Last couple days in Vietnam, first day in Italy

One of the many busy streets in Saigon. See the guy on his scooter with all the boxes on the back?
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We know we haven't updated the site for a while - we're alive, we promise!!!  We're in Bologna, Italy now and its very nice.  Its 5AM and out the back window of our motel room is a beautiful hillside, and the train goes by every once in a while, but its very quiet.  But in the days leading up to today - its been kind of hairy.  Get comfortable, get a cup of tea, or maybe you'll need a martini, and settle in...

So our last couple of days in Vietnam were very stressful.  We couldn't wait to get out.  It was very hot and some family stuff came up that was hard to deal with.  We almost looked into leaving a day early but because we had 3 flights in all before we got to Venice (Saigon to Bangkok, Bangkok to Rome, then Rome to Venice), it would've been a real headache to arrange.  So we just stayed our fully planned time. The good thing about visiting with Mahn's family was his brother Minh and his wife and kids.  They didn't ask or expect anything from us and enjoyed just spending time with us.  We enjoyed visiting with them, and even with the language barrier, we feel like we had a good visit.

Last couple days in Vietnam, first day in Italy

Another busy intersection in Vietnam, lots and lots of motor bikes.
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We didn't plan on having a busy day our last day in Veitnam, but it turned out to be a busy day.  Mahn's aunt Heiu came and picked us up.  She took us to a local bakery and bought us Vietnamese sandwiches for breakfast.  Then she took us to a local amusement park and zoo.  It was actually pretty cool, who knew in the middle of Saigon they had something like this?  We mostly walked around and we did go on a couple of rides, but I didn't want to go on too many.  I could see the headline now: "2 Americans die in freak accident at Saigon amusement park."  Anyway, nothing happened obviously, and it was actually really fun and relaxing.  Althought it was very hot!!!  My hair was curly there because of the humidity.  So we did that and then his aunt said we could go to her daugher's house and she would cook for us.  So we went there and they made us some food.  She fed us so much we had to say "No more, no more!"  She was very hospitable.  She is a nurse and has a good job and she didn't ask anything of us.  I think she could tell we needed to have a day to just do something fun.  But, we told her we had to leave at 2 to go back to the motel to get ready to check out.  Also Mahn's brother and his family was going to meet us at the motel to see us off at the airport.  So we went back to the motel to check out.  When we were checking out, the bellman asked what time our flight left.  I told him the time and he said we were leaving too early and if you get to the airport early its dangerous because they won't let you check in and won't let you in the building.  So you're just there in front of the airport with your luggage - not good in Saigon!  So since we had already checked out, we just hung out for about 1 hour in the lobby with his brother and family.  So when it was a good time to go to the airport, they called a cab for us.  We took the cab and Minh, his wife and 2 kids all fit on their 2 scooters and followed.  So we say our goodbyes and go to the ticket counter.  The lady says you didn't confirm your flight and this flight is booked.  You can't get on the flight.  We did confirm our flights, but she said we didn't so what do you do?  So we told her we did confirm and should be on the filght.  She walked away for about 20 minutes.  I could tell Mahn was hanging on by a thread, and I was so stressed out, I thought I was going to be sick.  If you're going to be stuck in an airport - you don't want it to be in Saigon!  So she came back and says, "OK, how many bags do you have to check?"  So that means we're on the fight!!  But then we were 10 kg overweight with our luggage so she said we'd have to pay $20 per kg we were over.  We also needed to pay the airport tax of $14 per person.  We had to do this at 2 different counters.  So I went to the counter to pay the tax, and Mahn went to go pay for the excess baggage fee.  The lady actually cut us a break and took a little off for the excess baggage.  So anyway, we FINALLY got all checked in, but it took about 45 minutes.  And we still had to go through customs and security!!!  Oh, but we weren't totally in the clear yet either.  We both had boarding passes to Bangkok, but from Bangkok to Rome, she said it didn't show Mahn in the system, so we would need to go to the transfer desk in Bangkok to get his boarding pass.  We just got on the flight to Bangkok, hoping for the best thinking if we're going to be stuck somewhere for a while, we'd rather it be Bangkok than Saigon.  And on the bright side, it ended up that customs and baggage screening was no problem - just breezed right through.

A "sculpture" at the amusement park we went to. Its made out of little tea cups and plates held together with wire.
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So once we got to Bangkok, we went to the transfer desk to get Mahn's boarding pass for Bangkok to Rome.  They gave it to us no problem and also gave us our boarding passes for Rome to Venice.  We had it made in the shade (or so we thought).  We flew Thai airways from Bangkok to Rome, and as far as the flight goes and the comfort of the airplane, I have to say they get 2 huge thumbs up.  There was a lot of leg room and the seats went back really far - and this was in economy of course.  Very good service, excellent food and anything you want to drink from Coke to Cognac.  Mahn especially slept very well on the plane.  He had a sip of his bloody mary, a sip of wine and sniffed my congnac and the poor guy was out for the night.  So our 11.5 hour flight on Thai Airways from Bangkok to Rome was very pleasant.

The 2 dragons are actually floating restaurants. The dragon design on the front is also made of cups, plates and asian spoons.
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We arrived in Rome at about 6AM and had about 1.5 hours in Rome before we had to catch our final flight to Venice.  Rome airport is really big and it took us a long time just to find the gate and get throught baggage check.  But not a big deal, we already had our boarding passes, so we would just get on the plane, or so we thought.  We went to give her our boarding passes and she says, you don't have a ticket and you didn't pay your airport taxes, I can't let you on the flight.  Its a long story and my fingers are getting tired but this is where we retract our reccomendation for Airtreks.com (the company who we got our round-the-world tickets from).  Also Thai airways shouldn't have given us the boarding pass, but mostly it was Airtreks fault.  So anyway, we had to catch the next flight out of Rome to Venice at 12:45.  Mahn and I decided to find a place to play cards.  We found a cafe and I asked him to get a beer and water.  Then I looked at my watch and realized it was 9AM - but I really didn't care.  Its 5 o'clock somewhere, and even if its not, ask me if I care...  So anyway we hung out in the airport until 12:45 and (finally) got on our last plane.  We arrived in Italy and driving here is quite an adventure, let me tell you.  When we were on the plane to Venice, we were sitting by an Italian guy and I asked him what the trick to driving here is, he said stay in the right lane.  And he's right.  You just stay in the right lane and let the people going 100 mph pass you.  You can be going 80mph and people are still passing you.  And sometimes you do need to pass the big trucks, but you pass them and get right back in the right lane.  No indecision allowed here folks!!  They also tailgate like you wouldn't believe, they're litteraly inches from your bumper, its just crazy.  But the guy on the plane said the good thing is that we're not here in high tourist season so there aren't as many people on the roads.  So, I'm just glad we're here in May instead of July!!  But we arrived safely at our motel here last night.  We got here about 6PM, took a shower and crashed.

The elephant at the zoo. You can feed him sugar cane. That was really cool.
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Our next motel is near Florence.  Its an old farmhouse they renovated into a motel and it looks like its in the middle of a vineyard outside Florence.  So I'm very excited and we'll be there for 3 days!!  This place was just a 1 night stop so we wouldn't have to drive so far after flying so much yesterday.  I'm very glad we planned it that way now.

Well I guess I'll upload the pics and sign off.  We tried to send email from here, but for some reason we can recieve email, but it won't send.  So, hopefully everyone checks the site either way, even if we can't send an email saying its updated.  Well caio for now.  A little more driving today - pray for me my friends, pray for me...  Love, Mahn and Heather