Photo Highlights

As promised, here are some photos from our trip. Sort of a 'best of' photo collection here out of almost 300 pictures we took during our trip.

Messing around at an amusement park (Nha Trang)...


We saw some crazy animals throughout our trip. Like this peacock in Nha Trang...


And these Vietnamese pot bellied pigs in Sa Pa...


The water was warm and crystal clear and very salty (Nha Trang)...


The city streets are busy (Hanoi)...


Think you can navigate through this?


We went to this place to see a dead guy (Ho Chi Minh mausoleum in Hanoi)...


It was so foggy in Sa Pa, you could barely see the terraced rice fields...


These young girls made handicrafts high in the mountains of Sa Pa...


My dad likes to mess with people and animals. Like this goat (Sa Pa)...


Joe and I just mess with fake animals (Halong Bay)...


Halong Bay is a registered World Heritage site. Indeed it is majestic...



My favorite photo taken in Sa Pa during one of the walking tours. That's Joe walking into the fog...

Home!

Our flight was delayed from Chicago to Harrisburg, but we still got home on Sunday by noon or so. It was disappointing, I had my day planned out to be a day for rest and re-balancing my internal clock. But since we were still in travel mode, we didn't really get any time to rest.

Even coming home has been an adjustment. Since the house is so new to us, we weren't immediately calmed when we got home. I'm sure we'll get our bearings straight in a few more days.

I will be spending some time this week sorting through the pictures we've taken during our trip and maybe post some highlights. I hope you guys are still interested in checking them out.

Insomnia

I wasn't able to sleep all night. My mind is racing. I don't know if I can't sleep because of the time difference, because I already slept on the plane from Hong Kong or if I'm just really really anxious to get home.
We are already back at O'Hare waiting for our flight. We're just sitting here waiting and using our phones to catch up on news and stuff. Hopefully we'll be home soon.
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What would Uncle Ho do?

Ho Chi Minh is a national hero here and people still call him uncle. We went to see his body at the mausoleum in Hanoi. Joe thought that was pretty creepy.
He's the guy responsible for bringing communism to Vietnam. You can often see Uncle Ho iconography around the city.
We were kind of scared ahead of our trip. Phrases like arbitrary interrogation made us want to stay home. But in reality, all I think communism is responsible for is lack of progress. Construction is slow, we have seen half complete bridges where it looked like no one has worked for days. People still use hand tools, although we have seen machine tools though few. Social problems are the same they just present themselves in a different way.
Just slow slow progress yet I'm sure each year it becomes more Americanized and tourist friendly.
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I'm ready to go home

Joe can't wait to be home to have some pizza. I am craving cold drinks and ice cubes. I am not going to miss the mosquitoes here. I got bitten all over my arms and legs. We won't miss the insane traffic and noise. We are ready to come home!
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Stuck in Chicago!

Our flight out of Hong Kong was delayed 4 hours, which made us miss our flight to Baltimore. So many problems with the airline that we are stuck in Chicago for the night. We hopefully catch a flight to Harrisburg in the morning in time to catch the Superbowl.
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A frog, a squid, an eel, a turtle and ALMOST a snake

Aside from Nha Trang, we ate some different things during our trip. Our first day here Joe ordered frog satay and I had a hunch then that we would be eating some exciting things.
Clams at Halong Bay that aren't available at home. Squid that was a lot thicker than anything I've ever had before. And ... A turtle. I wanted to try turtle just to try it and know what it was all about. I got to pick him out of the tank and everything. i was excited and then when it came to the table I felt bad. And then when I saw the head and feet I got scared. But both Joe and I ate it, thought it was pretty good although it leaves a sticky aftertaste in your mouth. Joe made me have the head since I was responsible for the poor guy's death.
And then there's the snake. Our last night here and my dad took us to a place where we could order the scary stuff. This is the same place we had turtle. I had wanted to also try snake (why not, right?) and had one brought out in a bag and weighed and everything. But my dad was scared of snake, my dad had already ordered 4 other things and the dinner was getting expensive. The waitstaff told us we would never be able to eat it all. So the snake was spared from the Sophie guillotine. I was willing to try it once and know what the fuss was all about. You can't say I'm a picky eater.
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