Heading Up To Shanghai

On Sunday our group split up with Rudy and Grant heading back home while Nanyoung, Jaimie and I headed down to Ho Chi Minh to shop for planters and wicker. The temperature and humidity were much better in Vietnam. Not to say it was cool by any measure but a little less oppressive.

Having completed our mission in Saigon we now head north to Shanghai. We will spend 2 days there before heading southwest into Huangzhou: a van ride in and a train ride out. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we will continue to avoid the pollution. We have been very lucky so far!

Friday morning will begin the long journey home. Shanghai to Narita. Narita to Seattle. And finally Seattle to Boise.

I am looking forward to something BBQ'd, dry air and of course Deb. My bed, the cats, not moving everyday, tap water I can trust, being able to drive and not having to go through passport control on a daily basis sounds good too!

Gear and body are holding up well so far with no food poisoning. This is always a real concern with all of the crazy things we end up eating. In Ho Chi Minh, after a 3 hour van ride, in a stiflingly hot open warehouse, we were served a "home cooked" authentic Vietnamese lunch. This had been prepared by one of the vendor's staff the night before and was lovingly served with all of the trimmings. Now we have done business with this vendor for 10 years. Refusal would be a huge insult and damage our relationship with them greatly! Not to mention, the lunch looked and smelled Damn Good!

The lunch WAS fantastic! Shrimp mash BBQ'd around a piece of sugarcane, a pork meatloaf hand molded and grilled on a stick, beef dumplings cooked in a leaf wrap, and a salad. This was served with Vietnamese iced coffee, coconut water served in the nut and various fresh local fruit.

So let's list off the red flags, shall we...

* Ice made with local water melting into my coffee.
* Lettuce in the salad, fertilized how, washed in local water.
* Local meat and seafood purchased from a street vendor and prepared in someone's kitchen?
* Refrigeration is not all that common in Vietnam, so how long has all this been sitting at room temperature?
* Let's say all of these concerns are moot and we just don't have the right bugs in our gut to deal with something everyone locally has no problem with.

Back to lunch. We all ate up and enjoyed the meal while pushing back all of the many concerns. I ate every bit. I also took a Cipro and passed them out "like candy" to my travel mates. (Discreetly, of course.) I mentally calculate 16 hours into the future and we wait to see what happens. The next morning we are all fine but you do go through this thought process with pretty much everything you eat over here. And it does start to take it's toll on you as you wonder how long you can go before you end up "Driving the porcelain bus" or "Talking to Ralf on the big white phone!"

Now having eaten in China, India, Nicaragua, Mexico, Taiwan, Panama, Honduras, Belize, Costa Rica, a place called McDonald's and few other scary places that the government won't let me tell you about, I MIGHT have built up a tolerance.

Until I know any different, I'll use this theory to bolster my spirits, when, in the middle of the night, I wake up not... quite... feeling... right.

"The Lunch"

Location:Over The South China Sea