Vietnam II – Day 2

 With no actual meetings today, Todd and I decided to serve the greater good by eating and shopping at places that make a difference in Saigon.  First stop was the Sozo bakery, suggested by Shelby C.  It was located over the backpacker area of town, serving up mainly western style baked goods but they key is that they are a hospitality training program for local youth (like Farestart).  I had a chocolate chip muffin and bought som M&M cookies for later.  Todd had lemon zest pound cake that looked pretty good.  You can read more about the program here:  http://sozocentre.com/

Next stop was a shop down the street called Blue Dragon that works with local artisans around Vietnam to make crafts using recycled goods – they had lots of cool bags.  I settled on a small purse made form Tiger Beer cans to add to my unexpectedly growing crazy purse collection from around the world.  http://www.gobluedragon.com/

And our last good deed stop of the day was the Sesame restaurant, also a hospitality training program (http://sesameschool.wordpress.com/2009/02/16/introduction-to-the-blog/).  Sesame is a little farther out form the main part of town, housed in an old school.  we felt slightly guilty as we drove up in our big van as there were only the two of us – I think they expected a big group.  Lunch was delicious though – we only had two choices of three course meals:  Western or Asian.  We each got Asian which started with shrimp & lotus salad, then strifried shrimp with rice and veggies, followed by golden watermelon for dessert.  It was windy as we sat outside, and I started to worry about Doug flying in from Hong Kong over the typhoon.

After lunch we toured the Reunification Palace, which is a cool building.  Built in the 1960’s it has a retro feel too it – in the basement are all the war rooms, and on the top floor are all the party rooms, decked out Austin Powers style.

we did a little more shopping near the hotel which was fun.  I went to one of the nearby tailors to get an outfit made, so we’ll see how it turns out!  Then I headed to airport to pick-up Doug.  Luckily all went well with his flight.  For dinner we went to Hoi An, which is the sister restaurant to Mandarine, where we ate the night before.  They are very similar and both very good.  Presentations were once again amazing and their signature spring rolls very good.

Observation of the day:  I have yet to wear my sunglasses.

Vietnam II – Day 1

Back in Saigon, we spent the morning doing work stuff, but in the afternoon had  a little free time so we visited the War Remnants Museum.  This is not a cheery place to go – very much like visiting one of the concentration camp sites where the brutality of war hits you full force.  It is especially interesting though to see this war from the perspective of the Vietnamese after being raised with the American view your whole life.  The exhibits are mainly photographic, but everything is very up-to-date where pertinent, such as resolutions on the US responsibility to Agent Orange victims which just came down about 4 months ago.

Later that evening, we met for happy hour at the rooftop lounge then dinner at Mandarin.  Mandarin was down a small alley that seemed a little sketchy until all of a sudden it opened up into a small enclave of several restaurants and clubs – very random.  The food was delicious and the presentations unbelievable.  Checkout teh carved flowers with our spring roll:

I also had crab & corn soup and grilled fish with passion fruit sauce.

Observation of the day:  The Sheraton leaves me two free bottles of Aquafina in the bathroom each day.  Out by the TV though, you also have the option to drink Evian, but that costs you $5 USD per bottle.  How crazy is that?  I may be biased b/c I hate Evian, but who would pay that when you have free water 10 feet away?

SEA-NRT-SGN II – Day 1

Three weeks later I embark on a deja vu trip back to Saigon and Siem Reap.  We actually have a whole week on the ground this time though!  I was taking the same Northwest route again, leaving at 2:00pm.  From the lounge at S8 I watched BK’s plane from Delhi/Frankfurt pull up to gate S11.  Sadly he couldn’t clear customs in time before I had to board my plane to Tokyo.

Some how I ended up on the window which I hate on long flights b/c I feel trapped, so I only got up once the whole trip when the aisle guy got up.  The flight to Tokyo didn’t seem as long this time which was nice, and we saw Mount McKinley as we flew over Alaska.

In Tokyo the once again moved our departure time up 30 minutes.  Combined with the fact that there were only about 25 people on the flight, this resulted in me & Todd’s names being called out on the PA system to get to the boarding gate immediately which was kind of crazy.  After rushing over to the gate though, they then pulled me aside for security screening as Todd and everyone on the bus watched.  The lady was going really slow (which I suppose is a good thing), including wanding my feet.  But before she could go through my backpack, the gate agent said something to her that I can only assume was “The bus full of people is waiting, let the girl go.”  I was released to the bus.

Todd and I were the only people in business class, so the attendants were very attentive.  Upon boarding we were warned about bumps along the way due to a Typhoon in the Philippines.  Great!  The flight actually wasn’t too bad, but it will be interesting to see how the week’s weather plays out, as Typhoon Ketsana is now headed towards the central coast of Vietnam.  We landed about an hour late, so went straight to bed once we arrived at the Sheraton.

Movies watched = 3 (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, The Proposal, Adventureland)

Discographies listened to = 3 (Colbie Caillat, Sugarland, Erin McCarley)

Cambodia – Day 4

Ok, it’s three weeks later I never got a Cambodia post up.  And now I leave for my return trip today!  eek!  So, here’s a quick photo essay instead, and I promise to actually write about Cambodia when I’m there again in a few days

Vietnam & Cambodia – Day 3

We spent all day on site visits which was fun, especially just driving around the city.  We noticed big pop-up bakery stands getting setting up for National Day, and another crazy site all over the city are the power lines.  Massive amounts of lines go from pole to pole, and at one point we saw workers on rickety bamboo ladders trying to bundle some of them up a bit.  I feel especially bad for folks whose apartment decks open up right where the wires hang – they totally lose their view.

 

In the evening we flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia which was quite a flight.  It’s only 45 minutes, so I wasn’t sure what kind of plane we would be on – luckily it was big, especially because it was raining pretty hard.  as we boarded it was funny to see that while the plane was only about a 1/3 full, they had seated everyone together in the middle section.  we just grabbed seats up front at that point.  Because of the rain, the ride was a bit bumpy, and as we neared Siem Reap we got put into a holding pattern because of winds.  We thought we might get sent back to Vietnam or diverted to Phnom Penh, but all of sudden we started to descend and it was actually totally smooth.  As we met our driver though, we learned that the plane before landed on the wrong vector so touched down, then took back off immediately, almost knocking out the air traffic control tower.  CRAZY!

We had a great dinner out at Madame Butterfly’s, set in a big two-story open air house.   I wasn’t sure what Khmer food was, but I had Caramel Pork with pineapple and onions that was delicious.  Then it was just back to the hotel for emails and sleep because we had an early morning the next day.