Back in Saigon

The Opera House
The Carvel Hotel


Well, it's our last night in Vietnam. to celebrate Maya and I just ordered room service! Spaghetti no sauce, just butter for Maya and steak and fries for me, we are soooooooo excited!!! The food this trip has been very, very traditional. At times I had no idea what I was putting in my mouth. I just opened and hoped for the best!!! So tonight we are jazzed to have a good solid meal! The only thing missing is diet coke! I have seen a diet coke in 2 weeks! Instead i went for a tiger beer!


Being back in District 1 is bring back so many memories from when I was here for Maya's adoption. We are staying in the Huong Sen Hotel, right around the corner from the Carvel Hotel which is where we stayed 9 + years ago. The area has developed beyond belief. It's more like 5th Ave! The smell is gone and the shops and resturants have sprung up! The prices have gone up a tad as well! Every shop we went into the shop workers looked at Maya and asked "Vietnam baby?, I give you a better price". We got some neat stuff! We are off to the market tomorrow to finish up our shopping. We have a flight out at 8 pm, so we have most of the day, YEAH!!!!
The largest change is that we can actually cross the street with relative ease! when we were here before gail and I never crossed the street! Maya and I crossed many today and did not totally fear for our lives. They finally have signal lites and cross walks! You still have to be careful, but most motorists obey the signals. In 1999 there were no signals and nobody obeyed any type of road rules!!! Crossing the street literally meant you had a very, very good chance of being run over!