Dinner At Jackie's (Our Tour Guide)

This is Adam with "10 DOLLA" man- who sells only one item on Bui Vien. Once he's sold that he appears with a new pair of sunglasses or a watch. This time he didn't have anything and I know that he's just "selling" these items as a front and he really just gets drunk all day long. 

SOoOo- As I said during our tour of the CU Chi tunnels, JACKIE our tour guide asked us to come to dinner. He got his name during the War when Americans told him he looked like Jackie Chan. During our tour he said that he would be telling us about the war because we were on a tour that was in fact about the war, but he never talked to his wife about the war. When he invited us to go to his house for dinner I assumed that his wife would be making some kind of Vietnamese food and he mentioned singing Karaoke. Andy had to work so Adam Annette and I went to Jackie's house for a nice night of karaoke. 

It turns out, Jackie is divorced and lives with his mother. He build a room on top of their house and it's actually a really cool get up.

 He only listens to Johnny Cash and Michael Jackson.  

He also invited his closest friends and all of his brothers. 

Thanks Jackie!
I am so happy that your Karaoke Machine only played Vietnamese songs so I didn't have to sing :)

MEKONG DELTA DAY with adam

During our day off we took a bus to the Mekong Delta and did a little day trip. We did see some of the mekong when we were in Cambodia, but this was our first experience actually spending time there. I think it would be soooo cool to take a boat up to Lao or to Cambodia again and actually get to travel on it :)

 EWWW Large Snake. Andy and Adam were manly enough to hold this baby. I tried to get next to Andy for a picture and ran away like a little girl. Im sad I didn't get a picture with it and do a "Brittany Spears" pose holding it......

The MEKONG CREW!

We got to try alot of exotic fruit, I know ive mentioned this before, but I LOVE the fun fruit here :)

 It was really neat riding a canoe under the coconut trees. It was really relaxing just hanging out while these two little Vietnamese women did all the work. Adam and Andy expressed regret not being able to help or do it themselves. And I was just thinking how happy I was to not have to figure out how to paddle. (Brittany I had a flashback to our Panama Canal Canoe experience..........god we were awful!)

I asked this old man for life advice. He didn't speak any English but I'm pretty sure what he said was that I was going to have a long wonderful life :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDY

25 is going to be a great year :) 

Andy got some new work shirts, a fun Tshirt, sunglasses and A HELICOPTER.......

He liked the the helicopter the best :)

MEXICAN FIESTA!

Roomies :)

Love you :) 

Cu CHI Tunnel Day

CU Chi Tunnels!

So about an hour outside of HCMC is a place called Cu Chi. In the 1940's Vietnam was at war with the French and they started building a network of underground tunnels. 

During the Vietnam War, the Viet Cong used these tunnels to hide from American soldiers and eventually became one of the main reasons that we were defeated.

Andy, Adam and I went on a tour to the tunnels with a group of about 25 people and one Vietnamese tour guide named Jackie. Jackie fought in the war and was a translator for US Soldiers. He loves Americans so much that he invited us to have dinner at his house....(see in a later post :) 

Andy and Adam early in the morning ready to go! 

Adam in one of the tunnel openings they would use to surprise soldiers.

Andy really didnt like the tunnels, feeling a little claustrophobic the whole way through I opted on getting out early as well

TIGHT FIT!

BEST PART OF THE DAY: We all got to shoot an AK47!

Love,
Lauren

Adam in VIETNAM!

 One of Andy's best friends came to visit us! Adam is from Arizona, but currently lives in Abu Dhabi working for the U.S. Embassy. He had a vacation and went to Thailand and then stopped over to see us :)

It was so much fun having someone from home come visit, we were able to show him what we do on a daily basis and where we work and he even stayed in our guest bedroom! Unfortunately....our guest bedroom does not have a bed yet, so he was a trooper and slept on the floor on some pads :)

Monday- He flew in from Bangkok and we had lunch at one of our favorite cheap street eats and heard about his crazy Thai adventures over a few cold ones.

He was in need of a new pair of sandals (his were stolen at a beach party in Thailand) so we brought him to Bin Than Market to haggle $5 dollar sandals down to $2. Adam is actually really good at bargaining, I need to learn a few tips from him, I break too easy. He also scored this hip hat :)

Andy and I had to teach from 630 to 930, but were then able to show him some Saigon night life afterwards :)

Love
Lauren