http://journal.cooldadiomedia.comQuick BlogcastThu, 04 Dec 2008 05:15:34 GMThttp://journal.cooldadiomedia.com/2006/08/16/in-saigon.aspx#comment-97411MarkBob I like your description of Siagon HCMC. I can't stand the place allthough we have had to spend some time there doing document at the US Consulate. My wife likes it there but then she is a Vietnamese city girl. Haits the country! But cant see how she can like it as they can tell she is a Hue girl and try to hussle her just like every outsider. It is good to have some one on your side to kind of look after your well being. To me HCMC Just smells like PISS and Garbage. When I have to be there I prefer to hide in my hotel and when I am finished doing what I need to do I get on the airplane and get out of town fast. Your comments about the europeans in Vietname are about the same as how I see them. But I understand that a year off aftere Highschool to travel is the norm for Europeans all paid for by mom and dad. I find the kids to be generally dirty, un-edjucated and very anti American.Make sure you disinfect the motor bike seats before you rent them , If they were used by the Euroes you'll likely get the crud. I used to spend time around the temples in Hue playing soccer with the kids.They had a system of raiting people from different countries. Americans, Austrialians, Canadians, and Brits are on the top. Europeans are low on the list and people from the middle east are at the bottom of the list and are to be avoided. IF there is anything that I like about Vietnam it is to get on a motorbike and drive the backroads and into the mountains and allong the coastline.The people there are very different then the ones you meet in the city. The frontier towns and reforstation settlments are very interesting and different.Almost like the early american Western town with the local bar,store,and school,and a couple dozen houses. When you stop for a beer and gas it is suprising how fast they can find some 12 year old school kid who speaks enough english to help you comunicate. I think maybe that is the side of Vietnam that you are missing and you wont find many Vietnamese that are willing to help you see it. The best way to do that is on your own or with some X pat thats done it. Next trip back to see the inlaws my wife can visit with her family and John and I will do the backcountry on motor bikes. I have never done blogs, so all this is something new to me! Aloha konohikimarkhttp://journal.cooldadiomedia.com/2006/08/16/in-saigon.aspx#comment-97411Sun, 20 Aug 2006 13:47:25 GMThttp://journal.cooldadiomedia.com/2006/08/13/back-in-hue-vietnam.aspx#comment-94650MarkMy friend John Troha has pizza sent to his place in Hue a couple times a week. For a guy who has lived and worked there for many many years I think he eats mostly american food. Go to the Mandrin restraunt and ask mr.CU to tell you about his days of living in a bunker under his house. After the tet offensive in 1968 there was not a house standing inside the Citidel. Mr Cu can tell you some interesting war stories if you can get him to talk about it. I think that you are probably traveling to fast to really understand the culture in Vietnam. I didn't have a clue untill I married Luong and I lived with the Vietnamese on their terms. It is much different then what the traveler sees. A point of interest is I was the first american to get permission to live with a Vietnamese family inside the citidel walls and only because I was married to a Vietnamese. Seems strange that after 11 years of going to Vietnam and living there that I hate the place so much but I am still sucked back there every year. If I could live life over I would not even want anything to do with that country. It's really something how a war can get under your skin and never let you go. I bled on their soil in 1968 and have become part of that country and just can't get it out of me. The Vets that go back there realy have a screw loose and don't know how to fix it.All though you don't see them there are still a lot of older Vietnamies that were touched deeply by that war.http://journal.cooldadiomedia.com/2006/08/13/back-in-hue-vietnam.aspx#comment-94650Sun, 13 Aug 2006 04:49:34 GMT