Karaoke Vietnamese Style

Sunday night is the night when everyone in Bien Hoa City goes out. Not Friday or Saturday. Sunday night is it. The streets are teeming with scooters & people in the midst of merrymaking.

This Sunday, our landlords, who live in the house next to ours, invited us over for dinner & karaoke. Who could say no?

In Vietnam, karaoke is a private event. Many people will rent a karaoke room for an hour or two & invite all of their friends to join them. Our landlords have their own karaoke room set up right in their house...

...complete with disco ball!

This is me singing my signature Copacabana - & no, I had not been drinking!

Visit to a Buddhist Temple

Michael took us to a Buddhist temple in Ba Ria, about a two-hour taxi ride from Bien Hoa. It had been a few months since he had been there, & all of the monks & nuns were so happy to see him.

They were very open to me taking all of the photos that I wanted, even inside the temple itself.

After a yummy vegan lunch, we went for a short hike up a nearby stream. It was so nice to be out in nature again after spending nearly a month in the city. I REALLY miss the outdoors.

Plans to Travel

I'm going to Saigon on Monday with Michael & Jimmy to renew my Vietnamese visa. I started out with a one-month, single-entry visa. To be able to travel to neighboring countries & come back to Vietnam, I'll have to get a six-month, multi-entry visa. Once that is done, I'll be able to start exploring Southeast Asia. I have a cousin living in Bangkok, & I think that will be my first destination. It looks like I can get a round-trip flight for $150.

100 Thing Challenge: An Update

Nearly a year ago, I began trying to reduce my material possessions to 100 things. See the original post here: http://nancylewis.blogspot.com/2008/07/100-thing-challenge.html

I don't really think that I can actually accomplish this difficult task, but I thought it might be interesting to see how close I could get. A year ago I began scanning all of my old photos & journals into my computer to help reduce my stuff. I also had four different yard sales over the past year to get rid of the superfluous junk that I had accumulated. When I decided to move to Vietnam, it was a mad rush to fit all of my remaining possessions into four suitcases. However, I wasn't quite successful, & wound up having to leave several boxes with my brother & my friends Debra & Michael.

Since my days are pretty lazy here in Vietnam, I decided to count my possessions. (Insert histerical laughter from my readers here.)

The tallying rules are:

1. Things that work together are considered one thing. For example, a pair of socks is one thing. My mp3 player & headphones is one thing. My bicycle with a basket is one thing.
2. Food is not included

With me here in Vietnam, I have a total of 340 things. Not bad.

Here's the breakdown:

250 permanent things (clothing, luggage, etc.)
15 books (I consider these semi-permanent since the collection is constantly changing)
52 consumable things (shampoo, soap, etc.)
23 things that I will leave behind when I leave Vietnam (mostly furniture & my bike)

=340 Total Things

A breakdown of the boxes I left behind in the US:

5 boxes of memorabilia (photos, journals, etc. that I didn't have time to scan)
1 box of winter clothing
3 boxes of household items
1 box of camping gear
1 box of legal files
5 boxes of family history information (which is not really mine anyway - it belongs to the family)

Dos & Don'ts in Vietnam

I bought this book while I was in Saigon last Sunday. After being here in Vietnam for just a few weeks, I can see the truth in much of what the authors write. If you're considering a long-term stay in Vietnam, you might want to pick up a copy.