As Drew and I made plans, Jeff looked up everything he could find about the country. He checked food, weather, government (Communist), and economic circumstances. He was dismayed. It is a poor country with a depressed economy. He saw us staying in rat infested hotels battling malaria carrying mosquitoes at every turn. We were going during the monsoon season. Last year in September Vietnam had 9 inches of rain. (a bit of a dry monsoon month) That is what the internet told him. He read about mud slides, daily rain, typhoons... and on and on. I felt his anxiety, but could not back out. Airlines tickets were bought, hotel arrangements made and we were on schedule to go.
We reassured ourselves that we could make most anything fun and that we go and have a great time. We planned for rain, mosquitoes (and malaria), heat and humidity, bad water, allergies. We were ready. We were grateful to know that Diane would be with us. We knew she could speak the language as we had heard her talk to her parents and they to her. We would be ok as long as she was with us. We would make it, and after all it was only two weeks.
We flew for 24 hours that became 36 because of the time change. We got off the plane,went through the lines at customs manned by stoic looking uniformed men and women, and out the door of the terminal.... into the heat and humidity we had been reading about, and it was 10 pm. And so began a life changing experience.
I cannot begin to explain the experience of being in that country. I can say that I loved it, that I think of it almost every day, and I look forward to the day we will return. I will love getting off the airplane. I will love listening to people talk to each other. I will love the roadside food stands. I will love the heat and humidity.
I was so glad to have Diane with us, but by the 5th day I was ok when she and Drew went off to do their own thing. By the beginning of the second week I was off exploring by myself. Walking through Saigon in the early evening is..... makes me smile to think of it.
We spent about 1/2 of our trip with members of Diane's extended family. We lived, slept and ate local. We made friends, laughed, chatted, ate SO MUCH food. And explored a country that is trying to catch up with the outside world. I hope they don't try so hard that they lose what makes them Viet Nam. They are humble, kind, funny, smart, quick witted and happy. They are family. I don't want to paint a completely idyllic picture of this place. There were sad elements, a lack of concern in some places of the state of the environment, too much poverty, unsavory characters. Just like every other place on this earth. But that was not our experience. Ours was one of joy in simple things, taking our time to choose lunch from a woman who sells everything from boiled fertilized duck eggs to roasted corn and chives, sitting with our new friends at their roadside cafe eating and laughing and talking as the night fell around us.
This trip cracked my world wide open (and Jeff's too). We see things differently now. We know that we can go anywhere in the world and find a marvelous experience. We went to the other side of the world and came home seeing everything differently.
