Viet Nam

We are actually surviving just fine without Amber and Tyler (although we were a little worried in the beginning) and meeting people from all over the world. We took a bus tour through the Mekong Delta of southern Vietnam for 2 days and enjoyed it until the very end. We were on a bus to get us back to Ho Chi Minh City but it is the end of Tet in Vietnam (which is their big holiday/Chinese New Year celebration) and the roads were very crowded...we waited on a hot bus for 1 1/2 hours to get on a ferry and my claustrophobia finally got the best of me. Blaine agreed that it was not 'feeling like vacation anymore' so we got off in this random town (Can Tho) and decided to stay the night and try again first thing in the morning. Our tour guide was not happy with us but we fished our bags out and went on our merry way. We ended up finding a lovely riverfront hotel ($10/night) and meeting some Aussies and having dinner with the ex-pats of the town! We got the 7 a.m. fast boat (that only the locals know about, as it is not in any of the travel guidebooks) and arrived in Saigon (HCMC) 3 1/2 hours later. I believe our original bus had not made it in before midnight the night before. When we arrived in Saigon we followed one of our Aussie friends from the night before to the hotel where he is renting long-term and ended up getting a lovely room (much nicer than we have been staying in) for $25/night and the hotel has a pool and rooftop terrace with 360 degree view of the city. We visited the War Remnants Museum today...learned a lot about the Vietnam War that we didn't know before.

I will give a shout out to my mother who celebrated her birthday (and it was a momentous one...30 I think) a few days ago! She is the most supportive, loving mama anyone could ever ask for and I don't know what/where I'd be without her! Happy Birthday!