Oh Vietnam!

There are many interesting observations all over the country...many of them force you to ask the question, "is this fascinating or ridiculous?"

- The "peace" symbol in ALL photos!
- Women wearing FULL coverage in 100 degree weather to prevent getting any sun exposure
- Stacking huge amounts of belongings or family members, or both, on one motorbike
- medical myths that plague Vietnam...eating shrimp causes you to have more scars if injured; pregnant women should not drive motorbikes in 3rd trimester; wearing glasses makes your eyes worse...
- All treble loud speaker "squawk box" playing 1950s communist tunes during "sport day" at school to get the kids pumped up!
- All Caucasian mannequins and models on packaging for food, diapers, cleaning products...
- There is not a good looking dog in this country. Period.
- you can wear your pajamas all day long. Real pajamas. With slippers.
- Vendors by the lake in the old quarter of Hanoi selling you a chance to get on a scale to see how many more laps around the lake it is going to take you to hit that goal weight! Back off lady...I am walking off my pho and Tiger beers!
- Welding, doing construction, plowing a field, driving, hiking...all in shower sandals
- Napkins at restaurants are really just slips of paper.
- Ear-piercing loud music in coffee shops at 6 am, on repeat of the same re-done Celine Dion hit
- Plastic chairs...everywhere
- The entire country is held together with chewing gum and paper clips. Craftsmanship is a loosely used term!
- Men getting their hair cut on the side of the freeway under an overpass, with a mirror hung up and in barber chair
- H'Mong girls following you for miles on your trek, even after you said "no thank you" to buying their trinkets
- The 3 month baby Buddha hair cut for good luck. Like a reverse bald spot on a baby
- Market vendors sell hot sauce in recycled water bottles. Restaurants also serve it this way.
- "Organic" traffic pattern. Driving the wrong way, turning in front of oncoming traffic, making a u-turn on a bridge, backing up on the on ramp of the freeway...
- Taxi drivers offering a ride to the domestic terminal at the airport, that is 300 feet away
- Ancient ethnic hill tribes, in traditional dress, walking over 10km carrying huge baskets of rice or corn...making a call on the side of the road on their cell phone.
- A family of three grown adults in two narrow bunks of the overnight train
- You can buy beer anywhere, from anyone, and drink it anywhere
- When someone in Vietnam says "five minutes," you can count on at least 20 minutes.
- The two-headed rain poncho
- The designer wares in Vietnam...obviously real! Haha. Louis Vitton motorbike helmet, Nike rain poncho, Coach plastic purse, Armani car freshener
- English is taught in all schools. Everyone is fluent in "hello" "how you?" "what's your name?" "where you from?" "I'm fine"

Hoi An with Mom

Tuesday morning last week, we go up, had our breakfast and coffee at cafe Ty and embarked upon a project. We took Hang with us to the market to buy blankets for the kids. Mehrnaz and her family donated money to buy the kids blankets for the upcoming cold fall and winter weather. So, we took the money and Hang with us to the market to get the blankets and take them to the house. The power was out that day, so just small lamps in the market. We found soft fleece blankets for the kids and bought 26. Well, since the lady only had 9 in her shop, she called and had someone bring some from wherever she keeps her extras! "five minutes" she told us. Then, another five minutes, and another five minutes. As we sweated, she would call and yell at whomever was bringing these blankets piled on a motorbike somewhere. Thus, we learned the lesson of the "Vietnamese five minute rule.". Five minutes quoted to you by the Vietnamese is easily 15 to 20. Just as I was about to give up and say we would come back later, the guy showed up with the blankets. We paid, packed them onto our motorbike, and brought them to the house. However, to our chagrin, Hien called later that day to say that they would only work for fall or spring and that they needed heavier blankets for winter. Hard to imagine in the 100 degree heat, but she knows best. So, we learned our lesson and just gave Hien the money from Mehrnaz for the winter blankets to purchase and we made the other blankets a donation from the Robertsons for Mary's house and any other GIBTK house that may need them! It does NOT always pay to do it yourself! Haha

We then returned to the apartment, it the dark, and grabbed our stuff for Hoi An. We took a taxi to relax and have some AC. We checked into the Hai Au and the ladies were great! Soooo excited to see me and meet Mom. We were given a lovely room, complete with the rose petals on the bed and the towel swans. We rented bikes from Minh and cruised into town for lunch at Vicafe and wandering around the streets of this beautiful little town. We got back to the hotel just in time for it to rain a bit and we just missed it! Hit up Reaching Out and Lifestart for souvenirs (employ and support handicapped Vietnamese young adults). Great organizations and Jen knows that they are run by good people, so the money spent actually goes to where they say it goes! Conveniently, the rain stopped and we were able to get a 50 cent happy hour beer along the river before dinner at Cargo. We sat on the upper balcony and watched the world go by in Hoi An and had a lovely meal...one of the best of the trip! After dinner, we did our requisite lantern buying along the river and took some fun pictures.

The next day, we had a nice breakfast at the hotel and biked around in the morning taking pictures and experiencing the market, the streets, and watching other funny tourists. We got several absurd shots of people carrying unbelievable amounts of things on motorbikes, got offered river boat rides about 50 times, and became everyone's best friend when we passed by a shop, "hello Madame, please come in and buy from me." The rain started a bit earlier, so we purchased some fashionable 1 dollar pink ponchos from Minh and hit the road on our single speed bikes. After all of our motorbike riding in Da Nang, mom was very well versed with the Vietnamese traffic rules...of which there are almost none! Other than driving in the right, which sometimes has its exceptions, you can pretty much do whatever works to get you from point A to point B. left turn into oncoming traffic? Sure, go for it. Pass on the left of someone signaling to turn left? You bet. It is survival of the fittest. Basically, Darwin does make the traffic rules in Vietnam. If you are bigger, you have right of way. Period. Kind of works out, to be honest. But, a lot to get used to when you first get here, for sure!

We visited Mai and Mr Sun for a fantastic lunch and Mom got a massage after lunch from Mai. We capped it off with Vietnamese coffee and it was a lovely afternoon. After a trip to our friend at the wholesale shop, we headed back to Hai Au. We arranged a driver to get back to Da Nang and made it back to visit the kids and bring them some fun toys. I forgot to mention that Mom did get the Big C experience the day prior with Minh Chau. Ridiculous loud music, hilarious translations on shirts and clothing, and many plastic toys for the kids to enjoy and immediately destroy. We stuck with then basics (balls, cars, dolls, books) and discovered that the kids really enjoyed the books! So proud of them!

Later that evening, Hien and Diem gave us rides to Ba Thoi for seafood and we had another fun feast of amazing seafood for insanely cheap prices (less than 8 dollars per person)! Really fun few days and glad Mom got to see Mai and visit Hoi An!

Changing of the guard

Jen and I had a lovely Saturday morning in Hoi An and a nice visit with Mai and family.  No stop in Hoi An would be complete without a trip to the wholesale shop!  It is like being in an episode of hoarders...but everything is for sale.  Tons of great items for friends and family back home without the storefront.  Brilliant!  Then, we packed all of the "must have items" onto the bike and motored back to Da Nang for a relaxing afternoon (of packing).  The last night in Da Nang for Jen was lovely...a beautiful meal cooked by Hang and her family on mats across the street from their house on their "patio."  I put quotes around it because it is really the back side of the church and sidewalk that they have adopted, covered, strung electricity to for fans and lights, and claimed as their patio.  Pretty creative if you ask me!  The case of beer and bucket of ice got dragged out and the feast was complete.  Needless to say, no games of Vietnamese blackjack this time!  We played earlier in the week and Jen and I spent 20 minutes scrubbing our faces at home when we finished.  Not to mention the looks we got on the motorbike on the way home!  Basically, the loser gets "painted" with the soot from an old kettle that sits on a woodburning stove.  I guess you could call it a Vietnamese facial.

Jen got a proper send off at the airport...complete with 18 kids, the house mothers, Diem, Hien, Ha, Mai, Mr Sun....she is one popular lady!  Coming to the airport is a Vietnamese favorite, as I have come to find out ;-)   Missing her in Vietnam for sure.  But, that gave me the day to get laundry done, the apartment cleaned, and some catching up on the blog and Facebook.  Not to mention, a few motorbike rides for the essentials (hand wipes, cell phone minutes, and Larue beer).  

Mom arrived at 4pm at the airport...and Diem was nice enough to meet me at the house, help coordinate some artwork for the airport arrival, and pile the kids into taxis.  The "let's get in the taxi" routine has become a ritual by now!  She was greeted with screaming, smiling, elated kids with hand-painted signs saying "welcome Nan" "we love you Nan."  Very cute!  They are keepers for sure (the signs and the kids).  haha!  I quickly indoctrinated Mom into the motorbike culture in Vietnam and we hopped on and headed to Chau after she got settled into the apartment.  Great seafood and prawns the size of small lobsters...yummy!  With full tummys and having had several beers, we had a great night sleep.

Monday we woke up early and had coffee at our neighborhood Starbucks...Cafe Ty!  A bahn mi opla and mi quang for breakfast and Mom was well on the road to blending in in Vietnam...except for the fact that we are the only two white people as far as you can see.  Oh well!  We went to the Lady Buddha at the base of Monkey Mountain and lit insense for Mr Tuan's father who passed away the week prior.  The view was amazing and the motorbike ride there was a lot of fun.  I felt like an old pro, since Jen and I had done this on our first morning as well.  However, Jen and I were perplexed at the parking fee (turns out it was a suggested donation...but translating that in Vietnamese was beyond us), but I now knew what I was doing!  We took some great photos and managed to avoid the hoards of tourists that started coming in buses as we were leaving.  We then went to Mary's House for Mom to see everything and hang out with the kids who were home from school in the morning.  The schools in Vietnam are so overcrowded that they have the kids go to school in shifts.  Morning or afternoon.  Some days the kids do both, others, just a half day.  Giving It Back To Kids also has a tutor come and teach the kids English two nights a week and help them with their homework.  We then headed to the GIBTK office to meet more of the staff and head to lunch.  Diem organized an excursion to Com 300 for some amazing lunch - all for 14 dollars for the six of us, total.  Pretty amazing.  You can do a lot here for not very much.  Eat.  Drink.  Travel.  Help kids.  All pretty darn affordable if you are American!

Thursday bowling...take two...and date night Friday in Hoi An

Thursday was a great day...full of running a few more errands for the house, coffee at our favorite place...cafe Ty...and buying the last items for the gift bags for the kids.  Back by popular demand...we took the kids back to Co Op mart for bowling and arcade games.  This time, we got smart and did not feed them immediately before a taxi ride, as several of them are very adept at getting car sick.  Makes me feel a little bit better, seeing as the traffic here makes your head spin just watching it, albeit riding in it!  We did our "clown car" routine, fitting 25+ people into three mini vans and we took the bowling alley by storm!  There are about 14 kids that love bowling, the other 10 are more interested in the arcade games and claw machines that always drop your 50 cent teddy bear moments before the chute.

Tai, Phuc, and An were super into bowling!  Little Tai, who cannot weigh more than a 10 pound bowling ball, would run up to the lane, toss the ball, and magically it would go straight about 80 percent of the time.  Pretty good little bowler!  None of the kids had bowled before, so now two times in, they were old pros.  But, despite having done it before, there was still the mad dash to toss the ball down the lane as fast as possible...sometime sacrificing the racking machine as the ball zoomed down the gutter and slammed into the rack that was still down.  I have a feeling that the teenage guys working the bowling alley were counting down the minutes until we left!  Hahaha!  One of the kids did get a bear out of the thankless claw machine, so the 20 bucks we probably put into that effort was worth her HUGE smile!

Taking 24 kids plus staff from GIBTK and the house mothers can proove to be a bit like hearding cats, but we haven't left a kid behind yet!  They all know that they really COULD get left behind, so they stay close by!  However, we did manage to send Diem for popcorn for the kids as we were waiting for the taxis and then proomptly left her at Co Op mart!  Haha!  Nothing that a cell phone call and a U-turn couldn't remedy!

We brought the kids ice cream the night before from the Vietnamese Costco (called Metro) and they loved it.  This time around, we ordered out so the mothers did not have to cook a meal after returning from bowling at 630pm on a school night.  Chicken and rice take out with soup for 26...30 dollars...brilliant!

We headed to Loc Chau with Hai, Diem, Minh Chau, Paul, Ha, Tony, and two other friends of Jen's for some tasty Vietnamese seafood!  It proceeded to downpour about 20 minutes into us getting there, so we promptly moved inside.  However, it was really enjoyable to watch the traffic go by for the next hour, with people in plastic raincoats and speeding to get home (because THAT is so much safer in torrential downpours).  Hai and Minh Chau even sported the fashionable "double headed raincoat" for their ride home!

The next morning, my GI tract had a bit of a war with my dinner from the night before...but nothing that a liter of water, a handful of antacids, and a nap couldn't fix!  Jen was a darling and packed up the kids' gift bags (thank you Mandy and Uncle Dean for contributing) while I slept.  We then hopped on the motorbike and made the drive to Hoi An.  We headed back to the wonderful Hai Au hotel, had a much-needed shower, and had a lovely date night out!  Happy hour beers watching the kids play in the streets, a lovely glass of wine (hard to find here) at White Marble, a Samurai show courtesy of the Japan-Hoi An festival that happened to be going on, and a lovely dinner overlooking the river.   Such a great treat from my beautiful girlfriend!

Top 10 things seen on a motorbike...thus far...

1)  100 pound block of ice, not in packaging, slowly melting in the 90+ degree weather, loaded at the feet of the driver.

2)  Family of four, or five, and their evening groceries

3)  8 foot ladder being carried on the shoulder of one guy

4) An 80 year old lady with about 80 pounds of lychee

5)  Approximately 15 feet of PVC piping being carried between TWO motorbikes going way too fast to be kosher

6)  Bon bao salesman with rolling cafe...complete with two hot pots, display case, and utensils

7) Two fat Americans

8) 100 Vietnamese mattresses (rattan mats) loaded horizontally on the back of a motorbike driven by a women that could not weigh more than 85 pounds

9)  Three chicken coops with live chickens

10)  24 large cases of Biere Larue (the national favorite "budweiser") balanced on the back seat

...pictures to follow when we download them from the camera...but you can only imagine!!

Visit to Social Support Wednesday

We had a great trip to social support with Tony on Wednesday and got to see Tinh, Jen's favorite kid from her years at GVN.  It was great to see the social support house.  We stoped at the market n the way to pick up 100 bananas to give to the residents at social support.  Young, old, handicapped.  It seemed to be in good shape and we were pleasantly surprised to find air conditioning in the physical therapy room!  The kids were great and Tinh definitely recognized Jen when she walked in...such a great smile and laugh that should be bottled!  There was a precious little boy who layer on the mat and was covered in a blanket because the AC was a bit chilly for him!  I rubbed his back and he smiled continuously.  He kept having partial seizures, but it didnt phase him, he just kept smiling and wanting his back rubbed.

We took a fun motorbike ride along the river on the way back and stopped at Red Beach on the bay for lunch.  Beautiful location and strangely vacant in the lower end of tourist season!  After lunch we rode over the new bridge in Da Nang that is a great example of a communist work project.  Huge span bridge and not able to transport large trucks...oops!  Oh Vietnam, you are so ridiculous.m just like the giant expanses of undeveloped land with perfect streets, gutters, side walks, and street lights. No houses.  No building plans.  Just a way to keep people busy...nice!

We had some lovely seafood for dinner again...as usual in Vietnam!  Love spending time with my amazing girlfriend and all of our Vietnamese friends and family!

Tuesday in Tam Ky

We woke up early Tuesday morning, drove the motorbike into Hoi An, and had an early breakfast of com qua trung (rice with eggs) and Vietnamese coffee with Mai.  We then headed off in a hired car (thanks to Mrs. Hanh) for Tam Ky.  This is a location that Jen and Carrie used to go to with GVN and there is a baby orphanage there as well as a new home called Peace Village that opened recently by the South Koreans for handicapped children.  The ride to Tam Ky was a perfect example of the chaotic Vietnam traffic situation.  Bikes, water buffaloes, motorbikes, cars, tour buses...all sharing a two lane road and driving like they are all in the biggest hurry ever.  Ironic coming from a culture that takes a 2-3 hour afternoon nap! 

The first stop was the baby orphanage in Tam Ky.  Carrie recently purchased some shades for the baby room because the sun was beating in and it was about 110F during the afternoon.  When we got there, it was about 90F out and the room felt much better.  Such cute kids, all enjoying their new allocation of about 6 bikes and scooters.  They were racing each other around the inner area of the orphanage (shaped conveniently like a race track) and just dripping with sweat with huge smiles!

We played with the kids and got to look around the orphanage a bit before 1030 nap/down time that the kids have.  As we left, we headed back to Tam Ky and a few hours at the GVN house.  Mrs. Hanh had prepared an amazing meal for us for lunch!  A feast of fish, shrimp, noodles, salad, rice...totally amazing.  Mrs. Hanh is opening a restaurant in the future...she has received loans from friends to build a structure on the road from Hoi An to Tam Ky on family land.  She is quite a funny lady...kid of like the Jewish grandmother you may have never had!  "why you no call?"  "eat more"  why you so fat?"  Ah yes, the "honesty" of Vietnam!  She did take Jen and I down the block and bargained the pants off of the optical shop guy so Jen and I could get 5 new sets of glasses made between the two of us...for about $25 bucks a pop!  Prescription!  We came back after our lunch and rest and the guy had taken a nap and "forgot" to finish the glasses!  Classic!  Needless to say, we got them on Friday via some of the volunteers coming to Hoi An who carried them...so funny.

We the headed to Peace Village before going back to Hoi An to get the motorbike.  Beautiful facility with beautiful kids...sad that they are underfunded and probably will have to shut down if the South Korean government cannot fund the project.  Weird situation...the building is gorgeous and 2/3 unoccupied.  Nicer than most homes.  All with air conditioning and nice furniture.  But, the funding ran out there.  Probably someone got their "gold star" for the project and then got out.  The kids love teeth brushing time, dance party in the afternoon, and school.  Several of the older boys and one older girl are taking computer classes for job skills.  Mr. Sun is Carrie's favorite, and soon became ours, with his excellent English, sense of humor, and great attitude.  Awesome kid!  He received one of the wheelchairs from Giving It Back To Kids that helps him get around.