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!