Maddaus and Company Part 2

In a five day nonstop tour of Viet Nam, Dr. Maddaus and his college-age kids Max and Mike stood like oak trees, experiencing the historic underground military Cu Chi tunnels, ultra cheap Vietnamese massage, overwhelming gawking crowds in quaint rural towns, and the unbeatable hospitality of the Viet people. From the moment the Maddaus crew hit the Sai Gon airport running, the crowds of chaos hit them 360. A little Viet women at the baggage claim threw big bad Max to the side like a small package of Raman noodles in the fight to leave the airport first. Massive crowds of Viets eagerly swarm the exit doors waiting to pick up their arrivals. The ratio of 1 passenger to 10 friends/relatives at the airport created a rock star celebrity type atmosphere.

With their first visit to a developing country, Dr. Maddaus and company wanted to vicariously experience the beauties, hardness, and realities of Viet life. In contrast, typical Vietnamese tourists want to only experience the “Disney Land” life of their destination because a vacation is an opportunity to escape reality and find paradise. Thus, to the Viet people, American tourist taking snapshots of dilapidated buildings, grubby alleyways, and depressingly poor seem absurd, especially without people in the image.

With the help of Hoai’s well-connected Uncle Cong, we hit Sai Gon high class tourist district with some classy seafood to the straight up all Viet dish, Banh Xeo with fish sauce. To balance the big modern life of Viet Nam, Maddaus’ tour company steered them to the Mekong delta to see the Western influences stripped away from the Vietnamese traditional life. Pushed around in Cyclos and not enticed by the persistent, but wickedly silent postcard selling children, their intense five days in Viet Nam left them wanting to come back.

As a side note Dr. Maddaus kindly did a sympathectomy on me for my hyperhydrosis of the palms (AKA sweaty icky hands that caused me a lifetime of anxiety and bad news at high school dances) after my surgery rotation with him was over. He cured it!! And as of today, he remains as one of my favorite characters and physicians. I am blessed to have him as a friend.