Well hi there!

[Pandarian]

[awcurl]

[EvilMel]

[ct_vol]

Glad you're back Donny!!! Did you have a fun trip??? Post some pics...

[Pandarian]

Thanks Randy. It was a great trip. I guess nobody figured out the hidden message in my first post.

[ct_vol]

Freaking sweet... Thanks for sharing...


So what are all those little trees??? Are they like Vietnamese Bonsais??? Is that your crazy Arrowana you were talking about??? Ummm, what kind of dog is that??? And do they eat Mantis shrimp over there???

[acrodave]

VERY cool pics!!!!!!

[fishdoc11]

OK I'm lost but that's nothing new.

[acrodave]

click on the little yellow guy Chris

[Pandarian]

Thanks Randy and Dave.

The trees are just bonsai. I don't think theres a Vietnamese bonsai. There were alot of them though.

Those are the elusive arowanas that I want. The babies were around $75-100. There is a red one in one of those pictures. He was priced at $8,000. The Gold ones are even more sought after. I kinda quit asking questions after that though.

Have no idea what kind of dog that is. He just wanders in my Grandmothers house. They don't own him, but he just strolls around like he owns the place.

Mantis shrimp are sort of expensive over there. Not many people eat them. I had about 15 or so. They are meh at best. It tastes exactly like crabs, but much more painful to eat. The spines on the thing are no joke. Theres actually not much meat to them as big as they look.

[tangboy]

Dangit... makes me sad seeing those mantis, I just got mine a couple weeks ago.

Trip looked fun, give us some details!

Glad your back safe!

[fishdoc11]

Duh! .....thanks Dave.


Great pics Donny! Thanks for sharing


What part of the country were you in?


Chris

[ct_vol]

So were all those from the Oceanographic Museum??? Looked like some were from the exporter or whatever... Does your family own the furniture making place??? Nice pics of the plants too... Did you take any pics while diving???

[Lint_Licker]

OTF's Website

[Pandarian]

Geoff - Don't be sad about the mantis. They were delicious. I've kept mantises in the past, and still have a peacock. That made me want to try them even more. I guess there is to much for details, but you can ask all the questions that you want.

Chris - Thanks man. I was in southern VN. I went to Saigon, Quang Ngai, and Nha Trang.

Randy - You are right. One set of pictures was from the Oceanographic Institute. It use to be a University, but since then, they've changed it to a museum. The other set of pictures was from a exporter. It was actually my Aunt/Uncle's best friends that own it. They export to many countries including the US. The furniture place is owned by extended family. My dad is trying to do some work with them for a company here in the states. Most of the plant pictures was thanks to my dad. I'm not a huge fan of plants, so he took most of those pictures. No pictures while diving. I need to get a underwater housing. The visibility was low, but it was a great place to dive.

OTF is a Arowana breeding farm. Asian arowanas are endangered, so the only ones that are available come from farms. They are cites/ava certified and microchipped. The store I went to only sold arowanas, and only sold arowanas from OTF. Because they are captive bred, they command a hefty price tag. I've wanted one for a few years now, but US regulations will not allow keeping any endangered species even if they are captive bred. They cannot be imported in, but that doesn't say that you couldn't get one. I'll own one one day.

[fishdoc11]

Very cool Donny I was enthralled with the war for a few years and later the history of the country (I am a big history buff). I imagine it's a beautiful place.
I would love to travel there someday. I bet the food you had was a little better than the Chinese buffet I had in Severville today
take care, Chris

[Pandarian]

Some parts of the country were beautiful. For the most part though, it was run down and pretty dirty. It is a developing country after all.

The food wasn't much more different than a home cooked meal. It was still really good. I couldn't have fresh vegetables or ice though, for risk of getting sick.

[eyebedam]

Those pics were awesome. The one pic of the empty tank looked like a glasscages tank... The scenry there looks amazing.

[Pandarian]

Thanks Jason. Most of the tank that I saw were built. No big manufacturers from what I could tell. I'm sure there is one though.

[EvilMel]

I completely missed the whole "click on the yellow guy" thing too.

I feel stupid.

[imsqueak]

Cool pics Donny. Sounds like you enjoyed it.

Bizarre Foods/Andrew Zimmerman on Travel channel in Vietnam at 8pm. I've been watching this series and No Reservations/Anthony Bourdane lately. Wild and gross but I like it.

I'm doing a 2 wk Asia trip end of Feb (Seoul, HKG, Shanghai, Taipei) and looking forward to trying some different foods.

[fishdoc11]

Originally posted by imsqueak

Bizarre Foods/Andrew Zimmerman on Travel channel in Vietnam at 8pm. I've been watching this series and No Reservations/Anthony Bourdane lately. Wild and gross but I like it.

I've been watching those as well when I get the chance....both cool shows.

[acrodave]

yeah they are . The nastier the food the more i want to watch

[Pandarian]

I didn't really eat anything weird. I was actually very careful of what I ate. Spending 3 weeks with a stomach virus didn't seem like a fun idea to me.

Don, that awesome man. I want to visit the rest of the Asias someday.

[imsqueak]

The owner of our Korean agent has an office in Vietnam (HCM) and now he wants me to go there, then Canton then play golf near Guangzhou on Saturday. This is going to be a dream trip! I flew in about 3 million lbs of air cargo last year so these agents LOVE me. It's going to be first class. I'll rest when I get back.