All that's missing is Dick Clark...

Maybe it’s fitting that my journey should end with a tiger after a terrifying beginning and my tenuous toe throughout the trip...this time the experience was a little tamer. "Chuc Mung Nam Moi" was plastered on most billboards and could be heard everywhere as celebrations for Tet 2010, the year of the Tiger were in full swing throughout Ho Chi Minh City.

We arrived in Vietnam knowing that Tet, the lunar New Year, celebrations would be underway. We were NOT prepared for the extent to which then Vietnamese celebrate this holiday. On the days leading up to the big day the locals prepare by decorating their homes with flowers, cooking up a storm and cleaning. For the tourist strolling the streets this means a unique opportunity to see flower vendors that stretch for blocks, markets open for 24 hours a day and not a speck of garbage or dirt anywhere.

One of our biggest decisions this entire trip was deciding where to ring in the lunar New Year. To help with this momentous decision we turned to the 'Book' - 1000 Places to See Before You Die - and reserved a table on the roof of the Rex Hotel. This hotel served as a home base for many news correspondents during the Vietnam conflict.

As you can imagine it was a party like no other. It was one of those absolutely surreal WTF moments. I sat at one point and looked around, wondering what I am doing on a rooftop in Saigon, eating crocodile while a man in a white leisure suit sings Frank Sinatra classics. My deep and pondering thoughts were interrupted by a fantastic show of fireworks to cap the evening.

Just a few hours later Christopher was departing back to North America leaving me alone in the city to face the day of Tet, which happened to be Valentine's Day. I don't think I realized just how alone I would be. It turns out that the entire city shuts down to celebrate at home with their families. Walking the streets is like strolling through an abandoned city; tumbleweed blew across my path as I entered the ONLY open restaurant in the city - the KFC.

So I ended my fantastic 3 week trip through SE Asia with a bucket of popcorn chicken in my hotel room in Ho Chi Minh City. It wasn't a bad ending; it gave me a chance to think back and reflect on everything that I was able to see and do. I slept in a tiny capsule in Tokyo. I held a tiger cub (and almost lost a toe to one). I rode a bike, sort of, over the world's longest bamboo bridge. I visited another 7 of the '1000 places to see before I die'. I survived third world public transportation. I rode an elephant. I accidentally interrupted a cock fight. I dined on some delicious street food. I watched the sunrise over the amazing ruins of Angkor Wat. I learned to scuba dive (and almost drown). I relaxed in a hammock in the heart of the Mekong Delta. I almost vomited on a monk in Thailand. I saw amazingly ostentatious palaces and temples. I watched the Olympic Opening ceremonies in a bar in Saigon. I fed a monkey. I ate the leg of a tarantula. I let fish nibble the dead skin off my feet. I met simply amazing people in every country.

I know I commonly write about the missteps that I encounter on my journeys and to those who read the glimpses that I finally get around to sharing it must seem like a nightmare. I want to assure you that many times it is. I have yet to be on a vacation that I haven't wanted to abandon at some point. But there is so much more...I don't have the ability to communicate to you all the amazing things that I have the chance to see and do. I am truly luckily to have the chance to experience it all and I am so thankful that many of you choose to be with me along for the ride...until the next time.