Good Morning, Vietnam!

Over the past few weeks, I've been on a whirlwind trip for work.  The team that I manage and the factory partners that I work with are spread out all over Asia, so in order to meet them, I need to travel to Fuzhou in North China, Guanzhou in South China, Jakarta in Indonesia, and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.  It's been a crazy few weeks with hardly any time at home, but it was great to make these connections.  With all the time away from home, though, I was really missing my husband!  We are still newlyweds afterall!  :)  Since I was gone over a weekend for one of my trips, we decided that he should come to meet me, so he came to Vietnam for a three day trip.  I had been here before, but only for factory visits, which doesn't really allow a lot of time for sight-seeing, so we both got to see a lot of new things.  Like this:

 

In Vietnam, having a car is REALLY expensive (someone told me the tax is 200% - ouch!), so most people just ride scooters.  You see all kinds of crazy things on the road... my favorite was two guys on a scooter, with the guy in back holding a pane of glass.  Yes, that's right!

We wanted to get out of the city a bit, so on Saturday afternoon, we booked a guided trip to see the famous Cu Chi Tunnels, which is what the Vietcong used as a strategic way to defeat the Americans in the Vietnam War.  This system of tunnels was unbelievable, and so well thought-out... they had really thought of everything.  For example, they had kitchens underground, but they knew that if the Americans saw smoke coming out of the ground, they would bomb that area, so they found a way to re-direct the smoke to come out somewhere else.  Really not a very sophisticated thing, but genius in and of itself.  Along the way to the tunnels, we saw a grove of rubber trees.  Brian and I had both never seen one, so we stopped to have a look:

 

We finally got to the tunnels, and had the opportunity to try to get in... I was afraid that my generous rump would not be able to fit through, but, luckily, I fit.  :)  Here is how you do it:

 

First, stand with the lid over your head

 

Then, lower down with the lid still over your head

 

Where did KP go??

There was also the opportunity to fire some huge guns... I figured, why not?  But, in reality, I was terrified!  :)

 

So, I made Brian go first!  :)

 

This is me in a tunnel that had been dug out bigger to allow Westerners to go through - I was seriously claustrophobic, so I'm glad that we didn't try to go through a real one!  :)

 

Vietnam was a French colony for about 100 years, so there is a lot of French influence in the city, like the Notre Dame cathedral in the center of Ho Chi Minh City

Saturday, we went for a tour of the Mekong River Delta... it was a relaxing day on the river, and we got to see some interesting things, like how to make rice paper, how coconut candy gets made, and a local band playing Vietnamese instruments.  We really enjoyed it!  :)

 

This was our lunch!

 

Part of our tour was getting rowed on a canal by this strong woman!  She rowed four of us, and we passed everyone else in our group!

Sunday evening, we got to have dinner with my friend and mentor, Toh.  She was the person who originally hired me to Nike, and honestly taught me everything I know about costing.  She's living in HCMC now, so I'll get to see her a lot more often than I would have if I was still in Beaverton.  It was great to see this wonderful lady.  She still teaches me something new every time I talk with her.

Just one parting photo...

 

Brian and I are thinking this might be the way to go for family travel in the future!  Some people worry about car seats, but our kids are gonna have the coolest helmets ever!  :)