From Canada to Vietnam

BBQMy friend returned home the following day and we had a bit of a reunion….. BBQ steaks!! What can there be better than a 1 inch steak grilling on the BBQ? NOTHING…. SORRY!! I was again surprised that the cooler weather was not affecting me as I have become accustomed to plus 30 conditions. We headed out for a round of golf. My score was not nearly as bad as I expected after 15 years of non play. I was also amazed that there were no mosquitoes chasing me down. Another of my friends from Edmonton buzzed down on the motorcycle and joined the fun.  It was a nice visit with Ken and Danny. As it was with my friends in Edmonton but time to move on… Ken, Mai and I headed down to the Seattle area to visit with another Ken. There we launched a boat into the waters between Seattle and Port Orchard and tried to catch a Salmon a bit ahead of season. To our good fortune, the first day one of the Kens pulled in a decent sized fish. Cool……. I have never caught a Salmon before and the next one was my turn. My rod snapped down to almost touch thesteask water and I hastily grasped the line. I pulled it out of the holder and was doing everything correctly according to my fishing experience. The problem was that whatever I had on the line was stronger than me and I was dragged to the edge of the boat with the rod bent to almost the snapping point. Way cool!! I was getting heck and yelled instruction from the others as if I was doing something wrong, but that is the fishing frenzy taking over. I battled this fish for quite a while before having it swim under the motor. The Captain Ken was calling me to veer it away (as if I had any control of this beast) but as I tried to get it to the boat……. It broke away. I am standing there all sweaty and tired from the effort and the two Kens are giving me heck about how I did not land it correctly and then they saw the lure. The hook from the lure had been snapped of… AHA!!!! Not my fault. We headed back to shore with the one fish that Ken had caught. It was a decent size and we could do the FriendsUh.. Uh… Man caught food routine when we returned. The next day we went out again and I was fortunate enough to land a very sizable fish. The fight was nothing compared to the day before which leaves me wondering just how bit it was. I and one of the Kens saw it as it came up by the engines, and saw it was big, but it was under water and there was no way to tell for sure. It was time to say bye and I was very thankful that I decided to travel to the USA to visit my friend, and now we are off to Portland to deal with some family issues that have been of great concern to me for many years.

Mai and I arrived in Portland and were happy to see that our brothers and sisters were doing ok in the US economy. I was very concerned that this was going to be a battle due to greed, or dislike, or jealousy, but to my delight, we all got together and were able to clear the air and re-establish ties. I have loved my extended family since I got married butboat something happened to distance everybody. It seems we were able to work out all of the problems and we are a loving family again…… Sigh….. The joy!! To top it off… My sister Thanh (Tanya) runs a restaurant that has such good Hiu Tieu Bo Sate that I ate it 3 times for breakfast, lunch, and supper.  http://www.vivistheone.com/ Mai and I returned to Canada and had lunch with a very nice couple from Vancouver. We discussed some business and pleasure and look forward to them staying with us this year. Lastly we went to Victoria to stay with Mom and Dad. I was happy to see they are still in good health, my sister flew in to reclaim her vehicle (thanks soooo much Cathy) and we finished our Canada trip with a good old fashioned get together with all the arguing and bitching includes….. ahhhhhhhh. I was so afraid of returning to Canada, but in the end it turned out to be a good holiday….. HUH!!!! Who would have thought that returning home would be a holiday?  I fishspent time in Vancouver and Victoria making some sales calls for V’Explore. I had planned on visiting a customer and now friend that lives in Victoria but for some reason, my old foggy brail had me totally forget. Sorry Todd…..

The journey ends with Airline Adventures. I noticed that there was only 20 minutes to connect on our flight from Vancouver to Seattle. I phoned and was assured that the connection was valid…. Uh, Ok. Our flight was delayed and when we arrived in Seattle, we only had 5 minutes to connect. We ran and made it with the flight being held… I am thinking there is no way our bags could follow. We make it to our flight to Japan but it also gets delayed by hours. We get to Japan to have a car waiting for us for an emergency drive to our waiting flight. We are on the final flight and arrive in Saigon to a person with a sigh with my name on it…. Ok… What is it I ask? “oh I am sorry sir but your luggage has been misplaced” Yea…. I knew that would happen. We were not busy yet so we decided to stay a night in Saigon and see if the luggage showed up. Amazingly it did and we collected it for our exhausted trip home to Nha Trang.

It would have been nice to have a day or two to relax but that was not in the cards. I returned to have afun single day off before starting a 5 day highland tour from Nha Trang to Mui Ne with a wonderful couple…….Today is 19 days later before I returned home to my loving wife…. But that is another story.

 

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7 thoughts on “From Canada to Vietnam

  1. Hi Owen and Mai,

    Thank you for the wonderful stay at Riptide. Although we realized living with the locals was not for us, it was still worth the experience. The phenomenal seafood at the restaurant you recommended was one of the highlights of our stay. Another highlight is our time with you two, especially Mai. She’s an exceptional hostess and made our stay relaxing and comfortable. Don’t forget to see us again next time you’re in Canada.

    All the best,
    Chiqui and Lino

  2. It was an absolute pleasure meeting both of you! We are looking forward to seeing Vietnam for the first time next year. May our stay with you be the highlight of our trip!

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