Well today has been quite productive and long, I'm suffering from a little bit of jet lag so I went to bed early last night and I didn't write the blog but now I'm up and its 5:10 am on Tuesday morning here so here I am typing away.
We started out by getting up and walking to my Uncle Tam's house and having coffee, it was there that I met this little girl who is the daughter of one of my cousin's. She was 18 months old and the cutest thing ever, however very evident that they don't have much money. The clothing she had on looked ragged and my mom explained to me their story of survival and it just broke my heart. I decided to give her $10 as a gift and I've never seen anything like it, this little girl, who is 18 months old beamed with joy!! I couldn't believe how excited she was!! After lots of translating I figured out that because they are so poor, at a very young age she has learned the value of money, this is just crazy to me! I also figured out that because they don't have very much money they don't put diapers on her and she just pee's and they change her clothes every single time! I guess you must do whatever it takes to get by when you don't have much.
At around 10 am we went to get breakfast at a local Pho restaurant there was about 10 of us who went and it was SOOOOOO good! After that it was decided to go visit the presidents palace, and just to be honest was not my favorite thing to do. My aunt insisted so we just went to make her happy, and it was sorta neat to see but not my thing. First off we got stuck with a Vietnamese speaking tour group so we didn't understand a word, we ended letting my vietnamese relatives go with the group and Geordy, my uncle Arlie, and I went on our own tour, which was bad because we got lost. All in all it was ok, but if its your thing then you would like it because there was interesting information.
Anyhow onto other things, we also went to the Ben Thanh Market that sells everything and bought some fun knock off wallets, purses, watches etc. we also bought 4 outfits for the little girl we had met earlier. I wanted to shop longer but with such a big group its hard to do so we are going back again today.
We then headed back to my uncles house and started prepping for dinner. My mom arranged for my cousin's to give us mani's and pedi's and hired a massage therapist to come to the house and give everyone amazing massages!! It was $10 for him to give 4 massages!! The evening ended with everyone gathered on the floor sitting indian style eating dinner, drinking wine and whisky and cheering every few minutes. It was a great evening full of fun, laughter, and lots of memories.
I just want to end this by saying Vietnamese drivers are by far the craziest in the world!! Nobody stays in there lane, they turn right in the far left lane, pull out in traffic whenever they feel like it, and do not stop for pedestrians!! I just don't understand how its not one big traffic accident, so somehow they make it work. You pretty much just close your eyes and don't even look and hope they go around you when you are crossing the streets. I'm going to try and post videos when I get the chance and I promise to post pics soon.
Today we are going to the Cu Chi Tunnels which is one of the most famous battlegrounds in the Vietnam War. After that we will make the 4-5 hour drive to My Luong to my Aunts new home.
PS I know there are lots of grammar, spelling errors but I'm too lazy to comb through this so you will just have to deal with it.
My YUMMY bowl of Pho!
These are all pics from the Presidents Palace in HCMC.
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