We have had such a fun day -- running around town with Viet (Neo's brother). First we went to the zoo... just as I was marveling at the fact that they have maintained such space in the midst of all the crowding -- Viet informed us that there are discussions about moving the zoo out of HCMC to the CuChi area... guess we shouldn't be surprised -- land is at such a premium. The zoo is old-fashioned in some ways -- still using bars for most of the animals -- still letting us feed the animals (a woman sold us bunches [View Full Entry]

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Today was one of our best days yet. We got to spend time with our friend and tour guide Ti -- and he brought along his very funny and sweet sister-in-law Chi. We went to the government-run dental practice. I'll let David do the talking.... (Dave speaking) It was a very quick tour, as I'm not sure how receptive they were to a foreign student sitting in on things. I kept my distance to say the least. The neatest concept was that every specialty was housed in one big building; from simple cleanings to implants, you could get it all under [View Full Entry]

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Another day trip today -- into the Mekong Delta to Unicorn Island. Uncle Bin (he's been upgraded from Mister) took us down there by bus. We met up with a woman named Danh who took us by small motor boat down one of the canals where we then got onto smaller boats to go through a skinny natural canal onto the island. This area is intended for tourists -- I imagine our trip next week into the far south to dedicate the school will be much different. We were treated to amazing fruit which they served with chili salt (intended to [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday March 18th I'm writing this at 2:30am after a very exhausting day -- I think we were all in bed and asleep by 8:30pm. I woke up and thought I'd better write the days events down -- before I forget. We toured the CuChi Tunnels today 25 miles outside of Ho Chi Minh City (though most people we speak to still call HCMC " Saigon"). Our tourguide's name was Mr. Bin. He was a soldier for Southern Vietnam during the American/Vietnam War fighting alongside the Americans. During our trip through the crowded streets -- this time by bus -- Mr. [View Full Entry]

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Well -- it's our first official day in Vietnam.... feels like 16 rolled into one... Airtime from Saturday to Monday amounted to 24 give or take a minute -- and of course we crossed the date line -- so that just meant that Sunday never really came or at least that is how it felt. San Fran to Taipei is a long haul, but nothing like waking up to Spicy Beef noodles in a cup for breakfast at 4am!... seemed like a good idea at the time. The kids thought it was cool -- if nothing else -- to use their [View Full Entry]

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