Free Airport Wifi: Asia Does it Properly

So, this is my last blog from the continent.  Saying that gets me choked up.  I really am going to miss this place, from the sample Chivas shots to the 'buttocks cleansing with warm water equipment" toilet, both of which I I came across while walking to my terminal.  I'm not surprised much by anything in Asia, but I am always seeing seeing something I never had before.

To say that the people I met in Vietnam made my experience would be a total understatement.  The hospitality, humor, and values that I was expose to are unrivaled.    At times the hospitality is overbearing and I do not know how to reciprocate. I once ordered an egg and bread sandwich from my hotel and not having the bread, they had somebody drive a motorbike to the market to fetch a loaf for me before I even knew what was going on.  The humor is best understood by coming here.  And, while it seems they place a different  value on human life, they seem to have their core values aligned.  Generally, in order of prioritization, they are all about family, down time, and food - in that order.

I honestly think readjusting to America will be harder than the transition I experienced coming here.  I just ate a $7 meal at McDonald's in the Narita (Tokyo) airport; spending $7 in Saigon on a meal is difficult and means you are eating somewhere extremely fancy (not necessarily good food).  Speaking of food, here is an assuredly incomplete rundown of things I ate in Asia which I never had before: scorpions and crickets (both deep fried), squid, octopus, shrimp, chicken brain, coagulated chicken blood (by accident), sushi (went for the tuna), rabbit, wild boar, duck, quail eggs, oysters, bamboo shoots, chum chums, mangosteen, ostrich, eel, sticky rice - the list goes on.

Changing gears, my last few days in Saigon were adventurous and bargain-filled.  Wednesday I discovered an instant hangover remedy, the Kamikaze slide at the Dam Sen waterpark.  The Vietnamese called the rides games.  Thursday meant bidding adieu after some hardcore last minute shopping at Binh Thanh market.  In ten minutes I cranked out my entire list and got everything at the price I was determined to pay - it probably helped that I was using a cigarette pack as a makeshift wallet (mine was stolen last weekend).  I also went to Bac's house which was fun and accidentally left all my postcards there, whoops!

For anyone who hasn't gone to Vietnam, I unreservedly recommend it.  I will write again when I arrive in America so I can share a little bit more about how my perspective has changed.  

To my Vietnamese family of friends, I urge you to keep in touch, you will never become a foreigner to me.  Let's race, you try and get to America before I get back to Vietnam!

Until then, hen gap lai.