The rest of my Tet Holiday in Vietnam

• Luna New Year 2008, 1st: The baby was so tired from the previous night so she slept on and off the whole morning (welcome to party life baby girl ). We did not go to our grand-parents as we used to do. We now has our own grand-parents at the house already . We went to visit my grand-parents that afternoon and of course we missed a chance to meet some other relatives such as: uncles, aunts, cousins,... We went home and had dinner, i felt really happy. This was my Luna New Year after 5 years away from Vietnam.
  
• Luna New Year 2008, 2nd: I stayed around the house until late in the afternoon then i went to visit an old time friend since college. I got drunk after two beers so I missed a chance to meet a new friend.

I could not remember detail to the date things that i did in Vietnam any more. From now on i will tell the thing base on the event.

• Lunch in Binh Duong: I took a laptop back to Vietnam for a friend then i got invited to her house for a lunch. I still don't know which one got me invited for the lunch, carrying the laptop back or being a nice guy , but i really do not want to know. I did not want to drive by myself and all my friends could not go with me, so i got a bike-driver to take me down to Binh Duong. I had some good time with my friend and her family. We had lunch, got some wine, brandy. It was and still a very very happy moment that you have a meal with a whole family. Damn it, i miss that feeling, it is very very simple for most of people but i did not have it for a long long long damn long time. After lunch with my friend family, i went to a re-union lunch with some other friends from college. I was nice to meet them, talk to them and honestly, i was a little bit jealous with them. They are doing very very good, with family and other friends. Damn it, now you know why i called myself "lonely wolf".

Entry for March 14, 2008 BIG NEWS

Hey all,


BIG BIG BIG NEWS

Sorry to bother you all, but this is a very BIG news.


I am officially an American citizen now. Pictures will come soon but right now please just spread the words

I got a little bit better, but i am still lazy

Just continue from my last blog post

• 04:30AM to 05:00PM on Feb-06-2008: Holly cow, this is a big day. I did not have a chance to enjoy the last Luna year day and the Luna new Year Eve for a long time. I think 5 years. However i got a little bit disappointed too. Nothing was actually as i always dreamed of. The feeling, the atmosphere wasn't as special as it used to be. It felt like just a normal day. Tet lost its own value in big cities already, i believe. But I also believe Tet still has its very very special value in rural areas.
  
  
• 06:00PM on Feb-06-2008: we got a taxi and went to Saigon (center of the city). The road was crowed, people were trying to get to the city square for the fire work and the bonsai/flower market. We got off the cab around 1/2 km from the center of the city, we started walking. I got the holiday atmosphere here and i loved it. This was the thing that i was looking for. We took some picture with the most important person, my only niece.

• 08:00PM on Feb-06-2008: We got into the hotel that my older brother is working for. We got to the restaurant and had our dinner there. This is a 4 stars hotel but the food was not that good. The steak was horrible, other food was ok. It was not worth the money. My younger brother took his girl friend to the dinner with us, but we was so busy eating that we did not take any picture of her. She is a really nice girl, too nice for my younger punk brother , i think !!!
• 10:00PM on Feb-07-2008: My younger brother took his girl friend back to her house, she did not want her mother to stay home alone (or her mom did not trust my younger brother enough )
  
  
• 12:00AM on Feb-07-2008: New Year Eve, we went out to see fire work, my younger brother got back to the hotel after a long fighting with horrible traffic, and paid a crazy amount for parking. The baby was awake and joined the celebration with us. She was doing so good. She did not cry that much, and she ate like a pig , a lovely baby pig.
  
  

• 01:45AM on Feb-07-2008: We could not find a cab to get home, the road was blocked. And my younger brother was so sleepy to drive his motobike home. So i took the bike and started to drive home. Good news, my older brother called me to tell me that they finally got a cab. Bad news, I looked down at the gas meter, it was almost empty.That was how my younger brother welcomed me home. Every time that i used his motobike, it would have almost no gas in it. And this is the problem, his motobike is a new model, Honda AirBlade, I had no idea how to open the gas tank cap. I had to ask the guy @ the gas station to open it for me. I knew that he knew i was not steal the bike but i absolutely believed that he was thinking that i was a jackass, borrowed the bike to show off.
• 02:30AM on Feb-07-2008: We got home almost at the same time. I was so tired so i passed out around 3:00AM.

I was so lazy

Hey buddies,

I supposed to put somethings on my blog about my trip to Vietnam long long time ago but i was so lazy to do that. There is not much feeling about the trip left in me now but my feeling for friends in Vietnam is still here.

Just try to have a quick summary about things happened to my trip back to Vietnam.

• 7:10AM Sunday, Feb-03-2008: I arrived at Greensboro Airport of North Carolina. I had my two bags checked in, thing went smoothly. I went through the security check and guess what ? I got a full body search, my carry on bags got checked too. I realized after 5 seconds. My new hair cut probably got me into that kind of trouble.
• 03:15PM Sunday, Feb-03-2008: I got on the airplane to go from Detroit, Michigan to Manila, Philippine. There were so many Philipinos and they kept talking and laughed like crazy. They drove me nut.
• 10:35PM Monday, Feb-04-2008: I arrived in Manila, Philippine. I got a bad news, the departure gates are not in the same building with the arrival gates. It meant that I have to get my luggage, go through customs. I had no passport, my Vietnamese passport expired, and i do not have a US passport. So after a long talk with the airline company agent, I was asked to stay in a room from 12:00AM to 6:00AM, sat in front of me was a security guy.
  
• 6:30AM Tuesday, Feb-05-2008: I got escorted to the departure gates by the security guy, customs officer, and airline company agent. I got stop by another security guy, he wanted me to weight my carry-on bag. Damn, this guy was good, one of my carry-on bag was full with candy so it was about 20Kg. I had two choices, throwing some of the candy away or paying $115 to check that bag in. I already carried that bag from USA to Manila, i did not want to throw anything away, so i lost $115 bucks.
• 10:25AM Tuesday, Feb-05-2008: I arrived in Saigon, I was so happy to be in Saigon. There is no place like your home town. Now only Vietnamese customs stood between me and "freedom". I had with me 1 iPhone, 2 laptops. So i did the "first procedure" but it was not clear enough, i got called back to do an extra "first procedure" then i allowed to go free.
• 11:05AM Tuesday, Feb-05-2008: I met my friend's brother. I gave him his stuff and asked for a favor, using his phone to call my family. Genius me, i did not remember my brother cellphone number but finally i got hold of my sister-in-law. My brothers were convinced that airplanes from Philippine would always arrive late so they were just on the way to the airport. I had to wait another 40 minutes before i could get on the mini-van to go home.
• 01:15PM Tuesday, Feb-05-2008: I got home, asked for some coffee. I wanted to push myself to adjust the jet lag as fast as i can. I ate some pre-order food that my Mom cooked. I also met some friends, they stopped by to visit me ! [Nope, to get stuff that i took back for them ]. I am just kidding, they stopped by to visit me.
• For the rest of Tuesday, Feb-05-2008: I went around, visited some relative and ate like a pig. I got passed out around 10:30PM

The next blog will be posted soon, with more information about New Year Eva and other placed that i went to, other people that i met.