Saturday January 14 - Monday January 16

As I get older, my blogging gets worse!  I think I start every year complaining how much work it is!  But alas, here I am.  I promise to blog, although it might not be as nice and neat as in past years! 

So lets see, we decided to leave later this year (after New Years) as the transition from Christmas to Vietnam has always been difficult, but we have often chosen to go then as I could double dip on the Christmas break I get from work.  But, given the way the holidays fell this year, and the fact that Scott would be home, it made even more sense to push back the trip a bit!

We decided again to go with the Cathay Pacific flight, as we could go directly from Boston to Hong Kong which is so nice!  No upgrade this year (boo!) but we did have access to a lounge in Boston (and Hong Kong) so that was a nice place to wait.

I have really had it on my heart this year to bring strollers.  The majority of the kids can’t walk on their own, and rarely get outside (the outside consisting of around the Pagoda).  Strollers are a great way to get them outside!  A few years back we brought umbrella strollers (easy to transport) but the problem is the wheels are too small (I’ll try and take pictures of where we bring the kids, it’s over cement pavers and it’s not flat AT ALL) and we aren’t bringing babies, but rather large kids, so they were just too big for the umbrella strollers.  One year we also bought strollers here, but it’s really a hassle to do so, as there isn’t a Toys R Us where you can just go in a buy some.  Our friend Long was so helpful translating, but it’s a lot of his time, and they are also more expensive here than back home.  So long story short, I decided I wanted to bring strollers.  On the flight we could check a second bag for free, so keeping the stroller in the box and checking it seemed like the best thing to do.  Cathay Pacific allowed the checked bag to be no larger than 62 inches (L+W+H) and I was able to find a stroller’s box that was exactly 62 inches (which I might add they never measured at the check in counter).  My friend Lindsey has a smart idea to duct tape the box so that nobody would know what was inside (both customs, and others at the airport in Vietnam, as strollers are a hot commodity we were a bit worried it might go “missing) and Mom had a smart idea to open up the box and take out all the stuffing so it didn’t look brand new!

Dan was awesome and helped me take both of them out of the box and go through how to build them so we knew when we got over here.  I bought contact paper and “wrapped” them, they looked beautiful!!!  A lot of Vietnamese ship boxes (not sure if they don’t have luggage and just use this method) but nobody’s box looked at good as mine!

The flight from Boston to Hong Kong was a little over 15 hours, and nothing major to report on the flight.  Thanks to Mom’s awesome notes from last year, the transfer in Hong Kong was super easy (we knew which forms we needed/didn’t need, when we had to dump our liquids, etc.)

Because of a plane change we got upgraded to business for Hong Kong to Saigon so the best part about this was having lounge access.  Since Hong Kong is Cathay Pacific’s hub airport, there were 4 to choose from, but since we had a short layover we chose the one closest to our gate.  I have never before wanted a long lay over!  They had food and snacks, a bar, a coffee bar, and…SHOWERS!!!!  Ohmigoodness amazing.

We both sat down to relax and get some food, and then I decided I had to take advantage of this shower situation (even if I didn’t shower I wanted to see inside).

I went up to the check in area and was given a buzzer, like I was waiting for a table at the Olive Garden.  The women (who did not speak English) couldn’t tell me how long the wait was and we only had 30 minutes before we had to get to our gate, but I figured it was worth a shot.

About 5 minutes later my buzzer went off (wahoo) so I went back up, where the women just shook her head and shooed me away.  Uhhh, say what?  A very nice gentleman who spoke Chinese was ready to help me and said that my shower wouldn’t be ready until my buzzer went off.  When I showed him, he also looked confused and spoke to the woman some more, and said something like “did you get this buzzer somewhere else”?  I was tempted to say, “Oh yes shoot my table at the OG must be ready” but he was being so helpful I explained I checked in 5 minutes ago.  The lady just gave me a new buzzer, and the man said she would buzz me when ready.  I’m always so thankful when locals help!

So about 5 minutes later my buzzer went off (wahooooo) so I went back up to the counter, with 4 other people whose buzzers were also going off.  What the heck is going on around here!!!  The lady shooed us all away, which was annoying because my buzzer kept going off!  A minute later she came over and pointed at me to come with her, so who knows what was going on.

At this point I had about 5 minutes, but I was going to make it worth it!  The showers were AWESOME.  Our next flight was only 2.5 hours, but I can imagine if you came on a long flight and had another long flight this would be amazing!  I just rinsed off super fast, but it was so good!

Pano of the showers!

From there we left and made our way to our gate, and enjoyed business class on this leg of the flight.  No lay down seats, but nice big seats, which was nice!  This flight was also uneventful, and it was so nice when we landed in Saigon as we were the first ones off the plane.

This is the first year we got our visas ahead of time, as in the past it was much cheaper to do visa on arrival (which meant we brought our paperwork and had to wait ~20 minutes upon landing).  The company we went through no longer does the visas we need, so this year we went through the Consulate.  I have to say this made it so much nicer!!!  Once we arrived we went right through passport control and didn’t have to wait for our visa, and since we were the first ones off the plane there were only 1 or 2 people in line in front of us! 

Because we were business class on the last leg our bags were given “priority” meaning first off (wahoo) so we saw both of our bags come off and then fingers crossed for the strollers!

WAHOOO!  They were there too (and in one piece).  Leaving the airport (it doesn’t matter what time) there are THRONGS of people, so it took us a minute to find our hotel pick up.  The hotel pick up is more than taking a taxi but SO worth it after traveling for 24 hours, especially this year with our strollers!

Strollers!

The ride to our apartment/hotel was a bit rough; I think the lack of sleep/food, and the heat/stop and go traffic did not bode well for me.  I love to travel, but my stomach does not, so that awesome food at the Hong Kong lounge came right back up after we checked in!  Boo, not a good start.  After a shower and some room service pizza (we are trying a different apartment/hotel, this one has room service, wahoo)!  I was feeling better so we headed out to the orphanage! 

Well, I must have not been feeling that well, because we went the wrong way to the bus stop, ha!  Once we figured that out, we made it to the bus and were pleasantly surprised to see they have new buses!  New seats, signs in both Vietnamese and English, it was awesome!  The ride, however, was not so awesome.  It was hot, a lot of stop and go, and just blah.  I was very happy when we got off, and the short 4-5 minute walk to the orphanage helped my stomach to settle.

I wish we had a video to see Cap’s face when we got there.  A bunch of the kids and volunteers were in the outside area listening to music, and his face lit up and he screamed and ran (the best he could, the left side of his body is twisted and hard to use, but he makes it work) to us!  Oh it was awesome, and made everything worth it!  One of the volunteers was like “woah he’s excited”!  He grabbed our hands and brought us back inside, as it was obvious he wanted to get “the crew” and get going.  On the way we saw Dorothy and so Cap (can’t speak but makes noises) was so excited to show her we were here.  We didn’t stop for long as he brought us back into the “big room” to show us to all the workers and to find Thoung, it was awesome!  We said hi to as many as we could and then Cap had us working, showing us we needed to get Dorothy in a wheel chair so we could take everyone out, and also got Bob who was pumped to see us!

So, off we went, Dorothy in the wheel chair, Thoung pushing and Bob and Cap following.  The place we usually find to sit (the furthest away from the “big room”) was under construction so we needed to find a new area.  I was ok with this, as the place we use to hang out (while private) had a lot of stairs, so often meant lugging multiple kids up, however, the new place is tricky as we are in a pagoda and so people are going around to different statues to worship, and we were right next to it blasting “Gangnam Style” (it’s their favorite song).  Tomorrow we will have to try and find a new location!  We hung out there for a while, listening to some music and playing some of our new games, until it was time for dinner.  I tried to ask Yen what time dinner was, and she held out 4 fingers, but at 340ish as we were headed back another worker was coming out to get us like we were late!  Sheeeesh!

The meal set up is mostly the same, the bigger kids can feed themselves and sit at a table and the others are in highchairs and get fed. 

The first kid I was given was new to me and he had rice and broth mixed together, which I started to blow on, until it was clear from the worker that it was cold and I probably looked like a fool, HA!  (Sometimes they have hot broth, but apparently not today).  So then I got food on the spoon and fed him, and then back to the dish, etc. until another worker showed me I should just put the bowl under his mouth and put the spoon in his mouth, right back to the bowl, in his mouth, etc. one fluid motion.  I laughed again as this was obviously the way this kid was fed (he was ready for me every time, didn’t chew just swallowed it) and I bet the workers had a good laugh that night, “Remember that blonde who was blowing on the cold soup and trying to feed that kid with a break in-between, bahahaha”.  Oh boy!  Anyway he was awesome and we were the first ones finished!  After dropping off his bowl, I passed Cap who motioned for me to sit down, but a minute later I was given another bowl to feed a girl I have had before.  She was good, although a bit slow, and since we got a late start we were one of the last to finish.  After meals, the kids have their diapers changed; have their teeth brushed, and then everyone cleans up.  There were some other volunteers there, although with the craziness of so many kids we really didn’t get to chat with them.  I usually try to briefly say who I am, that we come every year, etc. but they probably think we are obnoxious.

We said our goodbyes and that we would be back tomorrow and headed to the bus.  The bus ride was probably the worst I have ever been on.  While it was a new bus, I don’t think the air was on.  The traffic was the worst I had ever seen! I was legit Lamaze breathing, and I think I was actually really dehydrated.  I usually do a really good job drinking water with Pedylite while here, but I felt dizzy, my tongue felt like it was 5 times bigger than usual, ugh it was awful.  I was so relieved to get off the bus and it was only about a 5-minute walk back to our apartment, where…lunch came back up.  Not cool.  I took another shower, which helped a bit, and the only thing I felt like was pasta, so we made our way to a grocery store, which is conveniently a block away!  The grocery stores here are always PACKED, and today was no different.  I had been here less than 12 hours and I was already sick of the noise, heat, number of people, everything!  We got a few things and then came back and I made some pasta, which tasted so good!

At this point (~730) I was trying so hard to stay awake, but couldn’t do it, so got ready for bed and passed out!