Good Morning Vietnam!

We spent last Friday thru Monday in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (formerly called Saigon) and had an amazing time. Friday we travelled to Cu Chi to see the tunnels used during the Vietnam War. Portions of the tunnels had been doubled in size to allow tourists to crawl in them. Adam and I tried it out. We could fit, but had to walk like a duck the whole time. It amazes me that soldiers would stay in these tunnels for days at a time during the war. Talk about claustrophobia! There was so much history to hear about. They even had a shooting range with weapons used during the 1960s and 70s. I got brave and shot the M60 machine gun. It was very scary! I couldn't imagine carrying that thing around at all times. But, I guess when your life depends on it, it isn't such a nuisance.

one of the original tunnel openings


I'm going in!




tight squeeze

After touring the tunnels we went the the War Remnants Museum. Another very interesting place. Everything was portrayed from the Vietnamese point of view and was kind of hard to just read some of the displays in silence. Many times the captions of photos were bragging about killing US soldiers or destroying US machinery and vehicles. All of the vehicles on display were US Military helicopters and tanks. It seemed that Vietnam was very proud of capturing these things. Adam and I weren't thinking that day as he wore his West Point/Army shirt. One man from England made a comment about how interesting it must be for us to be here after noticing Adam's shirt. We also learned that the streets used to be full of disabled citizens, unable to work, but the government opened a factory and forced all of them to work there in an effort to clean up the streets. Despite the history between the US and Vietnam, the locals were extremely friendly. Kids often waved to us and said hi. Not that two blondes stuck out or anything...

101st Airborne Division helicopter

Finally on Friday we went to the former Presidential Palace, where South Vietnam's first 2 presidents lived.
Saturday we drove about 70km outside of the city to the Meekong Delta. There we took several different boat rides into the canals of the jungle. We stopped at a village with a fruit orchard and had fresh pineapple, dragonfruit, pomello, finger bananas and tea. Then we took a row boat to another little village where they made coconut candy. Our guide let us try some of the local rice wine which was some pretty strong stuff. The local children got out their pet python and put it on Adam's shoulders. Pretty entertaining, but I kept my distance.

in the rowboat with our cute little hats


Adam's new friend

For lunch we had a traditional Vietnamese set with scallop fritters, sticky rice ball, elephant ear fish, grilled squid and banana flambe. It was all very good.
We enjoyed the spa at our hotel and had dinner at a little Italian place in another hotel.
Sunday we walked around the city visiting the Notre Dame Cathedral where mass was going on in Vietnamese and English. Then we walked to the Ben Thanh market. Inside were hundreds of aisles of locals trying to sell their goods, many of which were fake designer purses, wallets and clothing. We found out that as we made our way to the middle of the market, the vendors got more and more pushy; trying to get you to buy something. They would go so far as to block your way through the aisle and pulling on your arms to try to get you into their stall. Needless to say, we didn't stay in that section for long. After a lot of "No, thank you's" we left the market.
We stopped in at the New World Hotel for lunch. This is the hotel that Presidents Clinton and G.W. Bush stayed during their visits to Vietnam.

Notre Dame Cathedral


New World Hotel

Monday we did a little art shopping before leaving for the airport. Crossing the street was kind of scary at first because of all the motorbikes. We quickly learned that there is never no traffic, and it's best to just start walking and let them drive around you. Motorbikes are the most common form of transportation in the city. It was common to see families of 3-4 on one motorbike (or what I would call a scooter). We saw babies and dogs on them as well.
We learned from our tour guides that there is a lot of corruption in their government system. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I didn't realize they were a communist country before we got there. Our guide had personal experiences when his wife gave birth to their baby last year. Because they did not tip the nurses and doctors, the doctor they had been seeing prenatally refused to show up when his wife's water broke. She delivered at the hospital and then she and the baby were put outside on a balcony because they "had no rooms available." After several hours of this, our tour guide got desperate and called a distant relative who had connections within the hospital. His relative paid one of the staff a large tip and within an hour his wife and baby had their own room. It was really sad for me to hear his stories about the unfairness and unequal treatment. I never thought about what the people must go through during their lives living in a communist country, but hearing it first-hand made me realize again how lucky we are to live in such a great nation.

This could be dangerous...

Happy Chinese New Year

Monday and Tuesday were national holidays in Singapore. We are celebrating the beginning of the year of the ox. Many shops and business places were closed to down while the locals celebrate with their families. Apparently it is the equivalent to our Christmas time.
Most kids around here have the entire week off of school, so I have been enjoying some time with another family who is from Texas. Monday we went to the Singapore Zoo and got to ride an elephant and hand feed the kangaroos and giraffes. Today we went to an island off the northeast coast of Singapore called Pulau Ubin. We rented bikes and rode around ALL day! It was fun, but tiring. There are lots of trails and nature, as well as some local homes and restaurants. We got to see monkeys just roaming around in the woods, a giant lizard and a snake! Luckily they all kept their distance, although the monkey got a little feisty when we tried to take too many pictures.
Tomorrow Adam and I are heading off to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam for the long weekend. I'll post more after our trip. Happy New Year!!

Catchin' Up!

We are back in Singapore where the weather is warm! What an awesome trip home for the holidays :) I can't believe how fast a month went by. But, considering all the places we visited and the number of times we changed family "hotels," there was never a dull moment. We each made the trip to and from the US/Singapore alone, and luckily had no problems/delays/flight cancellations.
I got to spend a weekend with my sisters and Mom down in Nashville, TN at the Opryland Hotel as an early Christmas present for my Mom. Although they overbooked the hotel and we had to stay in HALF of a suite, we still had a great time. Adam celebrated his 30th birthday during the holiday season and was recently promoted at work.
All in all we attended 8 family Christmas parties! Talk about a crazy week! But, it was great since we have never been able to make all of them in one year. Who knows when we will be able to have enough time off work to do that again?
After the holidays we enjoyed catching up with friends and family, butchering at the Tempel's and playing BINGO with Grandma:) I even made a trip to Indy to see Lauren & Chris. Our pugs finally got to meet each other! I'm not sure if Bentley and Blue liked each other, but they seemed to have a good time chasing each other and fighting over toys.
Now that we are back in Singapore and adjusting to the heat & humidity, and driving on the left side of the road again; we are planning a few more trips around Asia. Vietnam is definitely in the plans and we are considering visiting Australia and Indonesia if time and money allow. It looks like I may be moving back to TX in late March/April. Oh how time flies!
Here are some pics of our time in Indiana:

decorating the tree with Kennedy and Ross

Me, Mom, Lish and Jen in Nashville

Christmas @ the Corne's

New Year's Eve w/Ashley and Brooke

Blue and Bentley


visiting with my long lost friend, Lauren ( & Chris)

We're comin' to America!

Yay! The time has finally come... I'm leaving first thing tomorrow morning for my long trip back home to Indiana. Adam has to work another week and a half and then he will be home too. I have layovers in Tokyo and Chicago, and if all goes well I should make it to Louisville on Thursday night. My layover in Chicago is 6hrs, which kind of stinks - but, I am meeting my old college roomie, Angie, at the airport to hang out and catch up :-) Can't wait! I'm also looking forward to the cold weather since it is summer all year long in Singapore. We can't wait to see all our family and friends over the holidays!!
Happy Birthday Dad!

Gold Class

Saturday night Adam and I had the most awesome movie theater experience! It is called the Gold Class theater. We watched the movie Four Christmases. While the movie was hilarious, the seats and service were amazing! Each person got their own recliner...soft and comfy, complete with a blanket. We opted for the full experience and ordered a 3 course meal. They served us throughout the movie, and the price for the food was cheap compared to eating out at a restaurant. I had mushroom soup, a cheeseburger and fries, and brownie a la mode. Adam had a caesar salad, hot wings (go figure!), and some chocolate/banana dessert. Yummy! You would think that being served throughout the movie would be disruptive, but the seats were so spread out with tons of room between rows, that you hardly noticed the servers. The total bill was about $110 US for everything...not your typical night at the movies, but definitely worth it!

So many blessings!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We celebrated big-time over here. We invited all of Adam's co-workers over to our place and rented out the function room of our apartment complex. One of the other wives and I did all of the cooking and had a great time. (Ok, so Adam deep fried 2 turkeys.) I think the guys really appreciated it since they were away from home and their families this holiday. It sure beat rice for Thanksgiving dinner! We even introduced Thanksgiving to some of our friends from the UK.
We are so thankful to have the opportunity to live in Singapore and experience life on the other side of the world! We're looking forward to getting home for Christmas to spend time with family and friends.

Preparing the bird

the feast

Shirley's chocolate "rats"

That's a no go...

So we were not able to go to India. We had dinner with some friends from Singapore the night before our scheduled trip to India, and one of them asked us if we had our Indian Visas. Adam and I had heard nothing about this, so Adam checked into it the next day. Turns out, everyone entering and leaving India has to have a special Visa. For Americans, the process usually takes 5 days in Singapore. Seeing as how we found out the day our flight was supposed to leave, we high-tailed it to the High Commission of India here in Singapore and waited in line to beg if we could speed the process up a little:) Ok a lot! We only had 5 hrs until our flight left. We called every number we could find that we thought could help us, but same answer - it takes 5 days to process. Needless to say we were a little upset. Adam's company flies people all over the world on a daily basis. You would think that they would mention it to us, but I guess we were supposed to know that on our own. Luckily, I was able to get a refund for my plane ticket, which we had to buy. So, if anyone plans to go to India, you have to have an Indian Visa!!

Other exciting news...everyone is having babies! Congratulations to Mark & Rachel, Ryan & Jennifer, and Shelby & Eva. We can't wait to come home and see the little ones!