In this week of travel we fit in a lot of activity. Most notably we went on a tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels (day 194 below) where we got to experience what the VC fighters and locals had to endure during the war. On that tour AC also shot an AK47 which felt like lighting money on fire. We also spent a lot of time in district 1 visiting the main sites and taking a rooftop tour bus around the city (day 197).

Travel Log: Day 192 (1/5), Vietnam

My sleep last night was decent, a 75 but I would argue I slept a little better than that. My day was pretty good from a negative thoughts perspective. I’ve just about worried about this current thing to saturation, where I think my brain is starting to settle into acceptance of all possibilities.

School was back on today, the start of a new semester. We did it straight through from 8am to noon. It’s nice having that routine back to fill our days.

In the afternoon I got productive and solicited product ideas from the family. They gave me things that they wished they had on this gap year, or annoyances we encountered. I’m going to use one of their ideas or one of my ideas to build a product. This is mainly to get caught up on tech, using the latest AI tech available to build it. I’m pretty excited to see what this will be like, because I expect AI to be my skilled developer and I can be the architect. It might be inspiring to see what I can accomplish when I don’t have to manually bang out tedious amounts of code.

I started by talking to Claud about this and getting a rundown of where to start. I’m leading off by using a fork of VS Code called Cursor which has deep AI integration. I got that set up and created a github account that I tied into Cursor. My plan is to start by building a gap year itinerary planner and cost tracker like I did with the gap year places spreadsheet. Claud gave me advice on where to deploy it, one spot for the API and one for the UI. Between the domain and hosting costs it would only be about $15/month, mainly for the API hosting and the cert.

In the evening AC redeemed her movie night coupon and we watched Mighty Ducks. The coupons are almost gone thank god. JC and I agreed we will never give this amount of coupons out again. It was a good option for gifts on this gap year though, seeing as how we can’t carry a bunch of physical gifts.

Travel Log: Day 193 (1/6), Vietnam

Normal school day from 8am to noon. JC and I went to the gym during a stretch of subjects where the kids didn’t need us.

For lunch we went to this Pho place we see out our window. It was the most awkward ordering experience yet. It was a system of you pick the entree, the size, and a noodle option. The multi-option thing with our server speaking zero english made it hard. JC and I are both feeling a little worn down by these encounters.

We watched the Broncos in the afternoon, and then settled for an easy dinner of Artisan.

Travel Log: Day 194 (1/7), Vietnam

Today we went to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels, which took up our whole day. The day got a shotgun start when I checked traffic while we were getting ready this morning. I found the trip to the pickup point (opera house) was running over 30 minutes, double the expected time. That’s all the time we even had left to get there, so we rushed out and got a Grab. We were supposed to get there between 8-8:10am, which we barely did at 8:08. The van hadn’t yet arrived though so it was fine.

The drive took over two hours each way. On the way there we stopped at an art shop staffed by disabled Vietnamese. We donated money rather than buying the art, but only because we can’t carry anything else with us on this trip. The art however was beautiful. It was a rare time where I saw several things I would love to have in our house. They produced it using this black slate of some sort and buffed in textured items which made a smooth to the touch image. Hard to explain and we weren’t supposed to take pictures.

At another stop they allow you to shoot guns for a fortune. BC wanted to do it but they said he was too small. AC all the sudden wanted to do it, and I didn’t think quick enough to veto it once I learned we had to buy at least 10 bullets at $3/bullet. It was $30 down the drain in about 20 seconds. She wasn’t even shooting near the target. When I asked her afterward why that was, she said she didn’t aim or realize she was supposed aim.

The tunnels were the final stop and it was really revealing of the harsh conditions the VC lived in. I went through the shortest and longest tunnels, and AC/BC/JC did all of the others as well. They were incredibly cramped and pretty scary really. For me to walk through them I had to get into a deep squat to where I could nearly put my hands on the ground. It was humid, hot, lacking air, tight, and panic inducing. In the long tunnel you get to a central room where you can stand before having to finish the route.

At the tunnel site there was also some old military equipment, but we didn’t have a lot of time to look at it before they rushed us off to the tunnels.

On the way back we stopped at a restaurant and we only ordered coffee and smoothies. The rest of the ride home felt long and uncomfortable. We had jelly legs after our massive leg workout the day before, and the massive leg workout in the tunnels.

For dinner we ate a restaurant called Beer Studio. We had a mixup with the server and only got one fish and chips for AC and I, but somehow an extra ramen bowl, so it all evened out.

Travel Log: Day 195 (1/8), Vietnam

Normal school morning today. We went to Artisan for lunch because it’s easy, and we outvoted AC 3 to 1. I’m not sure where she wanted to go.

In the afternoon we celebrated JC’s 91 sleep score with ice cream, and we watched Stranger Things. I actually got an 89 as well, so honorable mention for me. JC’s score was like a total solar eclipse though as she never approaches that sort of score.

AC is dead set on getting her hair died, just on the inside from what I understand. There’s some term for it that I don’t care enough to look up. It’s going to cost upwards of $126 which is basically all the money she has. I guess it’s her money to spend.

For dinner we just had stuff from Circle K, except for me. Nothing there sounded good, so I just had fruit and protein.

Travel Log: Day 196 (1/9), Vietnam

The day started real early with a phone call I’ve been dreading for over two weeks now. It turned out to not be what I thought it was, and was a relatively minor issue at least so far. It’s basically an identity theft situation but as far as I can tell nothing has been impacted yet.

School proceeded mostly as normal, but AC started early. She had an appointment at 11am to get her hair dyed. It took four hours and cost her $124. That’s a substantial savings over US prices, but still a lot.

JC and I lifted weights today while the kids were in self-directed subjects.

In the afternoon BC and I finished watching an episode of Trent The Traveler. After that I did some work on setting up docker and getting a database running. Then I put together a projected budget for January, and the numbers look fine there. I also researched our next stop after Thailand which will likely be Sri Lanka.

JC and I avoided drinking, which was tough on a Friday. We went for a walk and then watched the same youtube videos we normally would, but sober. It was actually really good, and it was nice fully remembering the videos. It was JC’s pick for movie night and she chose “Confessions Of A Shopaholic”.

Travel Log: Day 197 (1/10), Vietnam

This morning we had a new issue with the condo pop up. AC was in the living room and said the floor sunk and she had to grab a chair to steady herself. It left a ridge in the tiles running down a grout line. We contacted the host and avoided that area of the floor. She had the cleaner look at it, and contacted us later saying she would need 2-3 days for a crew to fix it. She asked if we had any trips planned, and offered another of her units, but said it might be smaller. We are seeing if we can get one of those rather than forcing a trip somewhere.

Around 3:30pm before the cleaner came, we went back over to the opera house area to hit some of those sites. We went to the post office, around Notre Dame, and then to the Ben Tahn Market. The market was productive actually. JC and I found replacements for our small backpacks. AC got some shorts, and BC got a watch.

For dinner we ate some random stuff. I had a thing that looked like a Somosa for less than $1. JC and AC had sticky rice. All of that was from street vendors. BC had a croissant from Starbucks. After that we went on the rooftop tour bus, which after dark was very asthetic.

Travel Log: Day 198 (1/11), Vietnam

Today was light on activity. JC and I went running this morning at the gym, and we had Artisan for both breakfast and lunch.

We planned our Sri Lanka leg today, and pretty much have it figured out. In the middle of the planning I fell asleep hard for about 1.5 hours. It was a big nap for getting an 88 sleep score last night. I had to really drag myself out of the nap to wake up and could have slept longer.

With the floor issue going on, we decided we would go to the nearby beach area at Vung Tau whenever the crew begins fixing it. The host said they would need a few days. The maintenance people came by briefly to look at the floor, and we’ll wait to hear when we need to be gone. The beach area is going to be pretty cool I think. We’ll take a boat all the way to that area, and the Airbnbs are really nice and cheap.

AC and I watched stranger things, and then JC and I watched 11.22.63 which is going to be a great series.