Vietnam – day 1

The city wakes up at 6:30 you hear a couple people at first then a torrent of scooters, voices and the sound of makeshift food vendors setting up for the day. It’s a place and a people that aren’t afraid of hard work. We get up at 7 and can’t sleep to excited to see it. To go out and fumble our way through the first, well the first everything.

We walk around for about a hour and find our way into a pho ban place. A giant sign reads pho and coffee and we want both. I point to the sign and just read it pho and coffee and the lady abides. We sit across from an older woman in her 70’s maybe 80’s and I copy her setup. Lots of spicy sauce and when she leaves I bite her style too. I turn my spoon over and put the chopsticks across my bowl just like her. When in Rome right?

Dawn and I find our way back to the hotel for a pee and a drink of water before venturing back out for more coffee. It’s a chore trying to remember how to ask the price and then figuring out how to pay. But dawn is a champ and actually keeps it in her mind amongst the torrent of new sights and sounds. I myself I can’t even remember how to say yes and no yet. That’s why we’re married I got lucky and she got me.

We just walk around and enjoy the day and the craziness of the street. It’s a bit like Tijuana but way more intense. The motorbikes everywhere keep you focused. I watch as a man on a motorbike packs what looks like a keg the size of a small building through a crowded street and just smile at the amazingness of it all.

We sit and sip drinks from above a street and just watch the cars squeeze between motorbikes and parked cars. The hotel attendants helping direct the less secure drivers through. Inches separate the car and the bikes parked on the street and not one car in an hour scrapes. Not one. We don’t have drivers this good in America.

We’re back at the hotel now about to take a siesta. After eating a lunch of some noodle cooked pork pickeled veggies and greens, topped off with form fresh squeezed fruit juice as good as anywhere I’ve ever been. And a coctail or maybe two who’s counting? And it’s only the first half the day.

Read the other entries from our Vietnam trip below
Day 1 – Day 2 – Day 3 – Day 4 – Day 4 1/2 – Day 5 – Day 6 – Day 7 – Day 8 – Day 8 1/2 – Day 9 – Day 10 – Day 11 – Day 12 – Day 13 – Day 14 – Day 15 – Day 16 – Day 17 – Day 18 – Day 19 – Day 20 – Day 21