Saigon!

Well our flight to Saigon was short and painless and it was so great to see Peter and to meet Che!  They met us at the airport and we had a lovely, late night snack near the market by our hotel and a chance to catch up before we went to bed.  The following day Peter took us to this really big great market selling all sorts of weird stuff...from lungs to nuts (the vegetarian variety...ha ha).  We stopped for an ice coffee to cool off before heading to Che's for lunch with the family.  I really can't say enough good things about the family.  They are so wonderful and welcoming.  Che's sister has a talent for painting and brought out all of her work to show us which was really beautiful!  She was so kind to let me take one home to Canada...fortunately Peter is taking care of the mechanics of getting it home.  We had home-made spring rolls wrapped in rice paper and they were delicious!  Everybody seemed fairly relaxed before the big day :>)

And the wedding itself was really great!  Dan and I were so happy that we got to be a part of it.  We got to help carry gifts to Che's home for the family and be a part of the ceremony which was really really special.  Peter and Che were all smiles all day long...it was so wonderful.  The first part of the wedding is just the family members, and if both the bride and groom are Vietnamese, then Che's family would come to Peter's home and bring gifts there too and we would have had a similar ceremony there.  So after some drinks outside the cool off we headed to the restaurant where all of the bride and groom's family are invited as well and there is a dinner.  The restaurant and photographers seem to sort of run the show, which is nice because I think it takes a lot of pressure off the couple and their families.  I actually didn't take a ton of pictures because we were sort of a part of it so it was hard to, and because the photographers took soooo many!  This wedding was definitely well photographed!  And at the end of the evening everything was settled up in cash before going home!  So all in all a great day!

We understandably have given Peter and Che some time to themselves in the days that followed, and we've had a the chance to explore Saigon and see the sights here.  Today we went to the war remnants museum, which is full of horrible photos from the Vietnam war from the perspective of the Viet Cong (the communist party fighting against the Americans).  It was obviously very one-sided so you come out with a pretty grim feeling about the US, although we realize horrible things happened on both sides.  Some of the photos you can hardly even look at.  On a more cheerful note, we also visited a beautiful Cantonese style temple and saw almost as many animals there than at the zoo yesterday (turtles, pigeons, a rat and numerous stray dogs).   Peter and Che took us to this amazing restaurant last night where you make these wraps full of carrots, fried rice flour (with seafood for those non-veggies), lots of different kinds of raw leaves like mango tree leaves, mint and basil (plus stuff I didn't even recognize), all wrapped in lettuce or another big leaf I didn't recognize(!) and dipped in sauce.  It was pretty fun!  We are heading out to dinner here shortly with the whole family so we're excited as to where they will take us tonight!

We have book a bus ticket to Can Tho in the Mekong Delta tomorrow where we will spend a few days before heading off to Cambodia.  It's been so great to be with family and meet new family here in Saigon...we really feel we've been spoiled!
Bye for now!

Hanna and Dan xoxo

Coffee break

 Amazing dinner with Peter and Che

The family

 Quite possibly the cutest girls I have every met :>)  Kitty and Yenny ( I may not have spelled that properly...correct me Peter and Che if I didn't)  Che made their dresses and her own wedding dress as well!

 Reunification Palace

 Roadside fish salesemen