Mekong trip

As mentioned in my last post, we made a trip this weekend to the Mekong Delta.

It was a very early start. I was being pickup at at 4am at my place and met with my ladies at 5pm on the other side of Ho Chi Minh City.

Then we headed towards the Mekong Delta. Weather was nice and we saw a beautiful sunrise:

Of course there is always time for a selfie in Vietnam...

Lotus field

When we arrived, we first made our welcome drink ourselves from freshly harvested coconuts:

We have been very warmly welcomed by the family. They showed us their property, where they grow coconuts, mangoes, jack-fruits, bananas and chili.

Another little member of the family:

In order to see the chili field, we had to make a little hike, and cross the "monkey bridge"

Chili field

Dried bananas

Coconuts

Jackfruit

View to the Mekong River

Ripe green mangoes

The family prepared a very nice traditional lunch for us.

After we left the family, we continued to another place, where we could see a little plantation, where they grow mandarins.

This little guy accompanied us on the plantation:

This day was absolutely amazing! This is the real Vietnam. I've been told, that I have been the first foreigner in the village. Well, I could feel it a bit, as people were staring at me. One woman even touched me and wanted to shake my hand, as she never had seen a paleface/long nose, in her life before. 

The people are so friendly and have great hospitality. They don't have much, but they share as much as possible. This is definitely something unforgettable. I hope I can go back there once again.  

Holiday

Yes, I know, it's now more than a month, that I haven't posted anything. My excuses are: Much workload, but mainly, not much interesting to write during the days before christmas.

I went back home to Europe for christmas. First 3 days back to Switzerland to report to the Headquarters. Was really nice to see all colleagues and friends back there. We had a beautiful christmas party, and my colleagues James and Cecilia from China where there as well. Christmas and New Year I celebrated amongst my friends and family.

I realised immediately that I was being back in Germany, when a friendly older woman shouted at me that I was walking on the wrong side of the pedestrian crossing. I just friendly asked back, if she hadn't any other problems...

As well the political development in Germany is shocking. People all over Germany going on the streets and protesting against Muslims and Refugees. I'm really worried about the common sense  and openness in Germany. Obviously this is something which becomes very rare virtues and values.

Anyhow, I had very busy, but very beautiful times, with my friends and family. 

Played 9 Holes in a Golf Simulator, had nice lunches and dinners, went "ice"running, played badminton, enjoyed 20cm of snow and up to -18 degrees centigrade. Real winter in Germany - Excellent! 

However, when coming back to Vietnam, you miss them and your home even more. Of course you have to bare a few disappointments with so called "friends" as well, but that's life.

I got myself a GoPro for christmas, to make some "race" movies of the traffic in Ho Chi Minh City. Hope I can try it out soon. 

Well, on the 3rd of January, I was intending to fly back. But I wasn't successful. Coming to Munich airport, I was told at the check-in, that my flight from Abu Dhabi has been cancelled due to Fog. Maybe you have heard about this incident in Abu Dhabi (one plane needed 30 hours from Abu Dhabi to Düsseldorf because of that). So they told me to get in line at the ticket counter to rebook my flight. After almost 3 hours, I reached the ticketing agent (there was only one, and roughly 30 people ahead of me). Of course I tried to reach the Hotlines in Abu Dhabi and Germany as well, but without success. Unfortunately I couldn't fly the same day anymore, so the rebooked me on a flight with Qatar the next day. Ok, so we drove home again and came back to the Airport the next day. I could then check in after almost 1.5 hours since the booking was incorrect and had to be reissued by the original airline. Well, the positive thing was, that I could fly with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Beautiful plane! 

Flight to Ho Chi Minh City was basically without incidents. When arriving at HCMC, my boss from Switzerland was already waiting here. He spend almost the whole week here in order to meet some of our customers, agents, business partners and friends. We had a very nice time together (ok, what else am I supposed to write in a public blog ;)), but left me to clean up my apartment and emptying my suitcases only this weekend. 

One thing is currently very annoying in Vietnam, which is the internet connection. Apparently the overseas cable has been cut (2nd time this year), so the internet is damn slow. Depending on the provider it takes several minutes to open a homepage. Some providers obviously don't have such a bad performance (as our backup line in the office is much faster, than our regular line), but mobile network and home network is just crap currently. Cannot even do a Skype call in a proper manner. 

The coming weeks are pretty busy, but I'm really looking forward to them. I planned a little trip with my ladies next saturday to the Mekong Delta in order to see the real side of that area. Hope to make some nice pictures there.

Here the first shots of the new year: