More Vietnam

Picking vegetables for my Vietnamese cooking class!

First course: Fresh Spring Rolls with Peanut Sauce

Second course: Fried Tofu over rice noodles

Third course: Barbecue Chicken salad with Corn

Fourth course: Fried banana nut rolls with coconut sauce! So good

Con Dao Island Fishing boats

After getting on a one way flight to an island with absolutely no one who speaks English without a return ticket, realizing there were no tickets back for the next two weeks, taking an hour bus ride to the disgusting rusted 15-hour overnight ferry-- where there were RATS, human feces, creepy men walking up and down the isles, hammocks, toilets that didn't work, and waves that made us think we were going down any minute-- met a guy named Tri on the ship who called a bus for us to take us to Ho Chi Minh (thank God he saved us) which took another 3 hours and they fit at least 25 people into a 10 person van, all the while the little Vietnamese lady sat on my lap for the full 3 hours, they dropped us off in a dirt lot that they called a bus station and we had to take another 45 minute taxi to bring us back to the boat but WE MADE IT, shooting a AK-47 from the Vietnam War, crawling on my hands and knees through the Cu Chi Tunnels, experiencing War museums from the Vietnamese perspective, crossing streets where the traffic laws for green, yellow, and red lights are all GO, bargaining with locals at the markets for gifts, eating with the locals, riding motorcycles, buying things from people on the streets without arms, standing in the exact place that the Vietnam War ended with Ambassador Twi,  eating dinner with Ambassador Twi and my professor Bob Brigham (and class) who is the smartest man I've ever met, I would say that Vietnam was 100% a trip I will never forget! 

 I want to go back already. I touched into a place of happiness that I haven't experienced in a long time, and I believe each experience, both good and bad, will only make it better!