would share some of what she has written to me by email. (Don't forget to look at entries previous to this in case you missed the pix that she did post.) She wrote: Vietnamese class has been shifted to T, F, S, S, so it will be tomorrow before I see my tutor again. And this time it will be conversation, not pronunciation. I listened to the lesson again last night (the digital recorder came in handy). I've done interviews the past two days with women I met on the 2005 trip. One is the daughter of the tailor who just married her Canadian boyfriend. She says I speak more Vietnamese than he does. He's been here 4 years. I also went back to the used bookshop on Dhong Khoi and bought a lot of stuff: a few more of those scrapbooks, and photographs, and letters. I only scratched the surface, sorting through stuff for almost 2 hours. I picked out a series of letters to the same people in HCMC from the same people in Paris and Algeria mid 70s-early 80s. Written Vietnamese, old air mail paper, stamps, etc. I also was able to sift through a box of photos and assemble a collection of photos from the same family, from the 1950s-60s. Beach and temple excursions, class photos, etc. Kids grow up, mom and aunt change hairstyles, Dad never looks comfortable on camera. The scrapbooks are these multilingual collections of ads and comic books and magazine photos about all kinds of topics--they were each dedicated to a theme, no real writing from the author. I picked out a few that seemed most interesting. Some of them were more weird than interesting. More American tourists today, so there are some here for sure. Most seem like my parent's age, but don't look like the obviously ex army guys I've seen before. New Zealanders today, in additon to the usual Aussies and Japanese and French. Germans too. I haven't done late night expat restaurant stuff. I've been using late nights for the gym so far. I'm going to get a cooking lesson--I got an invite to go to the house were the woman I interviewed today lives so her husband can teach me to cook pho. We're going to trade an English lesson for a Vietnamese lesson first, then motorbike over. I'm starving now--skipped luch becuase I was at the book store and just had coffee for the interview. We're going to scope a sushi or a Korean restuarant for you.
Toi khong hieu. . . Asia » Vietnam » Ho Chi Minh City	25th January 2007
Hi, it's Ilene writing from HCMC-- Highlights so far. . . My mouth felt tired after my first round of pronunciation practice. I'm getting the hang of the difference between, say, the "e" with the hat on it and the one without. All of the food is good. I'll get some more pictures taken of me to post. More soon. . . First grade again A friend of a friend made the gift of 1st grader Vietnamese textbooks. Quoc ngu The Vietnamese alphabet used now was a "gift" from French missionaries, who felt that it would make it easier to convert the locals. Self Portrait Robert requested a photo of me. I'm eating meat I'm eating meat every once in awhile. Better than chocolate? Varieties of che to try. . . which my Vietnamese dictionary defines as sweetened porridge, but I assure you it is very, very good.
The Unfortunate Incident at Trung Nguyen Cafe Asia » Vietnam » Ho Chi Minh City	27th January 2007
Hi All, it's Ilene writing from HCMC-- One brand of Vietnamese coffee a friend introduced me to on my previous trip was Trung Nguyen. So I was delighted to see a shiny new Trung Nguyen Cafe a few blocks from the hotel. I sat down there to do some writing yesterday. I ordered a cup of the "Thinking" blend ice coffee. Out it came--water dripping through fresh grounds in the filter, a glass of ice at the ready for when it finished (see figure A). Looking up, I saw a woman selling fruit on the street outside the window. Feeling all smart, I pull out the camera and do a series of pictures, tightly focused so you just see her, then pulling back to make it obvious I'm looking at her through glass, in the comfort of the coffee shop (see figures B, C, and D). I have several smart thoughts that I carefully write down about how I going to use these pictures to comment on travel, representation, and so forth. Moments after I take these smart pictures and write down these smart thoughts, I pick the filter off of the coffee cup so I can pour the thick coffee into the glass of ice and assemble my delicious iced coffee. And I upend the filter, sending hot coffee grounds over the table, my leg, the floor, which is stone, so the metal filter really clangs when it hits the ground. Alarmed, the barrista rushes over to clean the mess, which I insist on doing. As I lean over to wipe up the grounds on the floor with the wet cloth she's brought, I bump my head on the plate glass window through which I have been photographing the fruit seller. I sit back down, exhausted. The barrista says she will bring me another coffee. What kind was it? "Thinking," I say. I am giggling like a fool by this time. The barristas, dressed like extras from The King and I, consult. A few minutes later, my second cup arrives. It has already been poured into the glass of ice for me. The glass is tall and narrow and has a tall spoon sticking out of it to stir the ice as it melts. I lift it to my lips and realize the spoon gets in the way of taking a full sip. The barristas are keeping a close eye on me. A flexi straw, unwrapped, is brought out to me on a saucer. (The final straw?) When I write about these pictures and use them, I know I will also have to recount the coffee incident. Figure A Figure A Figure B Figure B Figure C Figure C Figure D Figure D
Pho in district 8 Asia » Vietnam » Ho Chi Minh City	31st January 2007
Hi there, it's Ilene writing from HCMC-- A few pix from the last few days out and around HCMC. Robert should be zipping his suitcase shut about now and getting ready to start his journey. Hopefully he can do a more thorough and entertaining job than me with this blog. The pictures may or may not do a good job of showing the sprawl and the differences in the different parts of HCMC--tidy tourist areas versus outlying neighborhoods. I have to say I undertand the motorbiking. Smog and exhaust choked as it is, it's fun. It's a really different way of traveling versus being contained in separate cars. Masks cut the gritty particles a bit. On a bridge last night we were bouncing along with a guy transporting a queen sized mattress on a cyclo, two guys carrying long metal tubes bouncing up and down, families of 4--mom holding an infant on the back, toddler up on dad's lap next to the handlebars. Car seats? HCMC Hoops Kids playing basketball at HCMC community center Window Washers in HCMC Understand? Sign in restaurant on Dhong Khoi HCMC city district 8 Dinner at Ai and Trung's house, with Chi--about a 25 minute motorbike ride from district 1 and the hotel What I came for Happy to be eating home made pho. HCMC city district 8 Dinner at Ai and Trung's house, with Chi--about a 25 minute motorbike ride from district 1 and the hotel The requisite commemorative photo After pho and getting ready to motorbike home.
Two Choice Dilemmas Asia » Vietnam » Ho Chi Minh City	31st January 2007
Hi all, it's Ilene in HCMC-- Robert is on his way--well, at least his flight to Chicago is--I just logged onto United's website and saw it was en route and his flight to Hong Kong is on time still. So hopefully I'll be fetching him at the airport in about 24 hours. I was reading a self-help book recently where there was a lot of talk about recognizing two choice dilemmas in your life, which seemed to boil down to recognizing both options suck but to construct them in a more empowering way and choose one. So. Some recent dilemmas: Situation #1 Moved to a bigger room today to make better accomodations for Robert. But it boiled down to this: we could have two of the following three things: a. a large enough room, b. a quiet enough room, or c. a room with internet access. Not possible to have all three. Choice made: a and b. I'm in the coffee shop of the hotel, where I can get free wifi. I'm unimpressed with the spring rolls. Situation #2 Miscalculated and ran out of underwear a day early. Was pleased to happen across a Jockey store and not only find size XL underwear, but to find them for $2.25 a pair. I buy 2 to tide me over until laundry comes back. XL is not XL is not XL. I put them on (why did I think holding them up and looking at them pre-purchase that there was any chance of them fitting?) and blanched: in the normal position they completely cut my posterior (there are children reading this) in half. Nothing could conceal this Very Visible Panty Line. I realized I had two choices: a. wear them pulled down below or b. wear them pulled, well, up. Way up. WWJD? My choice: b. And to send my laundry out in the morning. I'd post a picture, but my license to blog would be permanently revoked. Does pulling up feel more empowering than pulling down? I think so. . .
Robert's first impressions Asia » Vietnam » Saigon	3rd February 2007
I've been here about a day and half now. As I drifted to sleep last night, I imagined a thread to tie together everything I might share here, but in the meantime I've been flooded with a million more images and I'm feeling overwhelmed. So, some random sharing . . . -When you walk out of the airport here, there's a stange sensation of being a star on stage. The waiting area is outdoors, and the people waiting are kept back behind police barricades. At 11 p.m., there were a few thousand people there in a big semi circle staring at the door. When you emerge, it's just you with all those people looking anxiously to see if you're the one they're waiting for. It's incredibly noisy. Pretty soon, I hear Ilene calling my name from somewhere in the middle of the crowd, and the police point me down a cattle chute into the middle of it. I emerge at a taxi stand, where Ilene has a car waiting. It was a beautiful summery night. It was about a 20 minute drive into downtown, and I crashed immediately. -We spent my first morning walking around to markets a little bit. The traffic is as crazy as they say. The smog is really oppressive. It's never quiet anywhere for a moment. Lots of sensory overload. Someone is trying to sell me something at every step. I'm surprised that people put their hands on my arms a lot as they try to get my attention. We stop every couple hours to sit and sip iced coffee and retreat from the smog. As alien as it all feels to me, I also recognize that I'm a somewhat touristy area, and there are lots of familiar comforts to fall back on. -We had a nice dinner with some friends of Ilene's at a Korean place and then found a bar with a live band and had some desert. I'm eating a ton. The breakfast at the hotel is a great start to the day. -Jet lag kept me from sleeping properly on the second night, and I was out of bed before 4:30. I went down the street to see the city at that hour. There was an occasional motorcycle, and people walking or jogging up the wide avenue. I found a 24 hour shop and got an emergency dose of chilled coffee in a can. I started exploring the side streets in the dark and watched the city wake up. There were a lot of people sleeping on the sidewalks. People started setting up their sidewalk food stands, chopping cabbage, firing up their charcoal stoves. I went through a street of market stalls that I had gone through yesterday in the daylight. Each stall is a lean-to with tin sheets and tarps, and there were people sleeping inside, but at almost 5 a.m. it was already getting noisy with motorbikes. At the stall where the spectacular displays of meat had been hanging yesterday, there was now several big tables set up and about 30 people gathered around in the dark chopping up huge quantaties of pork and sorting it into plastic buckets, which were then loaded onto motorbikes. Eventually, "hug car" drivers -- men on motorbikes who give rides for hire, the passanger hugging them from behind -- started soliciting me. On a whim I decided to hire one for a quick tour of downtown. It was about 5 a.m. at that point. We settled on 30 minutes for $5, and he took me on a great adventure that took about an hour. The whole time I didn't see any other foreigners. We rode to Cholon -- the Chinatown of Saigon -- and he drove me by every temple and market and hospital he could think of. By this time, the streets were getting really chaotic, and every bit of sidewalk was being used by street vendors. On the way back, we came across a funeral procession -- the hearse was a kind of bus with ornamnetal wood carvings attached to it, with the casket high up inside so it was visible, and the funeral party followed on foot very slowly, all dressed in white robes, and behind them was an empty standard issue coach bus. --After breakfast, Ilene and I went walking and ended up inside HCMC Notre Came Cathedral. While we were there, a wedding party came down the aisle. I guess if I stumble across a christening and a high school graduation, I'll have seen it all. We sat and watched for awhile. It was similar to a mass at home in many ways with some exceptions: The statues of the saints are all framed in neon. Under Mary, it says "Ave Maria" in blue cursive neon just like a beer advertisement. The priest gave a looooong sermon in the middle of the ceremony. I'm having fun finding new things, but it's been physically wearing. The smog has me beat down and I occassionaly get a sense of vertigo, which I hope is just the after effects fo 28+ hours of flight. I'm looking forward to finding a quiet place to sit and write during the hottest parts of the days. From the roof of the Palace hotel In the meat market Robert's favorite Vietnamese filter coffee with condensed milk Fruit market Feast at a Korean restaurant Notre Dame Cathedral Notre Dame Cathedral
Long walk in Saigon Asia » Vietnam » Ho Chi Minh City	4th February 2007
Robert here. The internet connection is slow today, and I'm likely to get booted, so briefly and without pix . . . It's Sunday afternoon. Up early again. After breakfast, I left Ilene to work and I hit the streets and ended up walking for about 4 1/2 hours. I headed west in the direction of the backpacker's ghetto and wandered through a lot of neighborhoods where I didn't see any other tourists for a long time. While I did that, the constant salesmanship let up -- no one was expecting me to walk by I guess -- but the motorbikes never cease. It's hard to describe much else that would sound interesting here, but every block of everyday life is something vivid and unexpected to me -- buidybuilder's gyms and tenament buildings and school buildings and gas stations and hardware stores and the way people carry everything on their motorbikes. It's all fascinating to observe. Children of every age are taken as passangers on the motorbikes. They're adorable to see tucked into their parents' laps wearing their masks, but it makes me anxious to see. Today I saw one child about 3 years old who had fallen asleep that way while zipping down the street, his father extending his left arm to prop up the child's head. In the touristy areas, I bought a few souvenirs. I got something really cool for my nephew Jake, but I'm not sure it will pass customs. I booked a two-night trip for Ilene and me to Mui Ni beach -- Wed. to Fri. If for some reason you don't hear from us in the next couple days, it will probably be next Sat. before we are in touch.
Under the weather Asia » Vietnam » Ho Chi Minh City	6th February 2007
Robert here. Nothing very adventurous to report. I've come down with what I hope is just a summer cold (at least it's summery) and have been in bed most of two days eating oranges. I think I'm past the worst of it. Yesterday I explored a modern supermarket looking for Tylenol. Today I discovered that fish Pho does the job of chicken soup. Right now, I'm sitting in the corner coffee shop watching the traffic. ONe thing I've been admiring is how "people scaled" the streets and buildings are. There's more French colonial architecture left here than I anticipated, and certain blocks look like pictures of the French quarter in New Orleans.
Mui Ne, alternating waves of relaxation and overstimulation Asia » Vietnam » Mui Ne	10th February 2007
Hello everyone. Robert here. It’s Saturday afternoon. We’ve done a hundred incredible things since I checked in last, and it’s difficult to capture a sense of it here for you. I’m not sure I’ll have luck uploading the pix, and I wish I could show them to you. The main thing we did was travel up to Mui Ne. We were up early on Wed. a.m. to catch the “café bus.” Tourist cafes are essentially small tour operators that also sell a little coffee on the side while you wait, and they bundle all the tourists - mostly young backpackers - into groups. It was about 5 hours in the coach up the coast. It was interesting to see something other than the city life. Most of the way it was heavily developed along the highway, and we could see some land in cultivation - a lot like New Jersey. For some reason I’ll have to research later, there are very distinct microclimates, and the scenery would suddenly switch from jungle to desert. Mui Ne is a small fishing village, and the highway outside of town is bordered on the ocean side by a long strip of “resorts.” The other side of the street was mostly the homes of people who lived there, which were very humble in the best cases. Some of hotels seemed very nice, and our place was so-so, but we were able to relax. The weather was beautiful - unforgettable. Mid 80’s, gentle ocean breezes, lots of shade from the palm trees. The sunsets were like in a movie. It’s been years since I’ve seen so many stars so clearly at night. The food as part of the package sucked, and we pretty soon started exploring roadside canteens and had really great food. There was lots of seafood, which was presumably as fresh as could be. As we walked along the beach, we could watch people sorting it out of the nets next to their boats. One of the standard activities there is to explore a couple of the microclimates, which we did on Thursday afternoon. One stop was a quick walk through a canyon carved through dark red sand and rock. It looked like we were on Mars. The other stop was the white sand dunes. It’s a few square miles that all of a sudden looks like a scene from the English Patient. Children meet you at the bus to walk you to the top of the highest dunes and rent you a plastic sled to slide down on. It’s hard to describe how unearthly it all felt. With the way the wind blows and the way we were covered in sunscreen, by the time it was over we basically looked like walking sand sculptures. It was a long ride back yesterday and some recuperating today. I booked us for a one-day trip Monday to Mekong Delta villages that includes about 15 miles of bike riding. Tomorrow we’re scheduled to have Sunday dinner at the home of a friend of Ilene’s out in the suburbs. Those are the big events, which don’t even really tell what I’m doing. It’s the moment-to-moment stuff that’s hard to capture. One example - today after walking a few hours, I stopped to get a bottle of water from a woman with a cart on the sidewalk. Bottled water, presumably filtered, is everywhere for the benefit of tourists who would get traveler’s tummy from tap water. We agreed on a price of about $.33, which we communicate by counting fingers rather than using words. She opened the cooler to get it, and it was in the ice underneath piles of red bloody meat, which was lying unpackaged on top of a towel, that she had for whatever dish she made for the lunch crowd. So I’m mentally calculating the risk - is the ice shaved (and therefore unfiltered), is the seal on the water bottle legit, could that blood have gotten into the bottle? Meanwhile I’m also calculating the currency and which of the unfamiliar bills to give her. She gives me back far less change than I’m expecting, and I think she’s trying to take advantage. So we discuss some more relying on hand gestures. And then I cracked the seal on my bottle and continued on my way. At the next step, a cyclo driver is trying to sell me a ride. At the next step, there’s some amazing looking fish dish I want to try. At the next step the sidewalk is blocked with somebody selling second hand shoes. Next a wild west themed restaurant specializing in barbqued crickets. Next a man with a hand-operated press for crushing sugar cane to make cold drinks. Next I’m about to be run down by a motorscooter. Next is an old woman with a machete chopping up a blue plastic stool with a Pepsi logo and putting the pieces in her cart. And so on . . . Self portrait in paradise Fresh fish Hey New Haven, check out the shirt! White sand dunes A friend at the canteen Every table is the chef's table
Amazing bike ride in Ben Tre Asia » Vietnam » Mekong Delta	12th February 2007
Robert here. I just wanted to post quickly to let everyone know we're still doing fine. We had the most incredible day today cycling in some very remote neighborhoods of the Mekong Delta. I'll just have to give the short version now and wait till later to share pix. (Time on the computer with wi fi access is hard to come by.) We hired a guide and driver for a personal tour (If any other travelers are reading, Sinh Balo in the backpacker's ghetto has our recommendation. You can find them in Lonely Planet), drove about 2 hours down, took a ferry across one branch (the river is huge) to an island south of the city of Ben Tre and hopped on mountain bikes. The guide took us through tiny villages and through the forests and through the rice fields. Back in Ben Tre, we loaded the bikes onto a tiny put-put boat and went about 30 minutes up into a little tributary not much wider than the boat. We stopped and had lunch at the home of a farmer, and it was absolutely the best meal I've had here. The fish and shrimp were grown in retaining ponds there. The cooking water was from cisterns that collect rain water during the monsoons. Milk straight from the coconut. This was on a cozy porch overhanging the river, and the forest was so thick you couldn't see a foot past the edge of the porch. About every 15 minutes or so a boat would pass carring produce or flowers to the Ben Tre market. For once, there were no motorbikes to be heard. Then a quick nap in the hammocks and then back on to the bikes to ride some more through the forest. 25k in all before we met the driver back in Ben Tre. I promise some spectacular pix when we get the computer and cameras home.
A Pair of Underwear in the First Act. . . Asia » Vietnam » Ho Chi Minh City	13th February 2007
Hi, it's Ilene writing from HCMC, back from fun on the beach in Mui Ne and cycling in the Mekong Delta. What did Chekov say? A pair of underwear in the first act. . .? Anyway. Since so many of you have expressed concern about the underwear situation. . . let me provide an update. Last I left you, I was in a bit of a bind—the not-really-XL XL underwear on, laundry still out until the next afternoon. That morning, I went to Cholon, the Chinese neighborhood, with my friend Chi, who is anxious to show me the markets and bargain on my behalf. We head into one of the big markets, where Chi’s friend works selling baby clothes, and she asks me what I’d like to buy. I look around. We’re surrounded by blue jeans. “Jeans,” I say thoughtlessly. Moments later, I realize my misstep. Chi is asking each vendor if they have anything that would fit me. Skeptical looks. Deep stacks of denim are overturned. A pair of Tommy Hilfiger stretch boot cut jeans is produced. “Try these on,” Chi says. I look around. Well. Good job, Ilene. I’ve not only created a situation where I need to take my pants off in front of everyone, I’ve created a situation where I will now also show the entire Cholon market the not-really-XL underwear on my body--you remember my two choices, and the choice to wear them up, yes? (Why do so many of my travels in Asia end up with my bare ass hanging our somewhere?) I suck it up, step behind the display table and give the gal hanging up merchandise an eyeful of American Back End. And of course the jeans are nowhere close to fitting. The next size is brought. It doesn’t help that I am sweating heavily at this point. And then I am saved from my ordeal—because there is not a larger size. I have already tried on The Largest Jeans in Vietnam. “Ok, Chi,” I say, my own pants safely back on, “I guess what I really need to buy is underwear.” No problem. Chi buys her underwear from a stall in the second floor. We head up there. I’m not feeling optimistic, but I get a pleasant surprise. For 12,000 dong each (about 75 cents) I am able to buy your basic 100% cotton bikinis—what I was searching for all along. I buy 4 pair. They are size XXXL. And I’m over myself at this point. I think I look pretty fabulous as XXXL. I figure the Xs are like the string of zeros on every dong note I’m carrying around. I’ve gotten good at dividing by 16 to figure how many dollars everything is. I’m dividing my underwear size by at least 3Xs. So, check out the cycling pix of us when Robert posts them. Nothing wrong with that back end at all.
Lots of pictures Asia » Vietnam » Ho Chi Minh City	19th February 2007
Robert here. I arrived home safe on Friday evening and have been recuperating from the long plane ride all weekend. Ilene starts heading back tomorrow night our time and arrives Thursday evening. Thanks to everyone who helped make this trip possible, watering my plants, picking me up at the airport and so on. The final verdict: It was amazing and wonderful and eye opening. I look forward to boring everyone with stories when I see you in person. In the meantime, I've posted more photos than you could want to see on Tabblo, a photo sharing site. You should be able to view them by going to this address: http://www.tabblo.com/studio/stories/view/211516/ See you soon.