VNPhotoGallery Blog

My first visit to Viet Nam was in July 1999, after arriving from a long flight from Lansing, MI to Chicago, to LAX, to Japan, to Saigon. We get to Vietnam and head over to the home of my fiance’s Uncle. The future wife was sitting there sewing when I finally grabbed the camera and took my first photo. She was waving and telling me there will be time for photos later.

The flight to Japan, we had a overnight stay at a really nice hotel at Osaka Airport. My meal however was nasty at an airport restaurant and quite expensive (almost 50.00). The next morning we found a noodle shop and have a wonderful cheap breakfast. Then headed towards Check-in. I was amused watching a Vietnamese friend ask for directions to our gate. The help desks had a hard time understanding him, and prolly didn’t help that I was laughing hard in the background; as they all started to laugh.

But we made it and were off to Saigon. My first trip to Vietnam; the airplane stopped far away from any civilization and we had to board a bus to take us to the airport. It was so nice and cool on the airplane, however once stepping out into the open of Vietnam, it was like an oven.

Customs and Checkin was quite an experience. What seemed like 1000’s of people pushing and shoving to get their luggage. While standing in line to leave the airport I saw 2 faces outside stairing at me. It was the future Mrs. DJT and her best friend. Then the line moved and I looked up and they were gone. A sea of 1000’s waiting for all of us to come outside. I pulled my first “life of djt……….” as I was exiting the airport. I was pushing the cart with my luggage and dumped it all in front of everyone.

My first night in Vietnam was at the Queen Hotel (which is no longer there). It was a cheap place that shook everytime a big truck went to the harbor. And it had ants in the bathroom, which I killed with my 99% deet bug spray. Sadly I never took a picture of the hotel.

As for more time to take pictures…… we went to Vung Tau next and I took several along the way, which I’ll post in a day or 2 or 3.

Back in 1998, I was asked by a friend to write a letter to her cousin in Viet Nam. I did thinking nothing would ever come of it, but maybe something would. And something did. One year after writing my letter, I traveled to Vietnam in July 1999 to meet my future wife to be.

In July 1999, I spent 3 weeks in Saigon, Vung Tau, Hoi An, Da Nang and Hue.

After the first trip, I started the INS paper work and finally paddle through the papers and was able to visit Viet Nam again in February 2001. But this this time, the future wife to be came to the States with me. My brother went with me this time and we were in Saigon for 1 week with tour trips to Cu Chi and the MeKong Delta.

In 2005, my brother and his wife, my wife and I went for another 2 week visit to Saigon and Hue. We also visited Cu Chi, Tay Ninh and the Mekong Delta again.

I’ll be previewing some of my favorite photos below with a short story about the picture.

Thank you for visiting.