Arriving in Ho Chi Minh City

MI time: 9:00 AM
Local Vietnam time: 8:00PM
Date: 16-Aug-08

Location: Indian restaurant, Ho Chi Minh overlooking crowded street with constant motorcycle traffic.

We survived aour 1st day here and really enjoyed exploring a new foreign place.
Dear reader, I left you with my thoughts snoozing and dazing off on the airplane between Tokyo and Ho Chi Minh. I'll take you now to the moment when the voice on the intercom woke me. "prepare for landing" followed by all the gibberish of Vietnamese that I could never untangle.
For the record, ANA airlines was like a "5 star hotel" with regard to their excellent service. Free wine every little while, coffee or green tea, on-demand movies, pillows and blankets, complimentary earphones, everything.

So we had a safe landing as I squeezed Steve's hand. I remember standing up initially with a wobble in my step from sitting so long. Next: a game of pacman like race through the maze of security, baggage claims, immigration, customs...it all was very smooth. One step at a time in conjunction with pointing and smiling the customs officer waved us through, no questions asked!

We were very happy to re-unite with our bicycles after having been very worried that they would be lost or damaged. We walked out of the airport at 11:30PM into a sea of smiling faces welcoming relatives and missed loved ones and a a white sign that read "Mr. Steven Ha Vy hotel." We waved at him in acknowledgement, he waved back and said "you waiting here I get car." After a while, I asked "where did he go?"
"I don't know" Steve replied.
"I'm sure he will be back with his car in a minute" I said.

Across the road a small round faced man waved at us. "They're he is" we both exclaimed.

WE pushed one cart to cross the road and he helped us load the bikes into his car. "We are finally on our way and off the airplane!" I said happily. The man reached forward and set the meter.
"Where you go?" the man asked. Steve and I looked at each other confused. Didn't the man just have our hotel name on his sign?
"Which hotel you go?" the man repeated.
Then it dawned on us n. We had gotten into a taxi driver's car. We had confused the taxi driver with our hotel representative.
"Oh... Uh.... I'm sorry. so sorry..."Steve stated, "We are in the wrong car."
"So sorry," I repeated as we unloaded the bikes and boxes leaving the taxi driver confused. We looked up again and there was our real hotel representative holding the sign with his car near where we had been waiting before.
Our woes of being confused were soon put to rest. Our jolly driver who didn't know much English began singing every English love song that he had memorized: Yesterday by the Beatles, By the Rivers of Babelon... Then he pulled out a folded piece of paper from the glove compartment that read, "Song List."
"Together we sing song you like," he stated. So that was a moment to remember. Singing with our taxi driver while dodging motos and darting left and right through the light midnight traffic to our hotel.
"A lot of motos," I commented.
"No moto, no girlfriend," he stated with a laugh. Supposedly there are three million motorcycles in Ho Chi Minh City!
"With these many motos at night, I can only imagine how bad the traffic must be during the day," Steve commented.
"Much traffic. Be careful to crossing street."
"Thank you so much," I said, "How do you say thank you in Vietnamese?"
"Kham Urn!" he replied.
"Kham Urn," I spoke my first Vietnamese words of thank you.
Kham Urn--many thankyous to all of your emails and love that will give us the power and adrenaline to keep peddling!