Vietnam: Wedding Photos

When visiting the Opera House in Saigon, we noticed lots of wedding couples taking photos. Now, it is a huge population, but it still seemed like a lot of couples and we saw them every single day we walked past the Opera House. We found out through our various tour guides that the tradition is actually that the bride and groom take photographs well before the wedding so they can display the photos at the celebration. So all these couples we saw, weren't yet married!

And yes, we asked about how many get cold feet after the photo shoot and were told it's not that common as marriages are not arranged in Vietnam and they need to book venues up to a year in advance so most couples are pretty solid by the time they get to the wedding shoot, which is typically about one month prior to the ceremony.

This last couple is in more traditional Vietnamese dress, rather than the western puffy white dresses that have become popular in Vietnam. I promised they looked a bit happier before I snapped the photo! :)

Vietnam: Cu Chi Tunnels

We signed up for a couple of organized tours this trip and our first was to the Cu Chi Tunnels. For those of you up on your Vietnam history (or visited wikipedia) The tunnels of Củ Chi are an immense network of connecting underground tunnels located in the Củ Chi district of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam, and are part of a much larger network of tunnels that underlie much of the country. The Củ Chi tunnels were the location of several military campaigns during the Vietnam War, and were the Viet Cong's base of operations for the Tết Offensive in 1968.

Our tour took us through one of the villages to understand how the people lived and used the tunnels to thwart the US military during the "American War" which is what many of the literature around Vietnam calls the Vietnam war. It was incredibly interesting to think about how these people survived. The ingenuity for violence and survival was impressive and scary at the same time.

Here, for example, is an exhibit describing all the many ways the Viet Cong tried to maim and injure the US soldiers. The idea was to incapacitate them enough to call for help and only once the whole squad was there trying to rescue the initial soldier did they open fire. It was heartless and awful, and it was war and their whole village was at stake. I just can't even imagine.

The first picture shows how they would build a trap and then cover it with grass so that you wouldn't see it if you were running through the jungle. The second shows what happens when you step on it.

There were a few more, but I think you get the idea. Very clever as they didn't require many materials and would be practically hidden until you stumbled into them.

The tunnels themselves are really amazing. They are literally little villages completely underground. The photo below is of a diorama showing the levels of the tunnels. There were kitchens, storage rooms, bunkers for the soldiers, sleeping quarters and miles of tunnels to get from one place to another. Apparently, the concept started when a few separate families built areas to hide and store things under their own house. The village then got the idea to connect these with tunnels to provide more access and multiple escape routes.

Here you can see our guide getting into one of the tunnels. Keep in mind, these were built for Vietnamese that seem roughly half the size of us fat Americans. Brian got in next and said it was pretty claustrophobic even for that few seconds of darkness. I didn't even bother sure I would get stuck!

There was only a small section of the tunnels open to tourists. These had been widened so that we could fit through and went on for 100 meters. There were exits at 20 meters, 50 meters and 100 meters. Brian and I climbed in confident we'd make it to 100 meters and then exited breathing hard and shaky at 20 meters. You really cannot imagine how small and claustrophobic these tunnels are (and this is one that had been widened!)

After our total humiliation and even greater admiration for what these villagers must have gone through, we continued on to the shooting range. You had the opportunity to shoot an M16 or an AK47. Sure, why not?

We quickly decided that from our performance in the tunnels and on the shooting range that we would have made lousy soldiers.  In all seriousness though, it was a very interesting experience and a strong reminder of just how vicious and awful that war was. A sobering visit.

Happy New Year ... Dubai Style!

Happy New Year!

We kept things low key this year. Oh who am I kidding? We keep it low key every year! I can't remember the last time we went out for New Year's eve. Not really our thing with the crowds, traffic, craziness. Better to stay home with the kitties, pop in a movie and try to stay awake until midnight. Which is exactly what we did.

And we had greater incentive to stay awake this year as Dubai was attempting to set a World Record for the largest fireworks display. While the results are still not confirmed by the Guinness committee, it looks like they've done it. SIDENOTE: Did you know that Guinness has a Dubai office? Wait, of course they do! :)

The live TV coverage was great as we got to see the display at the Burj Khalifa, then the Burj Al Arab and the finally the record breaking event over the Palm and World islands. No way we'd have seen all that if we had driven to Dubai. Newspaper articles say folks from Abu Dhabi took 5 hours (starting at noon) to reach Dubai for the event (it's a 1.5-2 hour drive tops on most days). No thanks, we'll watch from the couch in our jammies, thank you.

"The six-minute event spread across 100 kilometres of seafront, had been 10 months in the making and needed more than 200 pyrotechnicians to be dotted around the two sites to ensure everything went off without a hitch."  Yep, that's our Dubai!

And if you want to get a taste of it for yourself, click the link below.
Video of the Show

Wishing you all the happiest, healthiest and most prosperous year ever! ;)

Vietnam: Arriving in Saigon, or is it Ho Chi Minh City?

I'm a few vacations behind in blogging so let me see if I can catch up a bit this month. In October, we went to Vietnam for a week. A really nice trip and really interesting. Some had told us to be a bit wary of anti-American sentiment, but we experienced nothing of the sort and felt very welcome the whole trip.

We flew to Ho Chi Minh City (AKA Saigon) and found out that pretty much only government officials call it Ho Chi Minh City. Most of the population we met called it Saigon (one told us it was simply because Saigon is easier to say!) In any case, we arrived in Vietnam and made our way to our apartment that we reserved for the 3 days we would be in town.

We've started using Airbnb and VRBO (vacation rental by owner) for a lot of our trips - much nicer than a hotel - more room, cooking facilities. This place was near the Reunification palace and not too long a walk to most of the major attractions we were interested in seeing.

After getting settled, we decided to walk around a bit and find something for dinner. We wandered around and decided to get very local right away so stopped at a little streetside place serving . . . well, actually we had no idea, but it smelled good so we grabbed a seat. 

 I'm not sure how well you can see this from the picture, but basically, you sit around a very low table on very small and low stools (think of a child's play stool and you'll have the right impression). Lots of locals here so we figured the food must be pretty good.

And then we got the menu and realized this might be a little more challenging than we thought - our server didn't speak any English really, but we managed to convey the words soup and chicken and off she went. Oh, and Heineken was on the menu so we at least knew we'd get a beer out of the experience!

The good news is that our 'chicken soup' was absolutely delicious! We figured if this meal was any indication of what was to come, we'd have no trouble with the food.

On the walk back, we started to get a taste of the traffic and the number of scooters on the roads. Now, we've seen this before in Thailand and a bit in Sri Lanka, but nothing like the volume of Vietnam. The roads are absolutely packed with scooters and a few cars, but there is no road rage, a little honking to let people know you're behind them, but nothing irate. It's this flow - like fish in a stream. Pretty impressive. Unfortunately, we didn't get many good pictures to truly show what it was like, but this one might give you a sense.

Crossing the street is an adventure in itself. We were told early on that you just have to step out, stay confident and never stop or go backwards. The stream will pause and shift around you and you won't get hurt. Seriously? Okay they aren't going THAT fast, but still - just walk right out and they'll move around me?

And you know, they were absolutely right. The only time I had any trouble was when I paused or got nervous and took a step back.

We're Moving!

No, not back home, just to another complex in Abu Dhabi. Not out of choice, but because we're being kicked out.

I came home one night a few weeks ago and as the taxi dropped me off at the exit and I started walking to our apartment, two women stopped me.

"There a residents' meeting tonight! We're all being evicted and they're making this a hotel!"

Huh? and Hello by the way (I'd never met these two). After getting a few more details, I found out there was a meeting in a few minutes with the complex management. I rushed home, changed and went to join the meeting. (Brian was in Saudi for work so couldn't attend.)

And sure enough, they've decided to make our complex a hotel with furnished, serviced apartments. I suppose kind of like the place we stayed our first month after arriving in Abu Dhabi. It will be fully furnished, have daily maid service and the option for room service. At 21% higher rent than we're paying now!

We actually have the option to stay and pay the higher rate, but we'd have to live through 4-5 months (more like 6-12) of construction noise and dust, sell all our furniture, relocate for 4-6 weeks while they renovate our apartment ... it just didn't seem like a good plan, so we're moving in mid-Feb when our lease expires.

We haven't yet figured out where - something closer to Dubai to help with Brian's commute and ideally somewhere that still has a bit of a garden for the kitties (we haven't told them yet - they're going to be crushed to leave their birds and bushes). The way the market works here, it doesn't do you any good to look more than about 4 weeks in advance because properties come and go so quickly here so we've got a couple more weeks before we need to start looking in earnest.

Part of me is excited as I love a change of scenery and an opportunity to redecorate (maybe some new furniture?). But the other half of me is exhausted just thinking about it. We don't have a lot of stuff here, but still - going through everything and organizing a move is never super fun.

And I'm sure the cats will be super helpful (yea right).

You can just move my box of treats over there.

I'm not leaving my garden of birds and you can't make me.

Wait! Petra's coming too?

Would love to help pack, but we're a little busy here.