http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/twee/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from twee en-us Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:37:54 +0000 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:37:54 +0000 thursday 11.00pm10 feb 2005i was 3 years old when we left 2 weeks before the fall of saigon in april 1975. my mom told me of running from building to building with bombs exploding in the near distance. she was trying to get our paperwork in order so we could leave as a family with my irish american father. he met her working as a vendor for the military providing all the provisions needed to m http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Southeast/Ho-Chi-Minh-City/blog-4105.html i'm in vietnam at our cousin's house...le vin dung. mom's sister mai's son. mai passed away 10 yrs ago. mai's husband is in LA. her other 2 boys are in LA. 2 girls also in LA. youngest son in new zealand. dung is the only one remaining in vietnam. he is 45. his wife cuc is 47 she's beautiful and reminds me of mom when she was that age. they have 2 kids nguyen 17 boy uyen 16 girl sh http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Southeast/Ho-Chi-Minh-City/blog-4106.html part one feb 21stdefinitely one of the most heartblowing experiences of the trip discovering my roots in the rice fields. visiting the family tomb temple. an epic experience. i walked on the earth that my great ancestors walked on. and not only that...i visited a town where my great grandfather uncle were very wellrespected and loved individual in the province. let me back up.so t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/Hoi-An/blog-5023.html part two feb 21st....we then continued down the road to find the family that was maintaining the tomb. wow another epic experience we pulled into follow me here my mother's cousin's house. her grandfather's brother's son's house. the entire family was there it just happened to be the anniversary of the cousin's mother's death. the older relatives were dressed in ceremonial gowns and http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/Hoi-An/blog-5024.html now it continues to unfold. my family lineage. the tomb of my ancestors. my mother's mother's family temple. these are my roots we arrived in hue and checked in for a solid night's sleep. the next morning we would hired a car to visit my great grandfather's uncle's tomb. i had no idea what was in store. i just knew we were to leave at 7am. yikes.the next morning 7am bright and early aunt huong http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/North-Central-Coast/Hue/blog-5022.html 11 february 2005i made a day of the co chi tunnels. dung my cousin arranged for a motorbike driver to take me on an hourlong drive to the tunnels. i had no idea what was ahead. not just the thousands of motorbikes that RULE the roads cars trucks don't have a chance but the underground tunnels that took 25 years for the VC to dig first my driver thanh was a tiny vietnamese 32 yr old man http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Southeast/Ho-Chi-Minh-City/blog-4137.html excerpts from the online article Visit the Vietcong's World Americans Welcome By Seth MydansJuly 7 1999Following the man in green fatigues the tourists arrive at an opensided hut where the women in black show them to their seats. There on a bigscreen television set the Vietnam War plays on B52's drop strings of bombs villagers run for cover communist guerrillas fight back. For th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Southeast/Ho-Chi-Minh-City/blog-4138.html i embark on a 3 day2 night boat trip throughout the mekong delta with another yoga teacher friend of mine coming from bali carl from the bay area. might not be on emails for a few days. here's a cool site with some great pictures someone else shared onlinehttpwww.farofflands.comavpa0mekong.htmlpeace out.... http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Mekong-River-Delta/blog-4139.html wow where to begin. i arrived a week ago to nha trang. a beachside town that reminds me of hawaii yes. hawaii i've sunbathed on the beaches of oahu and this morning at 9am when my cousins and i went to the beach saturday morning i sat in meditation with my eyes open gazing at the distant islands off of nha trang's shore...and thought...wow...hawaii. but better.better because i'm among my peop http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/blog-4455.html ah. the white buddha at long son pagoda. it stands 24 meters in height. although some websites say 9 another 14. you can see it sitting on the hillside as you drive towards it from the catholic church in town. if you happen to even be coming that way.httpwww.farofflands.comavpa0nhatrang.htmlLong Son pagoda is a shrine of a huge 14meterhigh white Buddha image seated on a lotus blos http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/blog-4458.html day one of the boat tour. we stopped along a village ate lunch and took a short bike trip. ofcourse i'm a sucker for vietnamese children..actually any children. this one wanted some bottled water so i poured some in his mouth and eventually cooled him off with an overload. they all giggled and ran awaythank you to my friend carl with the digital camera who just emailed to me. namaste. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Mekong-River-Delta/blog-4459.html no denying my asian routes here. a postcard image of me in a RED dress and the rice patty hat on the floating market. our tour boat anchored alongside another boat that was buying pineapples from a farmer that was selling. we jumped on board their boat and watched them slice a pineapple for our soon to be succulent enjoyment http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Mekong-River-Delta/blog-4460.html this is our third day on the boat tour. terribly rushed. we arrived at the pagoda and left about 12 later. a rushed tour through the pagoda a breathtaking view of the rice fields leading to cambodian border and then a runwalk down the steps in order to meet the next tour boat that was awaiting a transfer. we rushed to then travel 4 hours by boat and 4 hours by bus back to saigon. the thir http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Mekong-River-Delta/blog-4461.html i must start this entry on a positive note the rice fields. the first time i experienced the country side of vietnam. meditative. calming. soothing. watching the blades of grass float with the gentle caresses of the wind....epic. cannot be explained in words. my heart was full. fully in the moment. THAT was the highlight of a 13 hour bus ride. yes folks 13 hoursfor those of you thinking http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/Hoi-An/blog-5018.html so after a 13 hour bus ride from nha trang to hoi an i hoped to get some sight seeing in. we were leaving that afternoon at 4p via taxi to hue. i had read that hoi an is THE place to get custom tailor sewn clothes made in a matter of hours. they weren't kidding the streets were lined with hundreds of tailors. who to go to we stopped in a place called Lovely. once i saw the shop owner wa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/Hoi-An/blog-5019.html so we're driving along the road from hoi an to hue. my uncle in the front seat mom aunt huong and me jammed in the back seat of a tiny car...but hey who's complaining. i'm not on the open tour bus rightso i ask mom if she can ask the driver if we can stop in danang on the way to hue. the driver says no...it's 2 km off the road. i ask mom to retranslate and ask politely again that i am str http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/Da-Nang-/blog-5020.html part two feb 22ndso after seeing my mother's mother's family temple we had a few hours to explore hue. yes i know..only a few no perfume river boat ride totally american style...rush in take pictures rush out. we had a train at 4.45p to catch out of hue to hanoi. the original option was a 22 hour bus ride no way in he i was heading for a plane but realized that i should stay with http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/North-Central-Coast/Hue/blog-5025.html the infamous uncle toe that i've talked about in yoga class. we arrive at his home and aunt tuc and cousin nguyen at 6am in the morning after a decent night's sleep on the train. uncle tho still works parttime as a doctor at a nearby clinic. he left home at 20 to attend medical school in the north of vietnam. soon after the war broke out and he could not return home. he was of two sons who http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-5026.html so hanoi was a fun city to do in a day. i live in nyc...it was like visiting another city but pretty fun to be a part of the majority this time. also imagine all the nyc subway riders on motos motor bikes. they don't have much of a public transportation system so most of them travel by moto and no joke...it's ridiculous one day i tried to cross the street at 5pm rush hour and looked in http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-5029.html and so i was torn about leaving mom...but i tried to change my flight out of vietnam for another week to find out that all the flights on my airline EVA leaving vietnam for the states were booked and full through march 20th i couldn't get out and i didn't want to stay THAT long as much as i loved it. my bag was getting too heavy and i wanted to reconnect to home. i didn't want to miss cambod http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Angkor/blog-5030.html