Babymoon part 4: Vietnam

Vietnam was the last of our weekend trips.  It was pretty cool and we enjoyed it, but didn't take nearly as many pictures as we normally do.  I guess there are only so many pictures of a city that you can take  :)  One of the best things about Vietnam was the food, but sadly, I didn't take any pictures of it.  It was delicious all the same.  Something that immediately stood out about Vietnam was the traffic.  We thought driving in Malaysia was crazy, but Vietnam took it to a whole new level.  I managed to get a video on the way to the airport that kind of gives a sense of what the traffic was like, but it really was crazier in person.

The family sandwich!  We see this in Malaysia a lot, but I haven't gotten a successful picture before.  At least in Vietnam they wear helmets.

Our first day there, we did a walking tour of District 1, which is where most of the activities, museums, and buildings of interest can be found.  The city is pretty diverse, with colonial style buildings nestled among high rises in one area, while just around the corner are street markets surrounded by a hodgepodge of houses crammed next to each other.  We found some great markets for shopping and stopped at some of the highlighted "tourist stops".  Most of these were museums, which were interesting because Vietnam certainly brings a different perspective to the table when discussing history.

The Reunification Palace, or Presidential Palace...very retro on the inside

The opera house.  Very different architecture than the rest of Saigon

Some cool boats on the Saigon River

That evening, we went to a Water Puppet Show that was pretty cool.  The music and voices were done live by people sitting on the sides of the pool, while the puppeteers worked the puppets from somewhere...we really couldn't tell where until they revealed themselves at the end.  Here are a couple of clips of the show.








The next day we took a half day tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels which were used by North Vietnam during the war.  It was pretty interesting and amazing how small the tunnels were!  I did not go inside because I was pretty sure I wouldn't fit, and even if I did it didn't look comfortable.  Trip, Steve, mom and dad all went through the tunnels and came out no worse for the wear.  Here are some of the pictures we took at the tunnels.

Trip showing off the tiny little secret entrance to one of the many tunnels

A picture of the tunnels from the inside...most of the time Trip had to crouch down or crawl on hands and knees, that's how small they were.

One of the US tanks that was taken out by the Cu Chi guerillas

One of the jungle paths through the Cu Chi area.

Trip shooting and AK-47.  You could pay to shoot different types of weapons in one part of the park.

Our tour guide, "Slim Jim" was pretty entertaining.  Trip got a video of him explaining how the cooking fire smoke was dispersed so that the American troops would not see the North Vietnamese camps.





After we got back from the tour, Trip and I took off to one of the markets to get some cute little baby clothes.  I really wanted to get some Asian clothes for our Baby Bean so that she has a souvenir too.  We did pretty well and got 3 adorable outfits.  

Can't wait until she will fit into these!

I had more videos to upload, but it just is not working for me right now, so maybe I will add them in later.  It was a fun trip overall, and we enjoyed spending time with the family.  I am glad that it's over for now; I was getting worn out after all the vacationing, and there are still plenty of things to do around KL  :)