HELLO VIET NAM

SATURDAY MARCH 24       

Alarm went off at 5:30.  Plane to SAIGON

Guide picked us up at airport and took us to the old part of town.

VERY CROWDED  HOT   HUMID

Thousands of motor scooters crowded on the streets, driving fast and crazy,
inches apart.  At a park, hundreds of motor scooters parked, looked like a river of motor scooters. Couples, and couples with a kid, on most motor bikes.  On a few, one person with huge packages tied on.

Visited an old  Buddhist Temple.  Area dirty, people sitting on the ground eating, stalls selling candles, flowers etc.  We are sweating.  Guide difficult to understand spouting dates of history.  Next, a crowded hot, still air, market where people hustled us. 
“Good prices mister”, “Try on madam”. 
One high rise building of interest.
                                                   NOT MY IDEA OF A GOOD TIME. 
                                     BOB’S SHIRT IS TOTALLY WET DOWN THE BACK.
We cut the tour short, went to the Park Hyatt Hotel, went swimming in the outdoor pool,
had a beer and a  nap .
Walked into the dinning room.  WOW   It was romantic and contemporary with a kitchen open to view, showing talented, immaculate chefs creating appetizing looking dishes.
And the food was unusual and delicious.  They even had good gin and  vodka.   

SUNDAY
Wake-up call at 6:30 AM
Guide took us to the airport and helped us until security check.  Made it easy.
He is getting to speak much better English.

DANANG
COOL     Guide met us.  Peaceful pace. Sanity. Countryside.
Drove to Life Heritage Resort on the river in Hoi An. 
All pleasant.

Starting with Singapore we do not drink water
or brush our teeth with water from the tap.  No one does.  It is not safe.
One needs to boil the drinking water. 
Seems strange - so advanced in so many ways but water.

King's New Palace Kuala Lumpur

The king is for ceremonies.  This is a gated property with two military soldiers on horses in alcoves on each side of the gate.

The prime minister and the legislature run the the government.  The prime minister is elected every 4  years.  He    chooses the date of the election during the election year.  Currently he is not telling when this year the election will take place 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kuala Lumpur pictures

About the batiks:
                 They were fun to create.
 Langkawi specializes in creating them and using them on very fine materials, silk and cotton and then making
clothes, tablecloths, bolts of material etc.  Some are very beautiful.
They can be pictures or prints.
I really fell in love with mine.  The teacher framed them.

So ..... they really do not fit into our apartment in Chicago.

Which of our friends or family should we give them to as a present?
 We spent a lot of time discussing it.
And choosing not to burden any of you, we left them there.

FORGOT TO TELL

Syl at 5 AM outside casita writing blog

  

 Bob and Syl each created a batik masterpiece 

The masterpieces.  (Also we found this chair interesting.)  

  

We celebrated and drank to your health.  Anyone who honors us by reading this blog

I forgot to tell about our experience in Langkawi

KUALA LUMPUR PICTURES

Pictures from Kuala Lumpur
After diner walk    

KUALA LUMPUR

KUALA LUMPUR    March 23

To get here we took our 6th airplane since leaving Astor Street.    Bob had prepared 6 x 9 inch  bright iridescent sticky labels to put on each of our 4 ship-thru suitcases for each flight: the destination airport codes and “priority handling” was printed on each one.  They usually come out first and are easy to spot. 

The Westin upgraded us to a large suite, the finest in this luxury hotel.
We have a dining alcove with surrounding windows, fully equipped kitchen alcove, 2 office spaces, LARGE  living room, bedroom and bathroom.
The breakfast buffet is so large that there is a map showing where each type of food (Indian, Chinese, Western, smoothies, Malaysian, etc) can be found. 

This city amazes us.  In some areas it feels like New York -
Lights   Action   Energy   High class stores   Crowds  Hotels  Restaurants
Night life   Office buildings  Tall buildings

Last night when we walked back to our Hotel after dinner we passed a different  kind of very busy area - all in the street - food cooking, crowded
tables, bright signs,  bombarding  color, noise, movement, smells, bumping.

Today we  will hire a guide. 

3:00 PM      Good guide, good driver .....Bob took lots of pictures .
We are surprised by the large number of tall buildings, good architecture.
The Petronas Twin Towers are positioned by Feng Shuei to face an important  bank.  
Good highways. 
We saw Muslim temples.  Since today is Friday it is the holiday of the week.  Major prayer time.  Only men can go into the mosque to pray on Friday. At a large mosque there were so many cars and motor cycles
that the police allow extra parking on the street.

Went into a Buddhist  temple.  So beautifully ornate.  Much park land and rain forrest in the city. 
A huge bird sanctuary covered by a huge net.

Weather is HOT AND HUMID.  Came back and took a needed nap.