Boogacres: Asia - Bhutan to Vietnam - Friday, February 23, 2018

Today is a full travel day. We leave Bhutan, returning to Katmandu only long enough change planes, getting back to our "Mother Ship." Then we're on to Vietnam.

Here's what Mr. Everest and surrounding mountains look like on a clear day.

Here's what we saw of Mt. Everest. Unbelievable. Tallest mountain on earth.

This is a quick hello/goodbye to Katmandu!! Nepal ... DONE.

During our flight on Bhutan Airlines, we flew over Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on the planet, which I've pointed out here. The mountains below us were a spectacular sight.

Clearing immigration at Katmandu was no breeze, but we survived and only had to breath the still polluted air for a short time.

When we arrived in Saigon, now referred to as Ho Chi Minh City, we were greeted with red carpet treatment and presented with a lovely bouquet of Lotus flowers. I was quite surprised at the friendliness of the people here.

Red Carpet treatment.

Red Carpet reception in Saigon.

Presented with beautiful Lotus flower bouquets. Pat and Julie.

Headed in from the airplane to clear immigration in Vietnam. Stevie, Lorri and Julie.

Clearing immigration here was a breeze, we simply walked through and waved at the agent's smiling face. They must be anxious for us to drop some yankee money in their country.

We hopped on another bus - or a "coach" as NatGeo refers to our transportation. I guess the name is commensurate to the cost of the ride??? That's when the excitement began. I've never seen so many motor scooters in my life. They were everywhere. Literally hundreds of them. Our guide told us that traffic was very light this evening because of the lunar new year celebration and most people were at home celebrating. We arrived at the Park Hyatt Hotel shockingly without a single scooter as a hood ornament on the front of the bus.

Streets are decorated for the lunar new year here in Vietnam.

Saigon is quite modern. We did an excellent job of rebuilding their country after the war. Our hotel is lovely.

Park Hyatt, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

I had a lovely one bedroom suite at the Park Hyatt.

The living room was so nice. And huge!!

I put my Lotus bouquet in a vase in my bathroom.

Upon arrival at the Hyatt, we met for our regular happy hour at the Hyatt bar. A happening place.

Happy Hour at the Hyatt Bar.

We began our visit to Vietnam with a Vespa Street Food tour. Now ... I'm not sure what is more frightening to me ... a Vespa ride, or eating street food in Vietnam. But what the heck? I'm here and when in Vietnam - do as the Vietnamese. So away we went.

When in Vietnam ...

My driver.

With trepidation, we take off on our Vespa Street Food tour. Pat and her driver.

Scooters and cars are EVERYWHERE!! Major chaos!

Our guide for the evening - Sasha - made a big deal out of NOT being our tour guide, rather a friend. The way she continued to emphasize the "friend" deal took me to the movie, "Good Morning Vietnam" where a young Vietnamese boy continued to tell Robin Williams he was his friend, and then he blew up a bar filled with American soldiers. I had the same phony feeling each time Sasha would say "we are friends," "I am your friend here in Vietnam."

We were expecting to sign a waiver before hopping on the bikes, but here's what the safety briefing consisted of:

"Do not take a purse with you. Someone can grab it right off your shoulder. Although it's very tempting to take photos while on the Vespa, do not do that. Someone will steal your phone right out of your hand."

After those two instructions, we were off. No waivers. No real safety instructions. Hilarious!!

Our "friend" Sasha at our first street food stop.

Our first stop was for Seafood at a place called Oc Phat. Seafood street food. What could possibly go wrong?? It was actually delicious. I loved the spices and even recognized one of the dishes as my friend, Tin, has made this dish for me in Colorado, mussels grilled in the shell with fish sauce and ground peanuts on top. I could have eaten a whole tray of those. They were delicious.

Mussels like Tin makes. ALMOST as good as hers!!

Oc Phat was an outdoor place with open air seating right on the street.

Bring on the grub. Wait ... I think they actually eat those here ... grubs. Yikes! We're joined here with our friends, Tom and Alicia (left) and Terry and Dr. Bob (right).

Lorri, Pat and Midge.

I even tried a few sips of Vietnamese beer. It matched well with the food. Who'd have thought ... I actually enjoyed Vietnamese food and the beer. My palette has become so refined!!

After our seafood stop, we went to a place for more traditional Vietnamese dishes, Co Ba . One of the dishes served was a huge pancake filled with vegetables and shrimp - still in the shell. They eat the shell for additional calcium. I passed on that, but the other dishes were quite tasty.

Off to the next stop. Stevie commandeers her Vespa.

Midge ready for the next stop.

Midge and Alicia show the shrimp in the shell "pancake" served tonight. It was savory, not sweet and had other vegetables inside with the shrimp.

Pat, Midge and Alicia getting ready to try the pancake.

Our last stop on the Vespa tour was to a local bar for cocktails and a bit of the night life in Vietnam. Called Woodstock, the bar was relatively empty until our group arrived. They had watered down cocktails and a decent band playing current hits and the dance floor quickly filled with our group.

Always the life of the party, Pat was first on the dance floor!! Love her energy!!

Our "friend" Sasha photo bombed every photo.

Finally got Sasha out of the photo by asking her to take the photo.

Our entire Scooter group at Woodstock.

Time to head back to the hotel, Stevie and Midge hang on.

We sort of had the side streets to ourselves on the way home.

Stevie, Alicia and Tom hang on for dear life. Incidentally, Alicia had to leave the trip early because of an appendicitis attack. She was flown to Bangkok for emergency surgery. She and Tom were missed. Fun couple we met on the Africa trip and sorry their time with us was cut short.

At 11:00, after a full day of travel, tasty street food and fun, we loaded up on the Vespas and headed back to the Park Hyatt.

I was sort of waiting for the stomach to begin to rebel against the foreign cuisine, but surprisingly, I had no issue at all.

Saturday, February 24, 2018

We had so much fun last night on the Vespa tour, we decided to have a repeat today. But first a tasty Vietnamese Breakfast.

Fresh Coconut water for starters.

The Vietnamese like it hot. Check out this bowl of peppers. I think they are in my eggs!!

Stevie checks out the gorgeous flowers in the hotel lobby. We're going to visit the flower market this morning to see where these started the day.

My driver today, Tai. He kept wanting to take selfies and wanted a copy. What's up with that?

Look out Ho Chi Minh City!! Julie's on the loose with a scooter and she doesn't know how to use it.

We have a fun crew today.

He ain't just whistlin' Dixie!! It was a crazy ride!!

We're out there amongst them.

At first glance, I thought Stevie was flipping the bird, but she is actually taking a photo with her phone. Careful Stevie, someone may snatch it from you. Remember the safety briefing from last night???

Away we go! Hope those prayers and wishes work for me today!!

We set off on a tour of Saigon. Our first stop was to a rather interesting place, a bird park. We have dog parks in America. Stands to reason that a bird park wouldn't be such a far fetched idea.

Bird Park in Saigon. Men only, but we were allowed to wander through and take photos amidst many frowning men as we checked out their birds.

These are not exotic birds, just local song birds.

Men bring their birds in beautiful cages to the park, hang the cages and sit around and chat while drinking coffee. Sometimes, they place the cages tightly next to each other, opening the cage doors so the birds can visit and socialize to become friends. There are also bird competitions. They have the prettiest bird, best singer, and bird fights.

These birds are being allowed to socialize. With cages butted up against each other and doors open, the birds hop from cage to cage making friends. This is also how they are set up for fighting. There is a paper barrier between the cage doors. When the paper is pulled, the bird that makes the first aggressive move toward the other is the winner.

The bird park is an early morning activity because after 9:00, the temperatures rise making it too hot for the birds. So they cover the cages, load up on their scooters and take the birds home.

This guy is loaded on his Scooter and scooting on home after his coffee and conversation in the bird park.

We also visited the place where before the war, a monk set fire to himself in protest over the Vietnamese President trying to outlaw Buddhism in Vietnam. The president's wife was not particularly well loved after she remarked that she would clap her hands for another monk BBQ in the streets. Terrible President. Terrible First Lady and Terrible story.

This horrible incident and famous photo are largely responsible for the United State's involvement in the Vietnam war.

On a MUCH lighter and happier note, we then Scootered on over to the flower market, which was HUGE, colorful and filled with every flower imaginable.

There must have been 100 different vendors at this market, all with different, colorful and fragrant flowers.

This fellow obviously got up early to set up the flower stand and is now catching a little nap after selling most of his flowers.

This scooter is loaded and ready to deliver flowers.

We ran across a woman in the alley with an electric mixer, a charcoal fire, a cast iron skillet for cooking muffins and a pile of delicious freshly baked muffins. Price, about 10 cents for a muffin.

This baker is cracking eggs in a mixing bowl preparing the batter for her delicious muffins. She then bakes them on a coal fire in a molded cast iron skillet. Her "space"was in the alley. No sterile kitchen. But the muffins were so tasty!!

We actually drove these Vespas through a street market filled with shoppers and vendors. Everything from snakes to vegetables are sold here. Sensory overload here with amazing colors, smells, crowds, and a bit of a fright trying to navigate through the busy market.

Fresh fish?????

I'll have a bucket of Chicken to go, please.

Who knew there were so many varieties of rice?

Tour guide selfie.

While I was negotiating to buy my muffin, the others were having fresh coconut water.

We visited a Chinese temple where we wrote wishes on a piece of paper, attached them to, a coil of incense, fired it up and hung it on a wire. As the incense slowly burns up the coil, it eventually burns the paper containing our wish and sends it up to be received. Now I'm not a Chinese Buddhist, and usually don't go for all this hocus pocus, but, keeping an open mind and an open heart, I hope my wish comes true.

Smoke fills the courtyard of this temple where the coils of incense slowly burn.

This fellow is attaching our wish to the incense coil.

Now he lights it and takes it to be hung in the courtyard of the temple.

There are a LOT of wishes hanging up there. Hope this Buddha guy is good!!

At this temple, they have an incinerator where people bring actual items or photos of items that they want to send to their loved ones who have passed. Example, a photo of a scooter, or an iPhone. They feel they need these things "on the other side" to give them a better life there. The Vietnamese take care of their family and friends long after they are gone. Actually a very thoughtful gesture.

This is the incinerator where people offer things to be sent up to their loved ones who have passed.

We later visited a pagoda with 10,000 Buddha statues. They were having a prayer session with monks praying for happiness and peace, a bimonthly ritual. On the way upstairs to the 10,000 Buddhas, we entered a room with rows of what I thought were boxes of Chinese tea. But as I studied them more closely, I realized these were actually the remains of deceased people with their photos on each box. Yikes! It was a pagoda burial room. This is a place where ashes of the deceased are stored for a period of 10 years until released to the ocean by the monks. That 10 year time period can be extended by paying a fee to keep the ashes in place. The monks also care for ashes if someone has to leave for an extended period of time - for example, a trip for 6 months to the U.S., they may want to bring the remains of their parents here to be watched over by the monks until they return. Quite interesting how these people take care of their families and friends long after they are gone. Very touching.

The Pagoda of 10,000 Buddhas. Offering prayers for happiness and peace.

A close up of some of the Buddhas.

Next on our Vespa tour, a Chinese apothecary store. Just about any Chinese remedy on the market can be found here. But you must have a prescription from a doctor to get the herbs.

Various herbs in the Chinese Apothecary.

Our guide is describing some of the various herbs and explains how they can cure just about anything. People come in and explain their ailments and the "pharmacist" tells them what herbs they need. But they must have a prescription from a doctor to sell them the concoction.

All of these ingredients are in the tea they made for us. The only ingredient I recognized were the miniature apples.

A special tea was prepared for us with all kinds of unidentifiable things floating inside. It was really delicious and I felt terrific after I drank it. Thing is ... I felt terrific BEFORE I drank it too!! So I guess it's a wash.

These girls are filling a large prescription order from a doctor's office.

We drove through another few Saigon districts, across the river to check out the skyline and then stopped at the post office.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines!!"

Three old goats behind two old goats. HEY, THIS IS STEVIE'S CAPTION!! I would NEVER say that!!

We are looking across the river at District 4, the highest rent district in all of Saigon.

Not your ordinary Post Office ... nothing like the post office in the U.S. Number one, this is a beautiful building that was formerly a train station.

The post office is beautiful on the inside too. AND multipurpose with shops inside. There were NO lines waiting for a government postal clerk. Everyone was taken care of quickly and if they did have to wait, they had an opportunity to shop at the many boutique stands in the center of the building.

I wouldn't mind going to the Post Office in the U.S. if it were like this.

Stevie shows our guide how his elders would use these booths to make a call, explaining the the old phones were attached to the wall and connected to a hard wire.

Our guide described these old phone booths as something he'd never seen in his lifetime and tried to explain what they were originally used for. Holding his cell phone in his hand as he pointed out how these ancient booths used to have phones inside and you had to deposit coins in them to make them work. A concept he just couldn't quite imagine. But now they have been converted into ATM's.

I asked my Vespa driver how he managed to drive through the chaos so easily. Heres's what he said about traffic - "You are the stone. Everybody else is is a fish. They circle around the stone. They won’t stop. They simply change direction. Always move forward. Never reverse!" That was pretty good advice for navigating through traffic, but also life in general. Always move forward.

I hope you can open this video to sort of appreciate the following statement.

The Vespa tour can be summed up as follows ... It was a fine line between death and exhilaration!

After a lovely Vietnamese lunch at Mandarin Stevie and I went shopping for a Vietnamese outfit called an Ao Dai. We found a tailor just across the street from our hotel, ordered it up and had it delivered by 6:00 that evening. I'm saving the outfit for our final farewell dinner in India.

OK. So these are NOT white asparagus. They are warm towels to clean our hands. Who'd have thought???? On such a pretty tray right next to the vegetables. Very chewy!!

Really enjoyed the Lotus Tea.

So this bowl came to the table resting on a bed of fire and kept the stew warm for the entire meal.

Then we ventured over to Starbucks for a souvenir Ho Chi Minh City coffee mug. Crossing the streets here can be very intimidating with cars and scooters going EVERY direction. But we made it.

Saigon Starbucks. I gave them a pile of "funny money" and they gave me two mugs.

We thought about Ubering home from Starbucks, but the Hyatt is only two blocks away.

Shopping at the tailor across from the Park Hyatt.

Our group is starting to miss out on happy hour. But the die hards prevail!! Cheers Stevie!!

Dinner tonight was at a small venue a few miles from the Hyatt where they had a full scale Vietnamese New Years celebration for us. After our tour of Saigon, we were so tired, we quickly ate the "interesting" food in the buffet and then hopped on the first bus back to the hotel to get a good night's rest. Tomorrow, a new adventure in Laos.