My Lil’ Saigon

So.

It’s been an exciting month. As you may notice, my last few posts have been about my parents being in VN. Well, that is done and over. Now you will hear a bit more of the story.

It all starts like this. I met a girl. We became friends. We became more than friends. She moved home to VN, I came as well (though 6 months later). 2 years after that.. we are now married.

Pictures will come shortly, and you will all get to see the beautiful lady that is now my wife. In the meantime you’ll have to deal with text.

My parents arrived on June the 2nd, late at night. Things started out poorly. The time I had written down was 10:35pm. Assuming 30 minutes for all security related matters, we arrived at 11pm. The problem was someone had given me the wrong time. Their arrival was 10:05pm. Therefore we were quite late, and they had waited 10-15 minutes by the time we got there. They were all anxious to get to the house, have a snack and get some rest. So we went to get a taxi. As anyone who has gone through that airport knows, they isn’t always an easy task. We finally got a good taxi (none of those SASCO over-chargers) and got everyone in the taxi…. Except my brother. I had to take my brother home with my on my bike. This was fine… but I have to say that carrying him on the back was quite difficult. He is a large man. You can just imagine 2 guys over 6″ tall (185cm+) on one bike in Ho Chi Minh. If you live here, you’ll probably giggle at that suggestion.

Anyway, they had arrived, everyone was healthy. Then came the morning. Typical HCM traffic…. not so typical for folks from small town Wisconsin. My mother’s taxi in the morning (on the way to get some tailoring) had its mirror ripped off by a truck. Great. Then my taxi (with my brother and dad) got stuck in a bad traffic jam, mostly due to the idiocy of the driver. Next up the first 5 places I went to get tailored/fitted clothing either didn’t do that service anymore, was closed, or didn’t have the right size.  So finally… I took them to the tailor I got my suit at. My brother got his shirt and pants in time, great quality. My dad… no go on the suit. So… we had to go another place for a rental. All in all… one full day to get 2 people clothing for the wedding. Not the best first day…

Next up… Da Lat and Mui Ne. We did all the touristy stuff, nothing major happened. My mom finally found her comfort zone (first at a ice cream cafe in Da Lat, and then next at the spa in Mui Ne). Then we returned. Took care of things and…

I had a wedding.

To Be Continued………

We’ve been to Da Lat, now we are in Mui Ne for one more day. Almost back to Sai Gon. Da Lat was a great change of pace from Sai Gon, and I”m pretty sure that my parents enjoyed it. It was a good choice to get them out of the city (and heat) as soon as possible. Now we are enjoying the Sailing Club, which is a great resort. My parents have finally experienced a luxury resort, even though my dad hasn’t taken part in the nicities of the Spa.

Tomorrow is the return to Sai Gon. We will have some wedding things to handle and then we’ll get all cleaned up for the wedding on saturday. After we recover from that…. it’ll be time for them to head home, and for the newly weds to head off to China.

All is well. No serious ailments so far, but you never know with the Cotter’s.

The parents came in on a plane from Japan late last night!

They are here, they slept well, they ate Pho… and now we are off to the City.. More to come later!