The Chronicles of My Awesome Overseas Vacation >> aka Vietnam
So, as the subject implies, this is just a short summary of my trip to Vietnam with my dad, mom, and little sister, to visit other family. That implies that we're Vietnamese, which we are.
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Anyway, the plane trip to and from Vietnam usually takes up about a day. It's pretty much divided into three short trips; Boston to San Fransisco; San Fransisco to Hong Kong; Hong Kong to Vietnam. The trip from SF to Hong Kong is about 13 hours, so I spent half a day just sitting there on a crappy 747 United airplane acting like one of the living dead zombies! omg or like one of those crazy Granados from Res 4.
And speaking of Resident Evil 4, that's about the only video game I could lay my hands on in Vietnam. Usually, one of my cousins, and there are two, takes me and my dad to this pirated video game store (it's actually just PC games and softwar, but a girl can dream), cuz that's the only way one can get a copy of Just Cause. We ended up buying a $100 dollars worth of software and videogames (trust me, these places are really cheap though, 'cause I got Adobe Photoshop PS3 for only the equivilent of around $3.00 USD).
That was how I ended up with the worst copy of Resident Evil 4, because the PC version just doesn't chalk up to the Wii version (or in my case, the PS2 one), which I need to get. I also got the new Oblivion game, but our laptop doesn't have enough RAM so the graphics were crappy and it was slow and I ended up dying/quitting even before I got out of the dungeon... ANYWAY, that was my first day in Vietnam--spending an hour looking through binders of pirated computer software and games and trying to install them on a laptop to see if they worked.
So yeah, that was how I spent my free time, trying to beat Res 4 on the laptop and getting interrupted every few minutes by my grandparents/aunt/cousins. Currently, I'm trying to kick Krausers ass in the ruins on Saddler's Island, stocked w/ a handgun, Punisher, Red9, and Blacktail with about 50 9mm bullets. I also have a TMP complete with stock and upgraded to hold 150 bullets, though I only have about half of that amount of ammo. Then, there's the empty shotgun, a fully stocked rifle w/ scope, a Broken Butterfly with 3 bullets, and a minethrower with 3 mines.
As you can see, I barely have any ammo left, though that's not much of a problem 'cause I can always go to my Red9 and Blacktail to deal damage, even though I have to shoot at Krausers legs for a while until he kneels and then I can hit him. The minethrower and Broken Butterfly also work wonders in gettting past Krausers crappy, invincible arm thingy, but I can never beat him before the place collapse and then I end up dying anyway, and after ALL MY HARD WORK!!! -.-' eh, I already beat this thing on the PS2 though with tons of help. WHY CAN"T I BEAT YOU NOW, DAMN PC VERSION?!?!?
ahem, I've gone off track...So after a few hours of Res 4 a day, I gotta go spend some time with my gramps. He's pretty cool; like the wise guy from all those ancient kung fu movies who is all-powerful and has that long white beard. Except, my grandpa is cleanly shaven, so not really. Still, he's cool, and he got my dad addicted to this old novel written like fifty years ago.
My grandpa needs a lot of rest (he's recovering from a recent blood clot and a couple of surgeries), so instead of listening to him talk sometimes, I go listen to my grandma and aunt. My grandma's really healthy and she does everything around the house, but my aunt and cousins think she's too old and needs to just relax sometimes, so everyone is pretty much always working.
Starting in September, my aunt and cousins won't be around much to do the housework, so they've also hired a helper around the house, since I'm not sure what you'd call it. The person's name is Hien, and she's like family now, so we don't really think of her as hired help. I shall refrain from telling revealing details from her background.
My mom says all my cousins are crazy... Like I've said, there are two--Hoang Anh & Duy Anh. They're both in their twenties, but they seem pretty childish sometimes and you wouldn't know it if you didn't live with them. Duy Anh's still in college; majoring in business management I think, and Hoang Anh is going to beauty school (lol, he's gonna be a hairstylist) with his friend who is currently staying with my grandparents. They're planning on opening a salon and have been looking for a place to rent to open it. Hoang Anh might be going to Australia soon though, so his friend, whom(?) I call Paul, will be in charge of the salon. Right now, they're both obsessed with doing my hair, and really, I have to admit, it's not that bad... ^^
Other than hang out at my grandparents place, we also go visit my dad's dad, who is technically my grandpa, but it's less confusing to Vietnamese because he'd be Ong Noi while my mom's dad would be Ong Ngoai. Anyway, that concludes my mini language lecture...
My other grandpa's pretty old too, and has Alzheimers (I hope that's how you spell it) so he constantly forgets who me and my sister are. He know my dad and my uncles who are currently in Vietnam and San Diego though, so that's good enough.
My dad's side of the family is the richer one. His dad, my grandpa, is in the business of planting rubber trees and then selling them to companies to make erasers, shoes, tires, and anything else that might be made of rubber. Before the war, he was one of richest men in the region of Tay Ninh in Vietnam, but a lot of his property and acres of trees was stolen by the government during the war, but now he's rebuilt almost everything except he still doesn't have his beach house in Vung Tau back (I'm quite bitter because that was where we were planning to vacation to). However, (and I really don't want to go into family so much) my dad's oldest brother is an ass, and has taken every cent that my grandpa has so now the only thing the old man has is a Mercedes Kompresser and his driver, Sang. I'm also quite bitter about that too, but I don't really want to badmouth my uncle...stooping to his level is like eating elephant poo, which is probably really gross...
There's really nothing else that was interesting that happened in Tay Ninh where my dad's family is, so I'll skip to Vung Tau, which is a beach town on the east of Vietnam. We spent a day there, soaking in the sun and throwing mud/sand at each other. "Each other" meaning my mom's side of the family, plus my cousins, Paul, my mom, dad, and sister.
Vung Tau is pretty far from where my grandparents' house is (Cu Chi), so we had to rent a large van and hire a driver, since non of us are really qualified to drive a van. (In Vietnam, people drive mostly motorcycles, so you need a different license to drive a car.)
((Note to self: It's seems that frolicking in the sun might cause a very rare condition known as Kid-o-something-something, where a usually stern and mild-mannered adult will begin to act like an innocent adolescence, wherein the adult will suddenly aquire an urge to throw mud at random people.))
So, to say this all in one paragraph, the beach was fun. My grandparents ended up sunbathing most of the time, and me, my cousins, and Hein ended up picking up Paul (each person gets a hand or foot!) and throwing him in the water! ^_^ That was fun but then he got us back by throwing mud/sand at all of us. Man, we can't win against him... ^^;
After spending the morning at the beach, we left to get some lunch, and then my cousins took us to this place, which I have no idea what it's called, to take a mud bath. Except, the mud bath was about $30.00-$40.00 USD for each person, so we ended up just soaking our feet in these hot springs. Then we had some boiled eggs, and the thing is that you boil them yourself the natural hot water.
The rest of the day was devoted to shopping for seafood in a city near Vung Tau...
And really, that's it. There's really nothing else that's very interesting, worth posting here...
Unless you count the plane ride back to Boston, which was pretty much the same to Vietnam, except I had more jetlag and my stomach wouldn't stop hurting. I was also just slightly PMSing, so all the security dudes were annoying as hell...
The End.
---
Anyway, the plane trip to and from Vietnam usually takes up about a day. It's pretty much divided into three short trips; Boston to San Fransisco; San Fransisco to Hong Kong; Hong Kong to Vietnam. The trip from SF to Hong Kong is about 13 hours, so I spent half a day just sitting there on a crappy 747 United airplane acting like one of the living dead zombies! omg or like one of those crazy Granados from Res 4.
And speaking of Resident Evil 4, that's about the only video game I could lay my hands on in Vietnam. Usually, one of my cousins, and there are two, takes me and my dad to this pirated video game store (it's actually just PC games and softwar, but a girl can dream), cuz that's the only way one can get a copy of Just Cause. We ended up buying a $100 dollars worth of software and videogames (trust me, these places are really cheap though, 'cause I got Adobe Photoshop PS3 for only the equivilent of around $3.00 USD).
That was how I ended up with the worst copy of Resident Evil 4, because the PC version just doesn't chalk up to the Wii version (or in my case, the PS2 one), which I need to get. I also got the new Oblivion game, but our laptop doesn't have enough RAM so the graphics were crappy and it was slow and I ended up dying/quitting even before I got out of the dungeon... ANYWAY, that was my first day in Vietnam--spending an hour looking through binders of pirated computer software and games and trying to install them on a laptop to see if they worked.
So yeah, that was how I spent my free time, trying to beat Res 4 on the laptop and getting interrupted every few minutes by my grandparents/aunt/cousins. Currently, I'm trying to kick Krausers ass in the ruins on Saddler's Island, stocked w/ a handgun, Punisher, Red9, and Blacktail with about 50 9mm bullets. I also have a TMP complete with stock and upgraded to hold 150 bullets, though I only have about half of that amount of ammo. Then, there's the empty shotgun, a fully stocked rifle w/ scope, a Broken Butterfly with 3 bullets, and a minethrower with 3 mines.
As you can see, I barely have any ammo left, though that's not much of a problem 'cause I can always go to my Red9 and Blacktail to deal damage, even though I have to shoot at Krausers legs for a while until he kneels and then I can hit him. The minethrower and Broken Butterfly also work wonders in gettting past Krausers crappy, invincible arm thingy, but I can never beat him before the place collapse and then I end up dying anyway, and after ALL MY HARD WORK!!! -.-' eh, I already beat this thing on the PS2 though with tons of help. WHY CAN"T I BEAT YOU NOW, DAMN PC VERSION?!?!?
ahem, I've gone off track...So after a few hours of Res 4 a day, I gotta go spend some time with my gramps. He's pretty cool; like the wise guy from all those ancient kung fu movies who is all-powerful and has that long white beard. Except, my grandpa is cleanly shaven, so not really. Still, he's cool, and he got my dad addicted to this old novel written like fifty years ago.
My grandpa needs a lot of rest (he's recovering from a recent blood clot and a couple of surgeries), so instead of listening to him talk sometimes, I go listen to my grandma and aunt. My grandma's really healthy and she does everything around the house, but my aunt and cousins think she's too old and needs to just relax sometimes, so everyone is pretty much always working.
Starting in September, my aunt and cousins won't be around much to do the housework, so they've also hired a helper around the house, since I'm not sure what you'd call it. The person's name is Hien, and she's like family now, so we don't really think of her as hired help. I shall refrain from telling revealing details from her background.
My mom says all my cousins are crazy... Like I've said, there are two--Hoang Anh & Duy Anh. They're both in their twenties, but they seem pretty childish sometimes and you wouldn't know it if you didn't live with them. Duy Anh's still in college; majoring in business management I think, and Hoang Anh is going to beauty school (lol, he's gonna be a hairstylist) with his friend who is currently staying with my grandparents. They're planning on opening a salon and have been looking for a place to rent to open it. Hoang Anh might be going to Australia soon though, so his friend, whom(?) I call Paul, will be in charge of the salon. Right now, they're both obsessed with doing my hair, and really, I have to admit, it's not that bad... ^^
Other than hang out at my grandparents place, we also go visit my dad's dad, who is technically my grandpa, but it's less confusing to Vietnamese because he'd be Ong Noi while my mom's dad would be Ong Ngoai. Anyway, that concludes my mini language lecture...
My other grandpa's pretty old too, and has Alzheimers (I hope that's how you spell it) so he constantly forgets who me and my sister are. He know my dad and my uncles who are currently in Vietnam and San Diego though, so that's good enough.
My dad's side of the family is the richer one. His dad, my grandpa, is in the business of planting rubber trees and then selling them to companies to make erasers, shoes, tires, and anything else that might be made of rubber. Before the war, he was one of richest men in the region of Tay Ninh in Vietnam, but a lot of his property and acres of trees was stolen by the government during the war, but now he's rebuilt almost everything except he still doesn't have his beach house in Vung Tau back (I'm quite bitter because that was where we were planning to vacation to). However, (and I really don't want to go into family so much) my dad's oldest brother is an ass, and has taken every cent that my grandpa has so now the only thing the old man has is a Mercedes Kompresser and his driver, Sang. I'm also quite bitter about that too, but I don't really want to badmouth my uncle...stooping to his level is like eating elephant poo, which is probably really gross...
There's really nothing else that was interesting that happened in Tay Ninh where my dad's family is, so I'll skip to Vung Tau, which is a beach town on the east of Vietnam. We spent a day there, soaking in the sun and throwing mud/sand at each other. "Each other" meaning my mom's side of the family, plus my cousins, Paul, my mom, dad, and sister.
Vung Tau is pretty far from where my grandparents' house is (Cu Chi), so we had to rent a large van and hire a driver, since non of us are really qualified to drive a van. (In Vietnam, people drive mostly motorcycles, so you need a different license to drive a car.)
((Note to self: It's seems that frolicking in the sun might cause a very rare condition known as Kid-o-something-something, where a usually stern and mild-mannered adult will begin to act like an innocent adolescence, wherein the adult will suddenly aquire an urge to throw mud at random people.))
So, to say this all in one paragraph, the beach was fun. My grandparents ended up sunbathing most of the time, and me, my cousins, and Hein ended up picking up Paul (each person gets a hand or foot!) and throwing him in the water! ^_^ That was fun but then he got us back by throwing mud/sand at all of us. Man, we can't win against him... ^^;
After spending the morning at the beach, we left to get some lunch, and then my cousins took us to this place, which I have no idea what it's called, to take a mud bath. Except, the mud bath was about $30.00-$40.00 USD for each person, so we ended up just soaking our feet in these hot springs. Then we had some boiled eggs, and the thing is that you boil them yourself the natural hot water.
The rest of the day was devoted to shopping for seafood in a city near Vung Tau...
And really, that's it. There's really nothing else that's very interesting, worth posting here...
Unless you count the plane ride back to Boston, which was pretty much the same to Vietnam, except I had more jetlag and my stomach wouldn't stop hurting. I was also just slightly PMSing, so all the security dudes were annoying as hell...
The End.