Welcome to my blog. I document my adventures in travel, style, and food. Hope you have a nice stay!
The big outing for the day was a tour of different sites by motorbike. We went to a market, a pagoda, an incense village, an emperor’s tomb, and finally lunch. In the afternoon, we all did our separate things, with Melody and me hanging out in a chocolate house.
We said goodbye to Hoi An and drove several hours north to Hue. In the afternoon, we did a tour of the Imperial City of Hue.
This day centered around two items, a bike tour covering a couple of the islands around Hoi An and an acrobatics show.
Arriving in Hoi An in the morning, we got breakfast and then did a walking tour of Old Town. In the afternoon, we returned to Old Town for dinner and to wander around a bit.
This was a day on the water on a tour boat and basket boats, then in the water. The rest of the afternoon was laid back until we went to the train station to take our overnight train to Hoi An.
We had another travel day going to the beach town of Nha Trang, making a few stops along the way. Once in Nha Trang, we walked near the beach to the Po nagar Cham towers.
We had only one full day in Da Lat and we certainly made the most of it. We strolled through a large display garden, looked through the King’s palace, climbed around a Crazy House, and rode a train to a pagoda. We even had a bit of downtime sprinkled in there.
Another travel day, this one on the bus for most of the day. We made several stops between Ho Chi Minh City and Da Lat, several with things to eat or taste.
After breakfast at our homestay, we got back on the boat for the bus ride back to Ho Chi Minh City. There were no planned activities, so Melody and I walked around Tao Dan Park before having dinner with the group at a street food court.
After checking out of our Ho Chi Minh City hotel, we all got on the bus to spend the day and night in Cai Be in the Mekong Delta. The day included a tour by boat (including one that was oared by hand to take us through canals), fruit tasting, and a visit to a place that made coconut confections.
For our first tour day, we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels and the War Remnants Museum. We also drove around the city a little bit, then some of us found a place for dinner.
For our last day by ourselves in Ho Chi Minh City, we had a relatively low-key day. We walked through Japan Town in the morning and met a cousin’s friend for lunch. In the evening, we met the other people who would be with our tour group and all went out to dinner.
We dodged the rain (mostly successfully) to walk through the Reunification Palace and went to the Saigon Central Post Office to buy and send a few postcards.
For our first full day in Ho Chi Minh City, we got an overview of the city, dodged rain (sometimes heavy), went to the Fine Arts Museum, and took a food tour for dinner.
A lot has been happening over the past few months. We said goodbye to my dad, celebrated Tynor and Mallory getting married, started adjusting to me being a new retiree, and did a quick road trip with Melody’s sister Celeste to Yakima and Spokane. Mere hours after Celeste left for the airport to return to New York, we were there ourselves beginning a trip to Vietnam that would last for over three weeks.
Melody’s sister Celeste made her almost annual trip here from New York, and one of the things we always do is a road trip to visit their family. This trip was no exception.
Weddings are more than a ceremony or even the beginning of a new part of a couple’s life. It’s a way for a couple to express themselves to family and friends through parts of the whole event. In that way, the weekend was a perfect expression of Tynor and Mallory.
The Japanese American National Museum has had an exhibit open for the past couple of years, Irei: National Monument for the WWII Japanese American Incarceration which includes three elements: a website (Ireizō), light sculptures (Ireihi), and a book of names (Ireichō). Tynor, Mallory, and I were in Southern California before Melody, Kellen, and Noël before my dad’s memorial service, so we took the opportunity to go to the JANM to stamp names in the Ireichō.
This past weekend, we held a memorial service for my dad, who passed away at the age of 97. Of all the stories told at the service and shared among people at the reception, the conversation always came back to family. Being one of eight children, he and his siblings always made sure that the whole family never lost touch with each other, and we, the next generation, work to maintain that.
It was time to head home. Among all of us, we went via car, plane, and train to get home, stopping over in two different cities on the way.
