Nina, our Chinese friend, who we knew during our time in Shanghai showed up on my aisle at work and I was able to say Hi. She immediately asked about the baby and then looked down at me and said, “ooh, you look pretty good.” I smiled both internally and externally as it was so refreshing to hear an honest assessment. An American would never say, “you look pretty good.” They would either say, “you look fantastic” or they would not say anything. After getting used to it, I love the honesty of the Chinese about physical attributes. While it can be a little startling at times, it is yet another breath of fresh air.

The humorous, obvious answer was their pigs. But the answer was incorrect because pigs should not be plural. It was their single pig.

The baby’s head is much smaller than my husbands. Maternity leaves in socialist countries rock!

I about jumped out of my shoes when the minister started reading a scripture about how the wife must submit to the husband and the husband must love his wife. Why and the hell must the only the wife submit? I knew that the minister had not gone over this prayer with Anna as she would surely have put the kibosh on this reading. In talking with her later, I found out that this was literally the only part of the ceremony that the minister had glossed over in the rehearsal.

Later Anna and Derik met up with us at our hotel and we pretty much spent the day hanging out by the pool and ocean, reading, swimming, enjoying food and drinks and relaxing in chairs and hammocks. It really doesn’t get much better than this. Later there was the usual afternoon downpour and it was probably good we all went inside for a bit as our skin had gotten more sun than we had expected. It is always crazy how easy it is to burn this close to the equator. My mom is still talking about how she cannot understand how she fried herself. It is quite easy to do here.

One final note about our driver…apparently his wife is big and mean and she beats him with the ubiquitous broom made from a coconut tree. He asked me if I wanted to purchase such a broom and I declined. Instead I found some beautiful red coral earrings at the bathroom/tourist gift shop along the way. I probably overpaid for them but they are a really unique, beautiful design.

We caught a 6:15 AM flight out of Shanghai which required us to get up “in the threes”, 3:15 AM to be exact. I was in a daze on the way to and at the airport. Around boarding time, I started to notice many of the male passengers dressed in Arab attire. Their presence caused me to think about my partially adopted, media-induced stereotypes I was trying to remove with this trip. I also hoped to remove some of my ignorance of the Arab culture.

Before I continue on with a description of the remainder of our tour, let me take a step back and explain what the tunnels of Cu Chi supposedly are. Andy was very aware of them, but I had not heard of them. Basically the tunnel system was reportedly used by the Viet Cong to house 16,000 people at one time or another during the Vietnam War. Since the area is near Saigon and relatively close to the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Laos and Cambodia, the tunnels were dug in order to hide from the French originally and then the later the Americans and South Vietnamese military. The trail system was multiple levels deep and housed everything from strategic war rooms to kitchens to places where weapons could be manufactured (actually remanufactured taking the left-over shells from the Americans.) As a side note, the reason I say “supposedly” is because the guide mentioned they are really not sure if these are the tunnels used by the Viet Cong or if the government dug them for tourist reasons. It is conceivable that they are real, but nobody knew the whole system, only small parts of it, so nobody will avouched for their authenticity.

Eighty-five percent of the 4.7M people on the island live in government-owned high rise apartments. They purchase them from the government and virtually everyone is ensured a roof over their heads. If someone is poor, they have apartments that cost $30 – $50 a month to rent. There are no unemployment checks for the 1.5% who are unemployed but the government will find jobs for those who are able to work. The government does not give out free money but instead will give those in need cheap rent or food. Rent in Singapore is the seventh highest in the world. Every five years, the government paints and renovates the flats so almost no buildings in Singapore appear run down. Most Singaporeans do not eat at home and prefer to eat out. Their kitchen is more of a showcase than having any sort of practical use.

As we motored down the river to the lake we were boarded by some kids in a small boat. They were selling sodas. After we said we did not want any, they jumped back into their little boat and went off to sell to other tourists. We passed a floating school on the way out to the lake. David explained that half the money we pay goes to the school. We finally made it to the lake. It was rather impressive because you could not see the other side. There were also many floating “homes” lined up near the shore. We went up and down the rows and finally ended up at a floating restaurant/gift shop. David said he wanted us to see the crocodiles. As soon as we got off a little girl came up to us with a python draped over her neck. She kept saying “one dollar”, “one dollar”. Alecia was a little freaked by the situation. We made our way over to the crocodile area and took a couple pictures. On the way back to the car we saw a lot of school kids who were commuting back to their floating homes in small little boats.