Thursday - We have arrived!

The flight to Hong Kong (a little over 15 hours) was long, but sleeping pills are a beautiful thing!  Mom has taken awesome notes in the past so we knew exactly how to transfer in Hong Kong (which forms we could skip, what to take out for security, etc).  Our plane from Hong Kong to Saigon only had two classes (economy and business) so we get bumped to business (this happens frequently) for the 2.5 hour flight. 

The major benefit of this is we really do get official lounge access in Hong Kong.  It was nice to be able to get some food and coffee and relax a bit before our final leg!  The 2.5 hour flight seemed like nothing after 15.5 hours, so before we knew it we were landing in Saigon.   

The passport control line was very long!  We are in Vietnam right before Tet, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year which is the most important celebration in Vietnamese culture.  People travel home for this, so there is just a lot more people traveling!  Luckily, it wasn’t too bad and I was happy to see we had no problems with our visa (this is the first year we tried the new e-visa!).  Our bags were waiting for us after passport control, and we were on our way!  We arranged for an airport pickup, as outside the airport is chaos.  There are hundreds of people lined up, many who want to offer you a taxi (that ends up being a scam).  There are two legit taxi companies in Vietnam, and the others will often run up the meter, tell you it’s broken, etc.  It can be overwhelming and stressful to try and get the legit ones from the international terminal, as many are trying to get you in their taxi telling you it’s a legit one.  We have found it’s so worth the money to pay a bit extra for the hotel to pick us up, and have someone waiting with a sign for us.  Our driver had an awesome location and was easy to spot, so off we went! 

The drive from the airport to hotel isn’t too bad, maybe 30 minutes, so we arrived around noon on Thursday.  They said our room would be ready in about 30 minutes, which was great, so we popped over to grab some lunch and introduce Erin to the Vietnam was know and love, KFC baby!  There is one right across from the hotel and it makes it so easy to grab some quick food that agrees with our stomachs (and for what it is worth there were a ton of locals there, too!)

Just a man sleeping outside the KFC!

After lunch our room was ready so we were able to check in and get settled.  Mom and I have come a long way from our tiny little room the first year and now we stay in a serviced apartment.  It’s so nice to have extra space and to have a kitchen to be able to cook our own food.  The city is pretty crazy and you always have to be “on” making sure you don’t get hit by motorbikes (that go the wrong way, that go on sidewalks, etc.).  The sidewalks are very uneven, you need strong ankles to come here, and you always want to make sure you’re aware of your belongings as petty theft is common.  So, the only place you really feel like you can relax is in the room, so it’s so nice to have a space where you can do that!  This year we went big with a 3 bedroom apartment which is really lovely and allows us our own bedroom so we can sleep when we want!

As you know from past blogs Mom and I don’t really eat a lot of local food, a combination of not really liking it, and also not wanting to get sick (been there done that) so we typically live on snacks and Italian food (easy on the stomach and hard to mess up).  Erin really stepped it up to make sure we didn’t regret inviting her and our snacks are really rocking!

We then decided to head out to the orphanage so made our way down to the bus stop. 

As we were walking into the orphanage Mom thought she saw Kap’s head around the corner and then he ran off.  As we walked into the big room he came running (as best he can) at us with the BIGGEST smile and laughing and giving us hugs.  It was really sweet to see that after 2 years it was just like we had seen him yesterday.  He has gotten SO much taller!  We also saw Dorothy and George, and Yen came over to give us a hug (which always means a lot as that’s not common in Vietnamese culture).

We hadn’t brought any tech equipment as we thought it would be good to stay in the big room the first day to show Erin around, get a lay of the land, etc.  However, Yen was getting out strollers and a wheelchair for Dorothy and rounding up kids for us to take out!

The vibe of the room felt very different.  We didn’t know a lot of the workers, and we noticed most of the older kids weren’t there (Thoung, Bob, etc) and there were a lot of young kids (babies) in cribs.  We headed out with the kids we had, but George and Kap were not impressed that we had no iPads and no music!!!  Luckily we had some photo books to share pictures with them, and I think they just liked getting out.  We tried to show Dorothy (who speaks Vietnamese) the pictures of Bob and Thoung, but she sort of shook her head like they weren’t there but she didn’t really know where they were.  When we went back inside, she seemed to ask Yen, who (I think) told me to have Long call her so she could explain.  So, we are waiting to hear about whether they are at a different orphanage. 

The bus ride back was tough, a combination of jet lag, heat, and the traffic.  The traffic is worse than I remember, and I can’t tell if it really is worse, just more people, more people because of Tet, or what, but I literally thought I wasn’t going to make it!  Even Erin (who doesn’t get car sick) said it was bad!  It’s the stop and go that really kills me (why they gun it when they know they have to stop in 10 feet makes no sense to me). 

Our showers felt so good and then we were off to 4Ps.  4Ps is a yummy Italian restaurant that Mom and I have eaten at in years past.  I had seen there was a new location about a 5 minute walk from our hotel, so thought making reservations the first night would be nice so we wouldn’t have to grocery shop/think about what to eat, and I am so glad we did!  We were all starving (we really didn’t have much for lunch) and exhausted, so it was nice to sit in a clean, relaxing restaurant.  The food was so yummy and we felt a bit rejuvenated after, although jet lag got the best of us and we crashed soon thereafter.