Happy New Year!

Phuong and I rang in the new year in the streets of Saigon. We went with her cousin Steve and his wife Jenny first to eat rao muong (one of the many varieties of noodle soup) at a sidewalk restaurant, then to a show with traditional and contemporary Vietnamese music. 2007 arrived while we were eating snails, drinking beer, and toasting Steve's birthday at another sidewalk restaurant.

It was interesting landing at Tan Son Nhat airport--I could easily imagine how it looked before 1975. There are still helicopter hangars from the war with American and Russian helicopters in them. The old American embassy is now called Independence Hall, and we plan to visit there later.

Thailand was nice, though being on a tour was a little mixed. Our group was very good--most people were travelling independently to Vietnam, Burma, or elsewhere in Thailand, and were just on tour (as we were) for a few days. Phuong of course quickly made friends with many people. It was nice travelling by air-conditioned bus, though I often felt like clawing my way out to eat on the street rather than in another mediocre hotel restaurant. Our best meal there was right at the beach of Ko Lon, in the bay off Pattaya. We had steamed crab, shrimp, and fish that had been alive 10 minutes before they landed on our table. We also saw a show with traditional Thai dancing and dancing elephants (really!), and had a wonderful 2-hour traditional Thai massage. The weather in Thailand was less hot and humid than in Vietnam. Overall though, we are not that anxious to visit Thailand again.

Today we are flying to Da Nang so we can visit Hue and Hoi An. We'll be back in Saigon in about 5 days. Later on we'll visit the beach at Vung Tau and Phuong's family's hometown of Bien Hoa.

We wish everyone a happy new year!