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.

Hoi An orphanage

Sunday evening after taking the kids bowling, we headed to An Bang beach for some cabana and cocktail time with Carrie (friend of Jen's from GVN back in the day).  We were joined by Mai and her older daughter Ginger and her nephew Bill (pronounced Bee-ew).  Bill's little brother was left at home, his name is Gates (pronounced Gee-etz).  Yes, that is correct.  Their American names are Bee-ew and Gee-etz...named after the Microsoft mogul for luck and prosperity.  Hilarious!  We then enjoyed a nice dinner with Mr Tuan and his family at GODA, a very lovely restaurant in Hoi An.  We sat outside and the kids ran around the lawn and we had a nice meal.

We covertly stayed in Carrie's hotel that night after cocktails at the beach and with dinner (no motorbike back to Da Nang).  In the morning we had lovely Vietnamese cafe sua dai and bahn mi opla at a little cafe in Hoi An, then headed to the Hoi An orphanage.  Carrie does a lot of work with this orphanage and has provided a lot of supplies to them, helped them purchase window shades to prevent the baby room from being >100 degrees, and diapers for the handicapped kids.  We played several games of Chutes and Ladders with a sweet kid in the physical therapy room and walked up and down stairs with another cutie with cerebral palsy practicing his mobility.  The physical therapist is a really neat guy and does amazing things with the kids.

After a few hours with the kids, we headed for a massage with Mai and Tam at the Hoi An Pacific Hotel and then lunch with Mai at her house.  It is customary for people to leave work in the middle of the day to go home for lunch and a nap...no wonder Jen loved it here!  We had an amazing meal of shrimp, fish, rice, and morning glory.  Mai even bought us a few cold beers!  Lunch managed to go until about 4pm, so Jen and I decided to call it a day and hopped on the motorbike back to Da Nang.  We sat on the roof of the apartments, did laundry, and watched the thunderstorm out over the water.  So relaxing.  Jen even chased down the Bon Bau guy when we heard his speaker from his bike cruising the neighborhood...but to no avail.  Turned out to be a different Vietnamese street snack...sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves.  That and a cold beer constituted our dinner and the laundry got done!  Quite productive by vacation standards!

What a week...let's start with a recap of the weekend...

The week has just flown by! I will give a recap of the weekend today and continue to update about the week, now that we have officially visited Jen's entire extended family in Vietnam this week!  It is like having 20 Jewish grandparents...all calling Jen's phone saying, "when you come visit?!".   So, we started off this past Saturday with taking the kids to the beach and to lunch after.  On Sunday we took them bowling and to the arcade at Co-Op Mart downtown.  Same drill...we piled into three taxi cab vans and made our way over the bridge in to downtown Da Nang.  As we would come to find out, the kids love the taxi rides on the way to outings, but after we eat, there are several of them who get carsick!  Tey have grown up riding on motorbikes their whole lives, so a car is a bit much.  Anyway, we got to the top floor of the shopping center for bowling and 14 kids wanted to bowl while the others wanted to just play video games.  Some of the kids are great bowlers, seeing as they have never done it before.  Hong and Anh and Tai were super into it!  Truong would jump in and just throw a ball down your lane if you weren't paying attention!  It was like watching speed bowling....fluorescent bowling balls flying into the air and crashing down on the lanes, some of them riding the gutter the whole way, some barely making it to the pins!  So much fun for them and for us!

We headed for lunch at pho 24 after the bowling and arcade games and watched the 22 kids devour 30 bowls of pho.  Little 8 and 10 year olds piling on the chiles and loving it.  Nothing you would ever see in the US for sure.  Once the kids were pleasantly stuffed, we went to get back into the taxis to go home.  We met opposition by three boys....Duc, Khan, and Hue.  Apparently, all three had gotten really carsick after beach day and were afraid to get back in the taxis!  After some coaxing and having them hang their heads out the windows, we made it back to Mary's House puke-free!  The kids were totally tired and had a great weekend before starting school on Monday from their summer break.

Day 2 in Vietnam

We had a great first full day here! We woke up at 6, caught a beautiful morning on the beach, and had Vietnamese coffee and the delicious Bahn Mi Opla for breakfast at Cafe Ty. Mr Ty hooked us up! At breakfast we got our wheels (a motorbike from Hang's auntie) and off we went to the pagoda to see the female Buddha that overlooks Da Nang from the Northern hills. There are pictures attached.

After the motorbike ride, we headed to Mary's House to pick up the kids for the beach! Diem and Hien organized a great day at the beach! Pics of the kids to follow (on the other camera and have to get to a computer to upload). The kids had a blast in their life jackets and some with goggles! The waves were pretty fierce, but the kids got splashed around like it was no big deal! After an hour, Jen and I were pooped and we showered all 19 kids and packed into 3 taxis again (our standard routine) and headed to Thi Lu for chicken and rice lunch...mmmmm! The kids got soda (a special treat) and at like kings and queens. We rolled them outta there, piled in our taxis, and headed home. Such a fun first day with the kids! Tomorrow is arcade and bowling!

Jen and I came home for a nap, then went out for a motorbike adventure to "Big C" for some groceries. Downtown Da Nang on a motorbike is like being in a tornado, with hundreds of people flying at you from all directions! People with whole families on one bike, carrying several bags of groceries, people with furniture or cages of chickens. You name it. Plowing into a roundabout with this controlled chaos made me find religion, for sure! Haha!

Finally, we concluded our fantastic day with an amazing meal with Tuan, Tony, and Hang at Qien Chau (seafood). You literally pick your dinner from plastic buckets and they bring a case of beer, leave it by the table, and you just pay for what you drink at the end of the night! So fun, lovely meal (for only $10 per person), and great company!

Off to bed to tackle our full itinerary of adventures that Jen has planned for us for tomorrow!

Love from Da Nang,
Lauren and Jen