Saturday December 8, 2012

We are back, last week Saturday Nancy and Bob got home from their big trip to Vietnam. It was a great trip. Vietnam is a beautiful country. The times they have caught up with VN. Every hotel we stayed in had free Wifi in the room. I used the note section of my itouch to take notes on our daily travels. Below our my unedited notes. Tues 11/13 Chicago ok but mechanical problem flight delayed 4 hours, arrive japan, flight to Bangkok canceled, tomorrow fly to Beijing then Bangkok. I don't know what happened to Thurs. Friday Nov 16: I think, Tokyo to Beijing, plane delayed again, got into Bangkok at 0200. Oat folks picked us up. Great hotel, will leave in hour for flight to Hanoi and hope to catch up with group. Hot in Bangkok, snow in Beijing. Saturday Nov. 17 caught up with group yesterday, took tour in evening, saw lowering of flag at Ho Chi Minh mausoleum. Sat morn took tour to remote village. Took ferry to village. Saw rice paper making, area very poor. In pm visit Confucius temple. Dinner at local cafe sat outside. Good food. Ok with chop sticks Sunday Nov 18, up early took bus to Halong Bay. Stopped at work shop of Agent Orange victims. Arrive Halong 1300, took launch to junk. Junk was small but nice. Visited island cave, watched sunset from upper deck of junk. Great dinner. Halong Bay was great, must see if in VT. Pleasant sleep on junk. Monday morning leave junk early. Fly to Hue ancient capital. Stay in nice hotel. Visited pagoda and took boat ride on Perfume river. Tuesday Nov 20 took tour of Imperial Citadel. Impressive. Visited orphanage supported by OAT. Main Nun recently passed attended Buddhist Memorial service. Much like Irish wake. Nov 21: Wednesday drove to Danang. Danang has really changed in 48 years. Very modern with many tall buildings. Visited China Beach, world class beach. Staying in Hoi An an ancient city. Super hotel with great pool. Attended VN cooking class. Thursday, Thankgiving, visited ancient Temples of mountain people. Beautiful area have lunch and dinner in Hoi An. Friday morning took bus to Danang and flew to Nha Trang the premier beach resort in VN. Looks like Miami what a difference 48 years make. Drove to rural village for lunch. Dinner at local restaurant. Nov 24: Saturday took boat trip to island resort. Paddled round boat. We went swimming. Water and beach were great. Lunch on island. Nov 25: Sunday took four hour bus ride up the mountains to Dalat. Toured Dalat and took elevated tram ride over pine forest. Dinner with middle class family. Dalat because of elevation is much cooler than coastal cities. Monday: Dalat took tour to flower and coffee growing area. Coffee growing area is huge, coffee grown on side of mountain. Tasted weasel shit coffee. Not kidding very expensive. Visited Montagnards village. Viets moved mountain people out of traditional lands to reservation like areas. In pm visited Dalat U talked to students. Not much different than US. Later attended mountain people dance demonstration. Nancy and I sampled homemade rice wine from large ceramic jug Nov 27: Tuesday flew to Saigon. Could not recognize any project I worked on at airport. Saigon is booming. Looking like Singapore. Took tour, saw my apartment, it will be torn down soon for new high rise. Took cyclo tour, dinner at hotel. Wednesday took boat tour on Mekong. Visited several craft factories. Had lunch in old landlord's home. Got back at 1600. Nancy and I had drink on roof of Rex Hotel. Rex was home of news folks during war. We then walked to Continental Hotel. Oldest hotel in city. I had eaten there many times in 63&64. It now has AC. Dinner was great. French food. Stopped at night market on way back to hotel. Thursday, Nancy and Bob play hookey and strike out on own. First stop is old office. It is still standing. Cheap Charlies is gone. Stopped at Majestic Hotel, 2 star 64, 5 star 2012. My old apartment ready for demolition. Took several pics. Had French pastries at new upscale building. Same location where I would drink a coke and smoke a cigar in evening. One evening I was headed to cafe when I had an urgent need to use head. I went home and took care of business. I headed back to cafe but it was closed because the VC had thrown a bomb in cafe. It opened next day. Nancy spent several hours shopping. Tonight have Farewell dinner. Dinner was in local restaurant and the food was great. We took a final bus tour around Saigon. Friday morning, November 30, Nancy and I are up at 0500. We have a early flight to Bangkok. Arrived in Bangkok in early afternoon. We are staying in the same hotel we stayed in earlier. Nancy and I walked around the neighborhood. Bangkok has severe traffic problems. About 1800 we take a taxi to the night market. It took about 45 minutes to go several blocks. The night market was jammed and it was very hot, 90⁰. We stayed about 90 minutes before heading back to the hotel. Saturday morning we get up at 0400 and get ready for our trip back home. We fly from Bangkok to Japan where we change plans. We fly from Japan directly to Chicago and then on to GR. It took 24 hours to travel from Bangkok to GR. We were zombies when we got home. Sunday morning December 2 our first day back home. We cannot sleep past 0600 so we get up and go to the MAC for a very short swim. After our brief swim we head to Meijer's to restock our reefer. Nancy does fix her world famous poached eggs for breakfast. We spend the rest of the day resting and catching up. Monday: Both Bob and Nancy have serious jet lag. I my at home routine at 50% and then ride my bike to the MAC. I have coffee at the MAC and read the WSJ and DFP. In the PM we get almost three weeks of mail. I take an afternoon nap and work on reading the mail. I think I have developed stomach flu because my stomach is upset and I am chilled all the time. We head to bed early. Tuesday and I do my entire routine at 50%. I am still very tired. I read the WSJ and DFP but really cannot remember anything important. Ms P came home today. It was great to see her. She was moody for awhile but after about four hours she forgave us for abandoning her. Christmas programs have knocked out NCIS tonight. We head to bed early. I am still chilled and my stomach is not in balance. Wednesday: I am glad that today is my easy day. I pedal to Bill's for breakfast. Coffee upsets my stomach so I had tomato juice and oatmeal for breakfast. In the afternoon I visited Dr Yurko and she removed a sun damaged section of my left hand. It required seven stitches. We have a very light dinner and head to bed early. Thursday and because of my stitches I cannot exercise so I ride to Bill's for breakfast. The DFP has many articles on the proposed right-to-work laws that the MI legislature is voting on. I am not pro-union but I think the RTW laws really create a lot of bad feelings for very little gain. In the afternoon I have an eye exam. Dr. Anderson gave me a new contact and it really and improvement. The chills and stomach problems seem to be getting better. Thursday evening we attend a Christmas Gala at Meijer's Garden. I wore a suit and tie and Nancy really looked good. The Gardens were all deck out with Christmas decorations. It was very impressive. The food on the other hand was not very good. We got home about 2100. Friday morning I think my stomach problems are returning so I take a pill that we took with us to VN. We were to take the pill if we developed some stomach problems. Nancy told me that her stomach was upset last night because of some food last night. I was probably premature in my starting the pill. I still cannot exercise because of my had so I walked to the Kava House. I am feeling much better today so I started doing some chores. I winterized the lawnmower and got the snow shovels down from the garage rafters. I took my bike to the shop to get snow tires installed. Nancy and I, along with Ms P, made a trip to Costco and Target this afternoon. I also took my watch in the jewelers to get its steel band cleaned. In the evening we attended the OHNA's TGIF. The TFIF was well attended. We spent several hours visiting with neighbors. Saturday. Nancy had trouble sleeping last night because her foot was bothering her. She went downstairs about 0400 and Ms P stayed by her side. I got up at 0500 and Nancy was wrapping Christmas presents. She said that the pain is not as bad when she is standing. We had our first snow of the season last night. I rode my retro bike to Bill's for breakfast. I had their Saturday special. After breakfast I ran several errands. It is now 1730 and Nancy and I are going out for soup at Panera Bread.