Elephant Ear Fish

Last week, our co-worker Kevin took Hailey and I to a restaurant to sample a local delicacy--the Elephant Ear Fish. Our lunch place was just off the Mekong Delta-- the murky, still, river that snakes through the city. Part of the river flowed through the outdoor restaurant, and our lunch was freshly caught and prepared right before our eyes. There were dozens of Elephant Ear Fish captured in nets that were submerged in the river, anxiously awaiting their deep fried death sentence. When we arrived, Kevin ordered two fish and we watched our waiter net one of the large, flat creatures, slap it onto the concrete, and whack it several times with a stick. Lucky you, I got some footage of the action! The fish is then cleaned and placed in a deep fryer--skin, eyeballs, bones and all. The Elephant Ear Fish is traditionally eaten in a rice paper roll with vegetables, rice noodles, and various sauces. We prepared our own rolls at the table and ate the poor fishy up. I wasn't particularly fond of its taste, but I swallowed it down regardless... Needless to say, I opted for the vegetarian version the second time around and prepared my roll with noodles and vegetables only. (DISCLAIMER: Don't look Jenny!)

Click here and here for footage... if you only have time for one video, the second one is better.

Happy Monday!

Don't judge us--we cant wear makeup in Vietnam. It just melts off your face...

The Canadian's have come back home, and Hailey and I have settled into our new place. We moved into a hotel right in the middle of town called The Royal Pearl. Whereas it is not nearly as nice as living at the house, it is in a convenient area. It is a few blocks from Ben Thanh Market and we can walk to all of the big hotels, restaurants, and bars. A few nights ago, we walked home from work and it only took about 10 minutes. At the house, our cab rides were 20-30 minutes, so we get to sleep in a bit now!

Hailey and I have found our favorite places in town--we are regulars at the ex-pat bar called Go2. It is one of the few places that stays open past midnight. Last Saturday night, we closed the place down. They have a pool table, good music, and a dance floor upstairs. The best part is the people watching! There are people from all over the world in the backpackers district--lots of Australians and Canadians. GO2 is just a couple blocks from work.

On Sunday, we saw the sun peek out, so we went to one of the five star hotels (nice!) and got a one day pool pass. This costs about $10 per person. It was very relaxing, but we got kicked out by the rain at about 4pm.

I tried pho (Vietnamese soup) for the first time the other day and LOVED it! There are some really amazing restaurants around here. We have gone to a place called Jaspa's for brunch a few times, and I swear the omelet there is better than any I've had in the states. Paul insists I'm imagining it and I have just been out of the game of real food for too long... who knows?!

Hailey's mom and brother are coming into town to visit on Wednesday. We are picking them up from the airport then heading right up to Nha Trang, which is a beautiful beach nearby. Since Hailey has been here for a month longer than me, she has already done all of the tourist activities. I will get the opportunity to see the war museum and go in the Cu Chi Tunnels, where the Vietnamese army hid during the war. There is a place next to the tunnels where you can pay to shoot guns into a field of haystacks. I think im gonna go for the AK47--its a buck a bullet. I'll post pics soon! We are also planning to take Hailey's mom and brother on an overnight trip down the Mekong Delta to see the floating markets and villages.

Our internship with Operation Smile ends on the 10th of August, and we are planning to leave Saigon a few days after that. The plan is embark on a 5 week backpacking trip through South East Asia. From Ho Chi Minh City, we are heading to Phnom Pen, Cambodia to see the Killing Fields and the Genocide Museum. Then we are headed to Siem Reap to go on an overnight camping/dirtbike tour and visit Angkor Wat, which is the most famous temple in Cambodia.

From Cambodia, we are heading to Luang Probang, Laos. We are going on an elephant tour and hiking to waterfalls in the jungle. It is supposed to be beautiful! Then we are heading to Vang Vieng, which is also in Laos. We are going to tube down a lazy river that has bars all along the sides on the way down. They offer tours through ancient caves, which we will do if we have enough time. (I have a feeling bar-hopping in an inner tube could take a while...) That wraps up our trip in Cambodia and Laos, then we are headed to Thailand.

The first place in Thailand we are visiting is an island called Koh Phangan, the home of the monthly Full Moon Party, which oddly enough takes place on the full moon of every month. Luckily, Hailey and I will be there for this celebration...its supposed to be kinda crazy (think of scenes from Leonardo DiCaprio's 'The Beach'). Then we are heading to Kho Tao, a sleepy beach island, where we plan to get dive certified and be lazy on the beach.

Finally, we are traveling to Bangkok, Thailand. We are going to stay there for about 5 days or so, and explore the city. We are pretty much going to be wearing the same clothes for all 5 weeks of backpacking, so we have to bring small packets of laundry detergent and wash our clothes in the sink and hang them to dry overnight. It should be an interesting change from having my laundry done for me at the Canadian house...

That should conclude my travels, and I would like to be home somewhere around the middle/end of September.... in time for my birthday, of course. (September 22, for those of you who forgot. My favorite flower is the orchid.) Well, I am having a wonderful time here, and I am glad to hear that life in Seattle has stopped until I return home again. I will be posting pictures as I go along, so keep checkin the blogger! Miss you all!

This is my little dancing buddy who is always selling gum at GO2. (he is seriously a good dancer). I told him I would take him grocery shopping if he took a picture with me. I took him to the store and told him to get whatever he wanted--and he walked out with a can of Pringles.

A street flood which occurs twice a day every day in this area due to the river tides

Me on Bui Vien, the main street in the backpackers district

Whenever it rains, all the kids run into the streets and play. They hold up the peace sign because the number two in Vietnamese is 'hi'.... so they are saying "hi!"

Some of the babies from the Goa Vop orphanage. Hailey and I go every Saturday from 9-12 to hold and feed the babies. They are desperate for human contact.

On a motorbike with our friend Tu

Operation Smile’s International Mission is comprised of a team of credentialed medical professionals from around the world who travel to Operation Smile partner countries to treat children during a two-week period. On a typical International Medical Mission, 300-500 children receive full medical evaluations and 100-150 children are surgically treated. We are able to conduct over 25 International Medical missions in a year.

Below are photos from Operation Smile Vietnam's International Mission, which happens once a year. Hailey was able to attend this mission in a tiny town north of HCMC called Bao Loc just before I arrived in Vietnam.

If the slide show below is not working properly, please let me know so I can fix it. You can also click on the pictures for a larger view. If they are not showing up, please visit this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/Katie.Links

Life in Ho Chi Minh City

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Above: On the bridge crossing the Saigon River. (Dirrty).
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Above: When it rains, it pours.
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Above: Family on a motorbike. It is not rare to see up to 5 people on a bike.
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Above: I am hanging in there. At least I have somewhere to window shop.
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Above: A woman taking her lunch break in front of a Swarovski Crystal advertisement.
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Above: These men sit here all day and replicate paintings and pictures.
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Above: Street Vendor
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Above: Cyclo-driver. A common type of 'taxi' around town. They move slower than the average pedestrian.
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Above: A typical fruit stand. They are everywhere.
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Above: The gates leading to our front door at the office.
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Above: The alley into the office. Hailey lived at the hotel next door called Madam Cuc before we moved into the house.
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Above: Catholic Church.
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This is the banana lady who is in front of our office alley every day, rain or shine. She shows up before I arrive at 9am and is still there when i leave at 6pm.
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Above: Its always 'thumbs up' or the peace sign. Every time! They never let me down.
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Above: The street outside of work. Backpackers District. Tons of restaurants, bars, forigeners and expats.
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Above: Chu Van An is the local high school. All of the parents come to pick their kids up and line up on the motorbikes outside. Hailey and I were about a block away from the office and it took us about a half hour to get through this mess. Nobody stops for peds.
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Above: Another angle of the school pick-up traffic.
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Above: Our favorite French bakery, right across the street from our house. Best chocolate croissants ever. And so inexpensive! They also deliver for free, just in case I feel like having breakfast in bed as I so often do not.
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Above: Notre Dame Cathedral. There are many Catholics here, so i fit right in :)
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Above: Flower stand in Ben Thanh Market--the largest and busiest and smelliest (think tons of various raw meats hanging in 95degree heat...) market in HCMC.
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Above: Dragonfruit. Its white with black freckles inside. Tasty.

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Above: Rush hour
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Above: Hailey and Chi working hard (ha) in the office. This is one of 2.5 rooms we have here.
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Above: Motorbike Madness. Many of the men and women wear these face masks while driving on their motorbikes to protect their lungs from emissions.
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A bit about life in Ho Chi Minh City

The house we are living in belongs to the Canadian Consul-General and his family. It is absolutely beautiful and we lucked out being able to stay here for free! The only catch is that we have to walk their dog Bruiser twice a day. He is about a million years old and walks so slow...we literally only go down the block and back. The house is staffed with a the cook and a housekeeper--Nguyet and Thanh, respectively. We have three fridges in the kitchen, and they are always stocked. We just give Nguyet a list and she does the grocery shopping and cooking! She makes the best banana bread in the world. You can honestly request anything and she will make it for you! They have every kind of food possible in the grocery stores and markets. The house keeper LOVES to do laundry. She irons everything, even my pajamas. Its great to come home to a clean house and have your bed made and all that good stuff, but I am afraid it's going to make me lazy!

Hailey is a great person to travel with. She is very informative since she has already been here for a month. She knows her way around the city pretty well which is great because it is extremely confusing at first. There is so much packed into such little space--visually overwhelming!

The weather is really warm. Its 9am right now and 80 degrees. It will probably get up to 95 or so and it feels much hotter due to the humidity. It rains about once a day, but only for 20 minutes or so and you can feel it coming in the air so you have enough warning to get inside.

We are going to a local orphanage on Saturday and we are going to a mission next week which is local as well. On the missions, I will comfort and play with the children before they go into surgery. We are allowed into the hospital rooms, so we can also get scrubbed up and watch an operation first hand.

The people I work with are great! Other than Hailey and me, there are 5 people, only one guy named Kevin. All of them are Vietnamese except one of the girls who is from Jordan, her name is Lina. Kevin went to Stanford so he speaks English very well, as do the other Vietnamese women. Right now we are making invitations for a OpSmile Co-Founders cocktail we are hosting next Tuesday and working on creating an Operation Smile Vietnam theme song.

Saigon has Westernized shopping malls with makeup counters, and they carry a handful of good clothes. They also have a lot of high end designer clothes, so you can really buy anything you need here. We haven't had a chance to go out at night yet, but the weekend is only beginning! There are a lot of Western bars and clubs which primarily have white people, most of which are Australian or European.

Mani/pedi's are really inexpensive, and the other night Hailey and i got a full one hour body massage for $5. It was amazing! The nail and massage salons are all really new and very sanitary. People are really clean here. The streets are dirty, but inside everyones houses and offices are absolutely immaculate--no one wears shoes inside.

They have movie stores with every TV show and movie you could imagine and you can buy them for about $1 each. CD's are 60 cents. Down the street from work, there is a restaurant called Bobby Brewers that has a free movie theater upstairs. You can order food or and the waitress will bring it to your seat! It's pretty sweet!

The food in Vietnam is great! There is an adorable French bakery across the street from our house and they have the best baguettes and croissants. Otherwise, there is a lot of pho, Italian food, Indian food, and really good sushi and fresh spring rolls. I try to stick to vegetarian platters, just in case i accidentally end up eating dog, which would break my heart. The fruit is amazing, and there are tons of smoothie places that have fresh squeezed juices and smoothies. SO GOOD!

I have access to the computer at work, but haven't figured out how to connect at home yet. I'm working on that! Please feel free to call me and keep in touch via e mail! I have a cell phone, so if you have not gotten the number yet and need to call me, just shoot me an e mail at katie.links@gmail.com and I will let you know how to call me. If you need to send anything in the mail, the best place to send it to would be the office.

Katie Links
Operation Smile Vietnam
170/186 Cong Quynh, Pham Ngu Lao Ward, District 1
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

THE MANSION!

Above: A look down our street, Cherry Blossom Road. We are the fourth house on the left. There are tennis courts, a gym, and a lap pool in the compound as well.
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Above: This is the house from the outside!! (aka the mansion)


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Above: This is the street outside of the gate of our development. The street is called Cong Quynh. The picture is of a great grocery store right on the corner outside of the gated community. It has everything you could imagine inside, including underwear...
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Above: Our street sign. Cherry Blossom Road
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Above: This is the gate to the house. Notice the Canadian flag on the right of the gate.
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Above: This is the entryway, taken from the stairs. Mine and Haileys rooms are at the top of the stairs. There is a TV room and a small office up there as well. To the left is a hallway which leads to the kitchen and connects to a dining room and comes back out to the living room which you can see straight ahead. The front door is to the right.
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Above: This is my bedroom. It has a desk, a couch, a TV, and its own bathroom!
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Above: And finally, our swimming pool!