Vietnam today is not what one would expect

My journey to Vietnam is now complete. A trip filled with new adventures, laughter, tears and spiritual healing far exceeded my expectations in the end.

A SPECIAL THANK YOU!

To the Men and Women I traveled with, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for allowing me to take this journey with you. You each taught me a great deal on this trip and opened my eyes to many issues
It was an honor to be in the company of such brave warriors.

My original intent during this trip was to provide a daily digest of events, but was not possible due to the poor connectivity throughout the country. Things happen for a reason I always say, so instead of that daily update, I have decided to write an overview of the trip to give you an idea of the various experiences we encountered and my own personal feelings along the way.

Future posts will have highlights of the people and their living conditions, the food, the beauty of the landscapes, the history and what I personally felt throughout the trip. There were many special experiences which helped me gain a better understanding of those who served in Vietnam so long ago. I hope the final product will give you the best of the country as it is today, while giving you the historical background of each province we traveled through.

Let the journey unfold!

Although we fought back fatigue of traveling to Los Angeles, our group anxiously waited in the terminal at LAX to board the flight that would take us around the world to Vietnam.
In the departure lounge of LAX Airport Cooke, Deane, Bill and Smitty wait patiently for our journey to begin

Taipai Airport another quick flight to go and we will arrive in Saigon.

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, (Saigon) on schedule. Our smiles hid the exhaustion from the long flight once we met our tour guide Anh. Our journey has just begun.


As we headed from the airport our excitement began to override the exhaustion, we were raring to go... the only person to see the hotel for more than a few minutes was that of poor Deane, who was not feeling well. The rest of us were out the door so fast that the jet lag didn't get the chance to hinder our touring excitement.

My expectations of this trip far exceeded my wildest dreams. This country was not what I expected. Life is quite different than it was long ago. The guns and bombs are silent, roads and bridges which were once destroyed have been rebuilt. Saigon has changed a lot according to the Warriors I am traveling with. Today, it's filled with so much life, reflective of a rich past with a prosperous future. A beautiful city filled with old French style architecture surrounded by modern buildings. The streets are crowded with thousands of motor bikes, bicycles, people and children. What a hoot it is to see them all scurrying around on those motor bikes. Scary at times, but for some reason their system seems to work, just don’t walk in front of them without paying attention – you might get run over.


Traffic in Saigon


Before we embarked on a day of touring the city, we stopped for lunch at a quaint little restaurant. The proprietors served us a beautiful feast of exotic local foods. The artistry of our lunch was plentiful from sea bass, local vegetable soup, sautéed beef and rice, and local fruits in the shapes of various figures, dragons, fisherman and birds. We indulged on this wonderful cuisine while one of the waiters serenaded us on the piano. American music of all things! What a hoot.


Me at the War Museum in Saigon

As you can see, we had a jam packed day which is another reason why there really wasn't enough time to produce a daily log on the blog, even if there was a good connection to post it. More to come on this trip in the coming days.