More from my time on the Mekong Delta.



Here are a few more pictures from the delta. We spent the morning of day 4 exploring it a bit further before heading north to the village of Cu Chi. We had another fun filled adventure on a locals bus. The delta was great. I wish I had had more time to explore it.


This picture is of the outdoor temple of the "Coconut Monk." He was a monk that survived on nothing but coconuts. He had a large following and was trying to gain political power before Vietnam's civil war really began. The communist were not found of him. They now make great coconut candy on the site of his temple.


This plate full of hairy balls is a common snack in Vietnam. They are a fruit who's name I can't remember. They are actually very good. They have a texture similar to a thick chewy grape. The taste is sweet and never sour. There is a large seed in the center. I can't think of any other way to describe it.

Yet again it is late. I must get to bed before it gets any later. Life here is moving along swiftly. Some how I have managed to start taking actual classes in Chinese. Its exhausting, but well worth it. There is still so much I wish to say about Vietnam. Soon I will get around to it. If you have any questions feel free to submit them to the comments and I will try to answer them.
Later........Daniel James

MORE FLASHBACKS FROM VIETNAM!!!!!!!







Xin Chow, Ni Hao, and Hello.
While life is moving swiftly again here in Taipei, I want to take a moment to reflect again on my time in NAM. The pictures that you see above were taken on day 3. These pictures were taken in a town called "My Tho" in the Mekong Delta. Most people have heard of this region through the movie "Apocalypse Now" or John Kerry's PBR. It was a crazy trip to My Tho from Saigon (HCMC). We had originally planned to take a cargo ship down the river. Our info was a little bit off and we also were running a bit behind because of our evening out in Saigon the night before. A great night I must say, we went to a club called Apocalypse Now, and then to another bar where I had an interesting time and my fellow traveller almost got into a fight with this French jerk. The night was way crazy. I was ready to brawl in the event it was necessary. I tried hard to keep the peace..... but the guy was a jerk and I was ready. We barely escaped conflict that night. There were a lot more interesting events that occurred that evening, but this blog requires me to summarize things to the essential points. And in order for me to do that... I will go back to the trip south of Saigon. We missed the last cargo ship and with out thought we asked our motorcycle "taxi" drivers to take us to the bus station. These guys drove us quickly through the streets of Saigon. I was in full backpack in the midst of the chaos. I almost fell off once because I thought we were there and I took my feet of the pegs as the driver jetted forward. I caught myself when my feet closed quickly around the bikes handle bars.
We ended up on a bus south. We were the first people on the little bus. We thought that we were the only group on this bus, but soon it was full... or so we thought. We found that this was not a tourist bus. It was straight local. We were the only foreigners on the bus, and at every corner more and more people got onto the bus. They set stools out in the aisle and threw more luggage onto the roof. People were hanging out of the bus and the spitting image of Ho Chi Mihn got onto the bus and sat next to me. We were both tired and I dosed a bit despite the deplorable conditions. At one point the ticket taker told us we had reached our stop (in Vietnamese). It was a small shelter in the middle of nowhere. We reluctantly got off, but held close to the bus until we made sure we had our luggage. It was at this point the fun began. Originally we had planned to go to Ben Tre by boat. We didn't know that there wasn't a bridge to this city. We didn't know what was happening and we didn't know we were not in Ben Tre. We showed the locals the address and another set of motorbikes took us to a closed down shop, not the hotel we had hoped to find. Eventually we got to a hotel with the help of my traveler's guide language section. After that Blake took a nap in our $7 a night hotel. I walked about and explored the city, took pictures, and read my book. The next morning we took a trip on the river. "MY THO" reminded me a lot of Davenport, IA.; Except it was far more poor. There was a great park on the river front. I spent a lot of the evening reading and looking at the river along the park.

Anyway thats the just of another day in Vietnam. Again I barely scratched the surface, and much was neglected due to time and memory. If you keep coming back I will eventually unveil the majority of my experiences.

Sincerely....
Daniel James

Hello everyone.....
As you have all heard a million times before, I am sorry that It has taken me so long to update everyone on my life in Asia. The fact of the matter is that I had to go to work with in 12 hours from the time I arrived back in Taipei. After that I sort of fell back into my routine, and with my "promotion" at work I have even less time for myself.

Anyway.... Let me mention more about Vietnam while it is still somewhat timely. The photos above are more from the streets of Saigon/ Ho Chi Minh city. It really depends on to whom you are speaking. Officially it is Ho Chi Minh, but if someone is of southern heritage or displeased by the communist, they will call it Saigon.
The streets of Saigon are crazy in every sense. When I first arrived in Taipei, I was amazed by all of the traffic and the motor scooters. I used to joke that they didn't have traffic laws, but merely traffic suggestions. In Saigon they don't even have suggestions. It is pure chaos. Crossing the street is an art-form. You simply step into the traffic and walk slowly the Motorbikes will flow around you; If you are lucky. One of the pictures you see shows 3 adults on 1 bike. I have seen as many as 5 on 1 bike. On occasion you will see this in Taipei, but never to the extent I saw it in Vietnam. The other interesting thing about Vietnam traffic is the number one safety feature is the horn. I joked about what a drivers Ed class there might be like. I imagine that in all their classes they spend 75% of their time discussing how to use the horn. There is never a moment of peace. I was amazed by how loud it could be. I can't believe that the horn even has any effect anymore.

In the photo above you can see my travel companion, Blake, in a "Cyclo". These are bike-rickshaws that are everywhere you go in Vietnam. The ones we took on our first day in HO Chi Minh were a complete rip off. I had warned Blake that we need to get a rate before we got in. He assured me that it couldn't cost much, everything else in Vietnam is cheap. To make a long story short they got a lot more then I had anticipated.

Anyway......... I need to go to bed so that I can be bright and shiny for my students in the morning. This post barely scratches the surface of one day in Vietnam. Hopefully I can get the just of the experience on to this blog soon.
later.....Daniel James