2010 with gladness.

From Vietnam

Happy New Year! 2010 arrived for the Weisses much sooner than it did for most of you! haha We would like to wish you all a Blessed New year, a year filled with health and joy. We also hope your Christmas Season was fun, restful and full of thanksgiving. I would say that was how our was. If you would like to hear about our life for the last two weeks, backtrack with me... It has been interesting, good and different. Here's why:

See all 65 pics here

Flip back to Dec 21 and 22, Monday and Tuesday of the first week off of school. We had moved everything physically into the new school, but the school was still in a state of disarray in many ways-installing air cons, doors, white boards, meants lots of drilling into concrete and DUST! Messy and bad air for breathing. While most classroom teachers were able to unpack and set up their rooms before Christmas, myself (Lesley) with the library and the music room, found myself just wandering around, measuring things, thinking about what I could do then the dust finally settles. I didn't unpack a single library book box, to save on the dusty mess, and waiting for some counters in the music room did not allow me to unpack, really, anything. My plan was to wait until after Christmas break. I hope this plan does not backfire on me. Tuesday evening, we pack to leave for Vietnam.

From Vietnam

Dec 23, Wed. We get up at 5:15 in the morning, to get to a 7 am bus ride. It was nice actually, with a bathroom on the bus for emergencies, so after the normal fiasco of mayhem at the Vietnam border (I'll talk more about this coming up) we arrived at our hotel by 2:30 pm. Pretty good time. We walked around the area we were in, checking out the sights. Ho Chi Minh--same, same, but different than Cambodia. A little richer, a little more advanced, but to our dismay, it was no Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur. For some reason I expected to come home with a pound of starbucks coffee, or have enjoyed a McDonalds burger and fries--sorry, not in HCM, or at least not where we were. Yes, there are markets )living in PP, been there, done that!), yes, there are some fast food joints, coffee shops (I like vietnamese coffee, not everyone does, but it's good for me) and yummy frozen yogurt shops. Can't complain, but still, we have those in PP. So, it was pretty much a same same, but different sort of trip and experience.

Vietnam is still a socialist republic. You wouldn't notice it really, just with the people, but what was noticably missing from the scenery, were the ginormous, mansions and the lexuses, but pop up and drive all over PP. At least not what we saw, was there any sort of that kind of corruption money there. Millions of motos, driving VERY fast, did I mention millions??? Crossing the street was an action of stepping out into oncoming, speeding traffic (much faster and busier than PP) and edging ever so slowly, until you see motos going around you, and eventually, you make it to the other side! It was even really hard to just walk from place to place in the downtown area that we were in: Motos are parked all over what would be considered the sidewalk, so in order to walk, you have to keep jutting out onto the road, where the traffic is moving. It wasn't easy or pleasant, especially with Maya, so we ended up taking the taxi's alot for safety. They were so cheap, $1 or $2 max got us just about everywhere we needed to go, so it wasn't like it was breaking the bank.

Our Ho Chi Minh hotel was quite nice, with a lovely breakfast buffet included, so it made the Christmas portion of our trip feel a little more fancy. It was nice to have a bit of a special time at this hotel. It had a pool, which was hard to find in the downtown, and it was worth it, as the kids used it everyday. It also had carpeting in the room (nice treat!) AND a bathtub, which we all used at least once. Now you wouldn't think we are hard done by to not have a bathtub in Cambodia, it's not problem really, but when you finally DO have one, it's like, "Alright! A Bathtub!" We all felt it, and used it and enjoyed the hot soak! Funny! You never know how much you miss something til you don't have it!

We also did sight seeing, lots of lovely old buildings, including a cathedral, left by the French (Yes the French inhabited most of Vietnam until they were driven out in the 50's, so there's still alot of french speaking, etc around.) After visiting some war monuments, and reading about the history, I tell you, the Vietnamese have been at war with someone, for most of the 20th century, and it's such a sad history for the people. THey are fervently proud of their country, and appeared to fight to the nose for it. INteresting history if you're interested in that sort of thing.

Anyways, in a nutshell, it was really lovely to see Saigon, the "Paris of the Orient." We enjoyed our time there.

Dec 24, THursday, Christmas Eve: We decided to get tickets for the Water Puppety show in the evening, after a nice supper. IF you're an Amazing Race fan, this is the same exact theatre, (we're pretty sure:)) that was showcased on the show. ANyways, in trying to find a restaurant previous, we thought we'd just go somewhere close to the small theatre, ran around looking, and ended up in the "non-restuarant" part of town, and sort of got frustrated. We tried to head (on foot) to where we remembered seeing a nice one the day before, but when we finally got there, it was CLOSED for the evening. It was right across a park, that was starting to get really filled up with people, celebrating the eveing. As it turns out, as we stood outside this restaurant delibreating what we were going to do now (hungry, and running out of time to see the puppetry show) the waiter motions us to a seat, and says they wil give us a meal, special for us! Turns out as a read a sign later, they were closing at 6:30 and we had arrived at 6:15, or something like that, so whether they felt guilty for trying to close up early, or if they just took pity on us pathetic foreigners, either way, they served us up the best meal we had on our whole trip!!! And, seeing as there was no one else in the whole place (we sat out on the patio on the street) the food came fast, they ended up not even charging us for the drinks, AND we considered this just one glaringly obvious gift from God that night! It was really a cool experience--they didn't have to serve us, but they did, and did so very well, and with a smile and best wishes! It was truly a neat experience.

From Vietnam

So, we were only 5 minutes late for the puppety show, it was cool and the kids really liked it, then we tried to get back to the hotel. Well... Let's just say it was around 8 pm. Every cab we tried to hail was full, and so we just started walking. We were in a long walking distance to our hotel, but it was doable, however, we just kept thinking we would catch a cab sooner than later. I can't beging to tell you about the traffic--basically, what seemed like EVERY citizen on HCM was out that night, because of the celebrations of Christmas eve. As we walked, we had to walk on the roads, as the sidewalks were jammed with people and motos, restuarants, and stuff!!! Little kids dressed up in Santa outfits (this is a favorite thing for asians to do to their children!) it was an absolute zoo! Crossing the street on a normal day is taking your life into your own hands. We had to cross a 6 point corner intersection, that was simply a sea of motos, people. No lights, as it was a round-a-bout, so it was just unbelievable. I didn't think we were going to make it, but slow and steady, it was possible. IT took us about 45 min. of walking through what would be parade-like-traffic (you know, like when you leave a bomber game or the santa claus parade with hundreds of other human beings?) we finally staggared into our hotel. Is this what traffic is always like? I mean really, what did we have to compare? It was only our second night there. However, on talking to another tourist who had been in HCM for 3 christmases now, he said he had never seen anything like the number of people and the traffic as it was that night. Apparently Christmas Eve is a time to get out. THink TIme Square on New Years Eve and you'll get the picture.

From Chi Chu Tunnels

Dec 25, Friday, Christmas morning and day. Uneventful and a little sad, but I think we went to the market. Steph was sad the night before after our harrowing trip home, as the pining for a tradition Christmas was high in her heart, but was ok after a little while.

From Vietnam

Dec 27, sunday morning, we left our lovely hotel, and prepared for a train trip north, to a coastal town called Nha Trang, which is a beach, resort type town. Not sure what to expect, but had heard fairly psitive comments about both the train ride and the beach. The train was anything but what we had expected. It's a funny story, actually. Alot of our friends out here tell us, "just another story for your blog." and they're right. When interesting things happen, it just makes for such great tales on this blog! I write this just as much as a record for our family, as I do for all of you to know, so I hope you don't find me long winded.

From Vietnam

ANyways, the train. We book seats in the regular car, so you're seated like a bus, or airplain. The train arrives at the station with decent looking cars, until we get to the one we're booked in, and it's OLD looking, and fairly gross. The smell inside the car is of old, smelly socks, or something stale. THe seats are old, the paint is scratched up. Ok, well, what did we expect for a Vietnam train? It certainly didn't look like some pictures we saw on the internet.

From Vietnam

Rules: No smoking on the train. Apparently the news that smoking can kill you has not reached any of south east asia. Everyone here smokes, and cigarettes are dirt cheap, and it's bad enough when people smoke in restaurants, or your hotel room smells of smoke--it's one of those things you just chalk up to SE Asia. Part of the experience. But on the train, smoking is allowed "between" the cars, and anyone who went there to smoke, left the door open to the passenger car! So, they may as well have been smoking right in the booth!!! I have to interupt here with the information that I was kind of sick by this point. I started the trip getting a cold, and these days, colds for me turn very quickly into sinusitis, so breathing, clarity of airways, was a challenge even if the air was ocean fresh! I was just struggling. The smoke was not helping. The final straw was the passenger behind me, who at his best looked like he'd been drunk for days, who just simply lit up sitting right in his seat! No concern whatsoever for anyone around him! (The train was packed.) I couldn't believe it, as this seriously broke even the SE Asian rules! I told Dean, he motioned the buy to butt out, finally another Vietnamese passenger told him he couldn't smoke in here, but had to walk 5 feet to the middle of the cars and smoke there, with the door open! It was hillarious!

From Drunk guy behind and a woman and child "sharing" the seat beside Les.

I've got to run now, but when I come back, i'm going to write about the pushing getting on the train and on my seat partner and her little toddler, who, for 6 hours bumped, kicked, elbowed, pushed and finally drove me from my little seat. It was a joy, let me tell you. But seriously, I will keep writing when I have a minute. We're off to a wedding today of two of our teachers, Greg originally from Oregon, and Srey who is Cambodian. They had a heck of a time getting their paperwork ok'd from the cambodian government, so this is truly a day to rejoice! I will take off from where I left when I return. Lots of love to you all!