August 1:

I am in the Singapore airport now (have been here for 10 hours and have 2 more to go...). Luckily this airport is high tech, clean and has everything you could ever want! All is well and we are on to Vietnam in a couple hours... Let everyone know I am well so far...I will write a nice email from Vietnam where it is cheaper and when I have more time...

MOM, you are great to do the 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk, and I knew you could do it! I am sorry I wasn't there to experience it with you... at least your sons started and finished it with you :-)

August 4:

Hi All,

I am currently in Vietnam typing away on a nice new computer... Yes, they even have the Internet over here!

To first back up a little...

I started my adventure on July 30th from San Francisco with my girlfriend, Anh and our friend Anne. We flew 10 hours from SFO to Korea, had a 1.5 hour layover... flew another 5.5 hours to Singapore, spent 12 hours in the airport drinking, eating, playing cards, etc. On August 1st we flew to Ho chi Minh City (previously called Saigon) and arrived around 5pm.

Luckily we had two families waiting for us, because the hordes of people waiting was quite overwhelming. The ride to the hotel was also quite overwhelming because of the 3.2 million scooters and bicycles clogging the roads. We checked in to a nice hotel (about $30/day, but this rich friend of Anne's wants to pay for it!) and then immediately went to dinner (treated again by Anne's nice friend!)

After crashing at 9pm, Anh and I awoke around 4am and went downstairs to play cards... after only 2 hours I lost 150,000 dom to Anh. (Don't worry, that is only about 10 bucks!) Once Anne awoke we all went to a hair salon to get a nice hair wash and head massage. HEAVEN!

BUT NO, that wasn't enough. Anh and I then went to a spa to have a real massage for about an hour or so... All of this came out to be a whopping $25 for both of us. We had a nice lunch and now will continue with our adventure...

Basically this was my typically OVER long way of saying, I am here, I am safe and will think of you often! NOT!

love,
Stephen

August 6:

Hi to my great family!

I can honestly say I don't know what the day or date is... that's how relaxed I am!

Before I get into my trip, I want to say how amazed I am at the 3-day emails and website. I read everyone's comments and I got so emotional. I can't say enough at how proud I am of both of you. Mom of course did the walk, but she wouldn't have touched so many people if it weren't for dad. I am happy that dad got so many nice emails. Now he knows how I felt after all the videos I did for ultimate... when the team thanked me, I really knew they meant it. It was clear in those emails at how much those people meant it.

Onto my trip... In reverse order, we just got back from the Cu Chin tunnels outside of Ho Chi Minh city. These are the tunnels from the war that span 250 kilometers around the city. They are small, scarry and 10,000 people lived in these over the years. They took 20 years to build and the pain and suffering involved with all aspects of these are unimaginable. It pained me to think that politicians cause so much pain and suffering by starting wars! We got a guided tour through some that took us 30 meters underground crawling! Stop and take a moment to think about how good our lives are, because no one should have to endure that.

This morning (on a much higher note) we had another massage! I can get used to this life.

Yesterday we went to the town Vung Tau on the coast. It was a nice beach town where we ate a seafood lunch 2nd to none! Clams, fish, shrimp etc. all so tasty. The town was about 2 hours from the city. We also did some hiking up about 1,000 stairs in the 90 degree heat. It would have taken someone in as good a shape as mom not to get winded by that.

Notice how the details become less and less the farther back I go... that is because I am living in bliss and my memory doesn't remember anything but the present. We are going back to the spa tonight for some jacuzzi, sauna and massage. If you can put up with the traffic, noise and pollution of the city, you can find heaven here.

take care for now.
love,
Stephen

August 8:

Thanks for all your messages. Dad, we had already joked about how you would freak out if I attached some pictures from the trip already, but so far, nobody has firewire. Mom, Anh isn't bothered by the war stuff at all... only I was... strange huh? Update for you all now (to be placed on the website in 38 seconds please!)

My final 2 days in Vietnam were not what you would call very outgoing... After another jacuzzi, sauna, steamroom, and massage session we headed off to My Tho (Mee Taw) which is a bunch of islands around the delta (about 1.5 hours out of Ho Chi Minh). Each of these islands had different fruits and specialties and you ride around in a little Vietnamese motor boat (exactly the kind you picture in a Hong Kong Harbor etc.) to get to each of them. I was able to stick my finger in a honey bee honey comb thingee to taste real honey as it was being made... yummy!

We got back around 4pm and I started to feel bad, so Anh and I stayed in for the night while Anne went to visit her aunt again. I think I ate something bad and had a fever and stomach ache until this morning. Luckily I didn't throw up and everything was fine from the other end also...:-) The reason I tell you this is when Anne's aunt brought her back she gave me an old fashioned Vietnamese remedy. She took a US quarter and poured some herb type oil on my back. She commenced scratching my back with the quarter and oil until my back was bloody red in the shape of Native American war paint. Ya have ta try everything once... don't ya?

love,
Stephen