But that’s not all I have to say about HCMC and Mui Ne! That’s just all I have time for right now.

Kevin's US Naturalization Certificate (1979)

The problem the first time was that the Vietnamese Embassy wanted to see further proof that I was previously a Vietnamese citizen prior to becoming an American citizen. I have no official Vietnamese documents that prove that such as an old Vietnamese identity card or passport. However, once I sent in a copy of my US Naturalization Certificate they were able to see that the “Country of former nationality” was “Vietnam” and this was sufficient proof that I was previously a “Vietnamese citizen”. On a side note, one thing I love about this Certificate of Naturalization is that I weighed only 30 pounds and still they thought to indicate that my “marital status” was “single”.

So what does getting the Certificate of Visa Exemption mean in practical terms? This means that I can enter Vietnam multiple times for the next 5 years without ever needing to apply for or pay for a tourist visa. I’m not sure how long I’m allowed to stay each time or if there’s a maximum number of visits or days in the country that I’m permitted within any given year. But for the short, annual trip to Vietnam this is perfect.

When I landed at the airport in Ho Chi Minh City I noticed that there was also a special line set up for holders of the “Certificate of Visa Exemption”. There were about three people in front of me in that line which was shorter than the lines for holders of “Vietnamese Passports” or “All Passports”. My passport picture features a full head of hair and no glasses so in order to pass inspection by the immigration officer I had to remove my glasses and look serious for a second but after that I was quickly on my way to collect my baggage.

Now, thanks to the visa exemption, instead of spending money on numerous Visa applications and USPS Express Mail services I can now blow all of my cash inside of Vietnam as was likely intended. Sounds fair to me!

Tamar & Kevin in Chiang Mai

It’s time to say goodbye to Asia again. I cannot believe 8 weeks have gone by already. I’ve had an incredible time living, working and traveling in South East Asia. It has been a very special experience and I hope its positive effects will stay with me for a while. I’ll admit it though, I miss home.

This morning Kevin and I said goodbye at Chiang Mai airport. We almost missed our flights due to a flower festival in town and had to walk with our bags to the highway where we eventually found a taxi. Luckily we made it in time! I boarded a plane to Bangkok and then switched to another plane heading to HCMC, Vietnam. Tomorrow night I leave for New York (via Tokyo). Kevin boarded a plane to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which marks the first stop on his three week adventure around Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam. Be sure to check out the blog for stories, photos and videos of his journey!

I spent the evening in HCMC stuffing myself with Vietnamese food (I missed it terribly) and enjoying drinks outdoors with good friends. The city looks as beautiful as ever and I hope to see it again real soon!

Click here to read the NY Times article that was published just last month.

Reporter Nicholas D. Kristof has covered this issue as well as others extensively in several parts of the world and he has a page of video reports on YouTube.

Cute Kids in the Neighborhood

This is my last morning in Ton That Tuyet, I fly out to Bangkok in a few hours. I took a walk around the neighborhood to say goodbye. Check out the photos!

A Beautiful Friday Night in Saigon

Today was my last day at MSS, it was sad to say goodbye to people I have been working/hanging out/partying with for the past five weeks. I will certainly miss the energy and smiles all around me. Working in Vietnam has been an incredible experience, one that I will always remember.

The folks at the office wanted to make sure I don’t leave Vietnam before I try every single dish available. The going away celebrations started earlier this week and ended tonight with a feast at 3T (Vietnamese BBQ). I can definitely say I’ve had incredible food in Vietnam with wonderful people and am already lamenting having to say goodbye.

Vietnam keeps changing, every visit here is like a first in a way. There is so much going on at all times, new businesses opening up, new buildings erected, new cuisines offered and new (better) regulations introduced to control the chaos. I wonder what HCMC will be like next time I visit.

I celebrated the end of five weeks of work tonight on a rooftop of a Spanish bar in Dist 1. Sipping Sangria outdoors in perfect weather never felt so good.

I miss Vietnam already!

This week is my last week in HCMC and the going away meals have already begun. Yesterday I went out with a few of my colleagues to have “Bun Ca Ro” for the first time. This north Vietnamese dish consists of noodle, fish broth, fish balls and vegetables. It is incredibly tasty and a good vegetarian alternative to Pho.

Tonight I saw my friend Atsushi (Zeus) for the first time in 6 years. Zeus and I have known each other since San Francisco days, 10 years ago when we both worked together at a little shop in Sausalito. Back then, we used to talk about all the fun places around the world we’d like to live in or visit one day. In the last few years, we both managed to move around a lot and had no idea that the other person had switched continents. A few months ago, Kevin and I discovered that Zeus had moved out to Vietnam of all places and knows a lot of our friends there (here). Turns out he had relocated to HCMC a year ago and started his own business. It was great to reconnect and catch up on the last few years. It’s a small small world!

Rau Ma Drink

Tonight, after a long day at work, I went with Philipp to a local Vietnamese restaurant to try some new food. We started with a cold drink called “Rau Ma” which doesn’t look very appetizing but is very good. Rau Ma is made of ground Pennywort with ice and sugar (lots of sugar).

Bot Chien

This great drink goes really well with “Bot Chien”. Originally a Chinese dish, Bot Chien is made of rice flour cubes with fried eggs and vegetables. This may not have been the best choice for dietary reasons but it was oh so yummy!

1. How old are you?
2. Are you married? (sometimes replaced with simply pointing to the ring finger and raising the eyebrows)
3. Do you have children?
4. Why not?

This complete set of questions really encompasses so much. I normally breeze through questions 1-3. Question no. 4 is a different story. In an attempt to diffuse the situation, I sometimes answer by saying that I do not have children but I have a “con meow”, which, as you can guess, means I have a cat. That really doesn’t go down very well. I get a look of pity mixed with bewilderment (naturally I don’t bother telling people about my face-to-whiskers video chats with Kevin and Cuggits while being away).

This openness, however, does not extend to all aspects of conversation. It would be no problem if I asked every person about their marital status, age, no. of kids etc but I would certainly not try to start a political conversation. It would just be too direct and perhaps, even rude.

That’s why I was very surprised the other night when a Xe Om driver started talking to me about the current situation in Israel/Palestine. Ever since the latest round of violence erupted in the region, many people have been giving me a piece of their mind (don’t get me started about the angry Frenchman lecturing me over breakfast). It is unavoidable as an Israeli traveling abroad and I’ve come to welcome that kind of debate (preferably not before noon). This was the first time a Vietnamese person chose to talk to me about the Middle East. The Xe Om driver showed me an article in the local Vietnamese newspaper about Hamas and Israel which I could not understand but it didn’t matter since he was offering his interpretation of the situation. Unfortunately, it was a very different view than mine but it was very refreshing to talk about something other than the “set of four”.

Floating Market, Can Tho

This is my third visit to Vietnam, I have seen many of the wonderful sights all along the country but have never visited the Mekong Delta before. I have always wanted to go and see the southwest of Vietnam where the Mekong river ends its long journey from China through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia.

This past weekend I went to visit my friend Thi Bay in Can Tho, the largest city in the Mekong Delta. After a 5hr bus ride from HCMC through rice fields, villages and towns, I was finally at the campus where Thi Bay lives. Six months ago, Thi Bay left NY for a teaching position at Can Tho University and a chance to reconnect with her Vietnamese roots (her grandfather was Vietnamese, a fact she has to repeat 5 times a day on average). In a short time, Thi Bay has become somewhat of a local star in a city that has very few foreigners. From students walking by to the Xe Om drivers outside the gate, everybody knows her and wants to have a little chat.

I spent my first evening walking around Ninh Kieu Quay by the river where dozens of cafes offer a romantic setting and great drinks. It also happens to be the place where young couples make out by night and get married by day (lots of wedding halls all along the river).

The next morning, I got up at 5:45AM (!!) and hurried to meet another friend from HCMC, Nga, who was waiting for me by the river. Nga and I hired a private boat and went on a 4 hr boat ride up and down the river. First we visited Phong Dien floating market where merchants from all around the area come to buy fruit and vegetables for their stores/stands. The whole transaction takes place from the boats: the sellers tie a sample of their produce to a pole to indicate what’s on sale and the buyers approach with their boats to buy coconut, pineapple, dragonfruit, watermelon or any other fruit of the day. Many of the sellers live with their families on their boat, some even have their pets with them.

After the floating market, Nga, who is originally from Can Tho, suggested we visit the My Khanh resort. The resort used to be farmland but in the past 4 years, it has been transformed into a hotel with its own little zoo. I saw so many animals! Snakes, crocodiles, monkeys, pigs, bats, frogs all living rent free at this beautiful resort. We stopped for a nice snack and drink in one of the small restaurants at the resort. We then got back on the boat and went to a family farm to the north. The farm also had many animals and trees all around and I saw the largest snake ever, I never want to see it outside its cage.

Later in the afternoon, Thi Bay and I went to visit the Khmer Pagoda in the city and walked around the beautiful alleyways of Can Tho stopping to eat every couple of hours…The food in Can Tho is simply excellent, I tried many new dishes for the first time and liked them all. Even the fruit tastes better in Can Tho.

Life runs slower in Can Tho, everyone is very calm and smiley. The only ones working double time are the mosquitoes. Sitting at outdoor cafes at night is fun but adds about 20 new bites each time. As I am not taking Malaria pills this time around, I was hoping these mosquitoes were of the friendly kind. Animals are an integral part of life in Can Tho. At Thi Bay’s place, there are 5 geckos and 3 frogs at any given time, she even had a snake recently! She tried to reassure me by saying that she’s not sure whether it was a green Mamba or a Python, I was feeling real calm after that. AHHHH!

I got to meet Thi Bay’s friend and neighbor, Anh To who is a student at Can Tho. Since both Thi Bay and Anh To were attending weddings that weekend, the conversation naturally drifted to wedding customs. Anh To told me that in Vietnam, the bride’s family traditionally sends a pig’s head to the groom’s family on the night of the wedding. If the bride turns out to not be a virgin, god forbid, then the groom’s family cuts off the pig’s ear and sends it back to the bride’s family the following day. Depending on how mad they are, they might even send the bride back. It really made me laugh as I was thinking of all the pigs’ ears that would need to be Fedex’ed in the U.S. if such a custom existed.

On Saturday I decided to take a speedboat back to HCMC instead of the bus so I could enjoy a few more hours on the river. The journey back was so very peaceful until about 10 minutes before we reached the city. The guys running the boat, managed to miscalculate the amount of gas we need in order to get back and we got stuck with no gas in the middle of the Mekong. We were right at the entrance to the port and I could already see HCMC from afar. Within minutes, huge cruise line ships were coming our way honking very loudly so that we would get out of the way not knowing we are stuck and cannot move. Troi Oi!!! (OMG) Stranded at sea with no way to signal to them that we are stuck. Luckily, another boat towed our boat to the banks of the river so that we don’t get run over by one of the bigger ships. The guys called their office and through someone translating the drama into English, I learned that help was on the way. Another piece of good news was that the weird sounding baby cry from the back of the boat was in fact, a real live chicken inside someone’s bag. If we were to get stuck for a while, at least we had dinner.

About 45min later our boat was refueled and we continued on to HCMC. Quite an adventure!

It was a fabulous weekend and a great way to start the new year.