2016 Family visit to Vietnam

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As I left off the last blog, the family was coming to visit.  They came mid March, which is still dry season, for 3 weeks.  The agenda entailed:
        ⁃       one week in Ho Chi Minh City, lounging around the pool and recovering from jet lag
        ⁃       One week plus traveling Vietnam
        ⁃       And a few final days back in Saigon getting ready to head back to the cold

When Cath and the girls got here, the jet lag was worse that expected.  Combined with 30+ degree heat and humidity, it was a challenge to overcome.  The first weekend the ladies got an in-house nail session and we went for a few dinners, including one to meet Julia.  With everyone being tired, it was rather an awkward setup, maybe to be expected with new relationships.

During the first week the girls visited my work and a few international schools, some of which they liked, but with unlikely prospects of leaving Victoria for a hot and frantic Vietnamese environment.  Then on a Thursday of my workweek we boarded a VietJet and took off on our Vietnam exploration tour.

Our first stop was old and historic Hanoi.  It was a pleasant change of temperature from over 30 to low twenty a and a nice mist of rain.  Right away Hanoi felt good: very green, with lots of green spaces, parks and a nice lake in the middle of town.  A place where I felt you could breathe after Saigon.

We stayed 2 days in the 5 star Melia hotel as part of the Halong Bay cruise package and because hotel was fully booked, we got an comp upgrade to suites, which was superb.  Breakfast alone was worth it!

In Hanoi we enjoyed good food, some souvenir shopping, people watching and the acclaimed water puppet theater, which is a unique art form dating hundreds of years back.  While the venue was a bit tired, the show was colorful and fun, complete with traditional music.

In addition we tried, for the first time, CYCLOs, also known as Tuk-Tuk or kabuki-cabs, which the girls, especially, Tessa enjoyed a lot.

After 2 days we checked out and got picked up by this awesome, brand new lemo-van, which you see in the movies picking up a president from the jet.  It was a luxury ride to the Halong Bay, where we were to explore this world heritage site.  Along the way we stopped at a tourist trap, where Vietnamese crafts people were making all kinds of arts: from stone carvings to paintings to clothes.  It was one of the nicest tourist shops I have seen in Vietnam, complete with tourist pricing and shipping worldwide.

We got to the Halong Bay after a 3 hour ride in the rain, which was not a promising sign for the Halong Bay touring.

Upon arrival, we had a small drink and got shuttled to our "junk" boat.  We had 2 rooms, one of which featured a full bathroom complete with a jetted jacuzzi tub.  The showers were great, just a sense ion of having a shower on the boat was somehow counter-intuitive.

We were served a nice lunch on the 3rd floor as we departed the shores and headed into the bay of carats.  Unfortunately, as we headed off, the weather got more sighed in, so no amazing and expansive views beyond immediate surroundings.

That same day we went kayaking among the carats which was a nice and peaceful experience and took a hike in a very large natural cave complex.

It was quite busy with tourists, as you would expect, but still reasonable for enjoying the scenery.

That evening we learned how to make spring rolls (Tessa and I got the master chef certificates to witness that); later we dressed up in traditional Vietnamese outfits and had a very nice dinner while the boat was parked somewhere deep in the bay.  I also tried squid fishing, but did not catch any.  Some other guy caught a few years only ones, so was fun to watch.

The next morning we woke up to much better weather and visibility.  Unexpectedly, we had some women outside the boat windows shouting loudly.  They were in little boats with a bunch of western war s to sell: anything from cigarettes to Pringles to you-name-it.  I suppose commerce has gotten to even to these relatively remote places.  The only downside  to that is much garbage and plastic floating in the water and somehow incompatible notion of peddling a snickers bar in a pristine nature sanctuary.

We had a lovely breakfast and coffee on the top deck, witnessed a near collision between our and another boat, visited a pearl farm and headed back to shore.

All in all it was a very nice excursion with top service.  Once back, we had a small lunch and took the presidential transport back to Hanoi to board our plane.

We took off late afternoon to Nha Trang, which is known in Vietnam as one of the premier resorts, historically catering to Russians.  The main reason for choosing Nha Trang was for its water park, which is well known in Vietnam.

We got to Nha Trang and stayed the first night in a basic, full of Russians hotel.  For cultural acclimatization, we went to have some breakfast where the first language under each dish was Russian, then German and then Vietnamese.

We took a taxi to the cable car to take us to our resort on an island just off of Nha Trang.

Tessa had to throw up in the taxi, completely missing the plastic bag, causing an extra fee to the cabbie.  This was a start of the string of "heat" sicknesses of all 3 of my visitors.  Regardless...
We did not board the cable car, as our package was premier pack, so we got taken to a special lodge to check in, where our luggage was taken and we were offered crash passion fruit juice and could relax on nice sofas while waiting for our transport.

In about 30 minutes we were encouraged to board a speed boat which took us to the island across a turquoise bay.  There a shuttle picked us up and took us to the other side of the island where we were dropped off at the grand and massive hotel, with expansive lobby, all completed in white marble.  I was not sure exactly what was included in my package other than I did think I paid for upgrade to a villa.  Once we could check in, they told us to have lunch in the hotel restaurant and that we had full board during our stay.  The buffet lunch was amazing and catering to any taste.  After lunch we took a shuttle to our villa, which was massive and brand new: we must have been the fist people staying in it because when we go there the crew was finishing up tiles at the front driveway.  The villa was one story, probably 1500 square feet with huge kitchen and living room, 2 big bedrooms and bathrooms, massive TVs and a nice private pool off the back.  The house was just one row off the beach.  Definitely an upgrade.

We unpacked and decided to explore the surroundings and take the shuttle to the attractions park, which was also included in the price.  It was getting a bit late so we decided to stay at the rides and do the water park the next day.  The park was quite new, with roller coaster, good rides and an alpine toboggan ride which was much more exciting and unique than first appeared.  There were not that many people around me so we got plenty of riding.

The next morning we had a nice buffet breakfast and decided to go to the water park.  We took the shuttle and walked down to it only to discover it was closed for renovations!!!  Tessa started crying and honestly it was such a letdown and disappointment, given that the main reason for coming here was the water park.  But, being a trooper, Tessa recovered quickly and we decided to salvage the experience by going back to the rides and enjoying those.

That day Tessa got sick of heat stroke, Grace was coughing, so activities were a bit off.  Next day Cath got sick so me and Grace and Tessa went  o the beach and pool at the main hotel to have fun.  The four days were plenty and we were ready to go back to Saigon, while Cath, still feeling sick, was to go to Dalat to do a side trip.

We left for the airport with a pit stop at the hotel we stayed the first night to collect the camera that Tessa left in the taxi on the way to the resort.

On the weekend we got back, the girls and I visited the Independence Palace from where the Vietnam war was coordinated by the Americans and the South, then Julia and the girls went on to salon hair, got their nails done and enjoyed some beauty pampering.  Then Cath got back, feeling better and having seen another Vietnamese town, ready to head back to Canada.

All in all it was very nice to have the family in Vietnam, despite the sickness and the I redness a long travel and hot climate brings.  Not sure how much the experience enticed them to come back, to be seen, I suppose.  So the girls left and I got preparing for my next trip with work to Europe: Hamburg this time.

Lunar New Year, travels and friends

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Better late than never, so here is my long overdue update.

To start the year, the most worthwhile experience to describe is the Lunar New Year or as they call it here: Tet.  It happens in February and this year, given that is falls on a weekend, everyone got 9 days off.  This is a big challenge for businesses that work internationally like us, given that to have workers work during Tet costs a minimum of 300% multiplied by hours and days.  But that is the current reality and it gets built into price of doing business.

Tet is anticipated by everyone and reminds me of Spain and people waiting for the holly week.  They say that people work all year to save enough money to go home and buy gifts for everyone.  It is a tradition for people to return to their villages so Saigon becomes a very pleasant place with little traffic and noise.

Right before Tet, it is customary to get a peach blossom tree in the south with yellow blossoms and a cherry blossom tree in  the north.  Prices range from several dollars for a small one to hundreds of dollars for big ones.  It is considered lucky if the tree blooms exactly during the New Year and has many flowers.  And they seem to do so on queue: it looks very magical.

On the first day of New Year everyone awaits their lucky money envelopes: people purchase red gold envelopes and put money bills into them to later exchange with family and friends.  There are some important rules around this activity: bills should be brand new, never used, amount depends on relationship (kids and older parents get most) and middle age people get almost none, given that they can earn.  I was a bit disappointed when I went to my offices on the new years day and handed out hundreds of envelopes to my staff (yes, all 1200 staff get one!), yet the boss got none.  After expressing my bewilderment to my management team after I did a lucky draw of envelopes for them also, I ended up getting a few, I think because they felt bad.  So I don't think I will be starting any new trends on lucky money, simply will have to adjust my expectation for next year.  

One more thing: seemed that all the excitement was anticipating the new year and the lucky money: people receiving the money treated it like it was normal, I was really surprised at the discrepancy of the build - up to it and then very low key reactions.  So when it comes to really celebrating, I say Spain wins.

Just before the new year we had year end parties for our employees in both locations.  Those were big gala dinners and entertainment, something that in the western world got cut out of company budgets long ago.  My managers encouraged me to do a little Vietnamese singing, so after some practice, I did and it was a big hit.  Even though it was a few lines of very famous song, staff were screaming so loud I could not hear myself.

Also, I got to wear a traditional Vietnamese Ao Di  (won't even try to explain how to pronounce it), and when walking downtown with my lady friend, I was a total celebrity: both local people and foreigners thought it was awesome!

After a few days in the deserted city on new year, we decided to go to Malaysia for s short getaway.  It was an interesting trip: country is well developed, lots of construction, very good prices and amazing shopping.  We hit majority of the tourist things with the highlight being the Petronas towers, dressed up in burka and visited biggest mosque in KL, had some nice food and even tried a shisha for the first time (a light version of tobacco in a water filtered contraption).

We stayed in a good apartment close to the city that featured a rooftop infinity pool and bar that had a view out of this world.

Overall impression: nice clean country with good food, millions of tourists and a traction and great shopping.  However, the service and local knowledge of people was astoundingly poor.  Taxi drivers haggled the price every time despite the fact that it is illegal, they had no clue where city's mail Islamic art museum was and people working in services could not have been less helpful.  Maybe we just hit an unlucky string of events, but the feeling of the surroundings completely did not match the people living in KL.

We were supposed to take a side trip to Singapore,  but that did not work out as we underestimated the time it was going to take to get there, about 6 hours on a bus, so left it for next time.

In March, Sam came to visit on his way from Australia to Vancouver.  It was very nice to have him and to show him some of the local lifestyle.  I think he was quite happy to be pampered for a week, to meet my friends and enjoy some Vietnamese cuisine.  We went to the famous Cu Chi tunnels that were used during the Vietnam war by the resistance fighters.  We even crawled into some of the tunnels: I did one and could not imagine how people could live for years in them, considering the ones we went into were enlarged for tourists and we still had to crawl hunched down.  Not a good place for anyone afraid of confined spaces.  Sam did some extra crawling as he was a bit more adventurous, we tried some tapioca food they used in the war and got to shoot some AK 47 rounds at the range there.  Interesting place with very dark past.  Sam left to make room for Cathy and the girls coming next.