Hang Gap Lai Viet Nam

Our last 2 days in Viet Nam were pretty laid back. We took an overnight bus from Chau Doc to Saigon. We paid for the "premium" seats (the 1st two seats directly behind the bus driver) but the overnight bus is a very popular option for Vietnamese travelers as they like to be efficient with their time and traffic is pretty much nonexistent between the hours of 11 pm and 4 am. When traveling to Chau Doc, it took us 6.5 hours. The return trip was only 5 hours and would have been even less if we didn't have to stop to pick up additional passengers at various points along the way. Since the overnight bus is such a popular option, our bus accidentally oversold the number of tickets and there were not enough seats, so 2 passengers had to sit in the aisle way. One fell asleep and leaned against Vinny's leg so he was a little uncomfortable during the ride. Also although it was an overnight bus, they kept playing Vietnamese music videos and since Vinny and I were about 3 feet away from the wall mounted LCD screen, it was a little bright and made it difficult to sleep.

We arrived in Saigon at 4:00 am and made it to the gates of "our" house in Saigon by 4:30 am. Exhausted, Vinny and I collapsed into bed and didn't wake up until 5 hours later. In the afternoon, we met Robin King Austin, CEO of Vinacapital Foundation for a quick cup of coffee. It was actually raining the entire day in Saigon (even though it's the dry season right now, I guess there was a tropical storm front that came through) so it wasn't too fun splashing through puddles but we made it. Robin, Vinny, and I talked about the work I've been doing at the health center, Vinny's quest to learn Mandarin, and Robin's current projects in Viet Nam. They are very interesting and for more information, you should definitely check out the foundation's website:

http://www.vinacapitalfoundation.org/

On our last day in Viet Nam, Vinny and I spent the morning packing and then had the most delicious lunch of grilled Vietnamese pork chops with broken rice, fresh cut tomatoes and cucumbers and I was able to introduce Vinny to sticky rice and banana rolls and coconut filled rice cakes. He devoured them and then we bittersweetly made our way to the airport.

The Tan Son Nhat airport was recently built and is absolutely beautiful. It really showcases how modern and upcoming Viet Nam is trying to become. Our flights home were pretty uneventful but we did have a very cute little 9 month baby who sat right in front of us on the long flight from Taipei to Los Angeles so Vinny and I had fun playing peek-a-boo with her. The mother was traveling alone with a 9 month old and her 7 year old but both of her children were so well behaved, you would have never known they were on the plane. I hope when I have kids, they are that well behaved and cute.

We landed at JFK at 5:08 am Thursday morning and after a fairly transferring through the Airtrain and subway, we dropped off our bags at Vinny's apartment, I grabbed a quick shower, Vinny and I went out for a quick breakfast at the diner around the corner from his apartment, and I bittersweetly headed into the office to resume work.

Our trip was amazing. It was everything I could have wanted (the good and the bad) and Vinny told my aunt that he would try to be back at least 1x a year so until then, "Hang gap lai Viet Nam" (translation: we shall meet again Viet Nam).