Vietnam: First Impressions

We arrived in Vietnam 2 days ago. Ho Chi Minh City was bustling with mopeds, scooters, and exhaust-belching trucks. Not a traffic signal to be found anywhere...traffic that makes New York City look like Walnut Creek at 3 am. We ate lunch in a Pho (Vietnamese Noodles) restaurant that Bill Clinton had visited on his trip here back in 2000. There were pictures of Bubba all over the place. We were chauffered to Dalat and arrived just after 9pm local time, 27 hours or so after our plane left San Francisco.

Our place in Dalat exceeds all possible expectations. We have our own room in a very spacious apartment that we share with our hosts, Brian, Kim, and their 2 year-old daughter Maya. Kim is VERY pregnant and will be leaving Oct. 24 or so to go to HCMC to deliver their second child. From the roof-top of our apartment, you can see the lake at the center of town, an old railway station, one of the many pagodas, and 2 beautiful peaks across the plateau. We have our own bathroom with shower, and a big bed with new mattress and mosquito net. We also have lunch and dinner prepared by our wonderful Vietnames cook...she really makes spectacular food and always vegetarian portions for Emily.

Today we started teaching wilderness first aid to the guides at Brian's company (www.phattireventures.com). They are about our age, all Vietnamese, all male, and seemingly eager to learn. All but 2 of the 8 we were teaching today speak English very well. The other 2 speak but more haltingly. We taught two, 2-hour sessions and covered the basics of patient assessment. One of our students has Americanized his name to be pronounced Ding Dong.

Brian and Kim are lending us bikes for the duration of our visit, so we brave the crazy traffic to ride 10 minutes into town to the office for the training. We are very much looking forward to going on some of the many trips they offer, in particular the canyoning trip, which looks fantastic.

I'll post some pictures shortly to give you an idea of the geography. Internet access is not quite as easy as I was hoping, but it isn't too bad. Once we un-jetlag and figure out our schedules a bit better it'll get easier. Miss you all.

Happy birthday Lauren! We'll buy you some artichoke tea (a local speciality...it is actually quite good).