I have heard others on the message boards talk about their adopted children being called Twinkies as a derogatory remark (yellow on the outside and white on the inside). I don’t like the reference either…I don’t like labels in general and the whole “yellow” thing just bothers me. If it is used to hurt someone then I hate it even more.
I work with and for a Vietnamese owned company. Most of my co-workers are Vietnamese as are many of my close friends (and my boyfriend). The younger generation of Vietnamese people at work (teens to 30’s) all use this term on each other and on others (none have anything to do with adoption). They tease each other with this term, but they all laugh about it including the one being called “Twinkie”.
Today, I was called an egg – white on the outside, but yellow on the inside. I was talking to some of my friends about the job offer I recently turned down and one of them asked if the people there are mostly white. I said yes. Then they remarked that I wouldn’t like it there because I was an egg. I wouldn’t fit in because I was, .”..white on the outside, but Asian on the inside.” Hmmm….
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I have not posted a regular post in a really long time. I’ve been so crazy busy – with what? I don’t know. I know it wasn’t filling out Christmas cards, because I never did send any out. I feel bad about that…I wanted to…I just never did it.
Anyway, Happy New Year!! We played it low key here…just stayed home with the kids. S~ and his nephew stayed over. We had shrimp cocktail, a few adult beverages, sparkling cider for the kids, and we cooked some yummy food and dessert. It was a really great evening. We watched the ball drop at midnight and we called it a night about 1:30 am when we FINALLY ended our game of Monopoly.
There was a blue moon that night…which I guess just means it was the 2nd full moon in the same month…which only happens once every ~19 years. Never knew that until I read about it this year. Anyway, I got a some pictures of it when it first came up that night:
G~ loves to steal S~’s hat…S~ would probably kill me if he knew I posted this pic with his hair messy but G~ looks so darn cute! I gave S~ his camo shirt and hat and G got his for Christmas. LOL
I have not really said much about Christmas either, but we all had a really nice time. I’ll give you the run down of how things went. We got at least 10″ of snow between the Wednesday before Christmas and the Sunday after. On Wednesday after work S~ took me downtown to get my hair done by his cousin and on the ride there he gave me this big box and said to open it. I argued because I didn’t want my Christmas present early…but I finally opened it and there was just a bunch of packaging material in there…I thought he was just teasing me so I tossed it in the back seat. He’s like No! Look again! So I got it, looked in there some more and there in the bottom corner of the box was another really small box. The kind jewelery comes in. I opened it and this is what I found:
I couldn’t believe it. It is the most beautiful gift I have ever received. Seriously. I don’t own any diamonds. I buy my purses at Target and most of my jewelery is from Lia S0phia. S~ is not a guy who gushes about how much he loves me or has tons of money to spend on stuff like that. This ring means so much to me…especially after what happened in November. Our relationship is not without complications….but I love him and I love this gift he gave me because I know how much it meant from him too.
Wednesday night S~ surprised us by coming up – I love (nice) surprises and he usually doesn’t do stuff like that. I thought he was going out for dinner with his mom. He was like Santa Clause bringing the kids gifts from him and his family. I gave him his & he loved them all too. Thursday, Christmas Eve, is the day we celebrate with my mom’s side of the family. The kids and I went to my aunt M’s house Christmas Eve.
Below I wanted a picture of me and my grandma taken, but she was telling me she forgot her tooth…so I was teasing her about which food we could put in the gap and said I could photoshop it later. She’s so funny. I love her Christmas sweater too.
G looks so grown up to me now! He’s such a big boy in this pic:
Of course he loved all his presents and it didn’t take him long to figure out that if he ripped the wrapping paper off his boxes there was something fun underneath. He got cars, trucks, lots of clothes, blocks, a chalk/metal board with letters, DVD’s, etc. Right now he seems to me most interested in playing with his blocks – building high towers that he can stand next to and say, “Big! Big!” He also likes his new D0ra DVDs. He is in love with that girl. He still calls her Dodo (dough dough) which is cute. I tell him to say “dough” and he repeats it, then I tell him to say “Raw” and he repeats it. Then I say, “say dough raw” and he says, “DODO”. Every. Time. LOL’
Christmas Day we were supposed to go to S~’s grandpa’s house with him, but the snow was so much and it is about 55 miles from here. We decided to skip it. That evening we went to my dad’s house to celebrate with his side – he lives only 1/2 mile from me. Peanut’s new socks:
G likes to sit by Grandpa – or Bumpa as he calls him. He sits in the window sill next to his chair…or with him in his chair.
All in all, it was just a really nice Christmas. Last year was so…blurry. I had just gotten back from Vietnam with G and we were exhausted. This year it was so fun to just sit back and enjoy Christmas with all the people I love. I hope your Christmas was merry too!
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I received this from a friend of mine today in my email…I liked what it said and thought you might too.
HOLIDAY EATING TIPS
1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Christmas spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they’re serving rum balls.
2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly. Like fine single-malt scotch, it’s rare. In fact, it’s even rarer than single-malt scotch. You can’t find it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who cares that it has 10,000 calories in every sip? It’s not as if you’re going to turn into an eggnog-aholic or something. It’s a treat. Enjoy it. Have one for me. Have two. It’s later than you think. It’s Christmas!
3. If something comes with gravy, use it. That ’s the whole point of gravy. Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat.
4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they’re made with skim milk or whole milk and how many sticks of butter. If it’s skim, pass. Why bother? It’s like buying a sports car with an automatic transmission.
5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control your eating. The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat other people’s food for free. Lots of it. Hello?
6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year’s. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do. This is the time for long naps, which you’ll need after circling the buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of eggnog.
7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position yourself near them and don’t budge. Have as many as you can before becoming the center of attention. They’re like a beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind, you’re never going to see them again.
8. Same for pies. Apple. Pumpkin. Mincemeat. Have a slice of each. Or, if you don’t like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin. Always have three. When else do you get to have more than one dessert? …..Labor Day?
9. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it’s loaded with the mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost. I mean, really, have some standards.
10. One final tip: If you don’t feel terrible when you leave the party or get up from the table, you haven’t been paying attention.
Reread tips; start over, but hurry, January is just around the corner.
Remember this motto to live by:
“Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand,
martini in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming “WOO HOO what a ride!”
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This is a flashback to one year ago when I traveled to Vietnam to adopt my son.*Written by my travel mate and aunt, M~ except for the added stuff in bold from me.
Dec. 20 Jim called at about 7:30 to see if we were interested in doing a tour today so we said whatever the group wants to do is fine with us. Jim did some checking and let us know that today wouldn’t work out, but tomorrow we would go on the Ha long Bay tour. It is a 2 ½ hour bus ride one way [It was more than that!] and then a three hour boat tour with lunch in the bay. It is an incredible experience that we didn’t want to miss, so hopefully the babies will do okay. I’m just sorry Joe’s sister won’t be able to go as she leaves for the U.S. tonight. Joe’s niece Aubrey arrived last night to help Joe on the rest of the trip.
Once we got ourselves showered (Lina pretty much flooded the bathroom as there is no shower curtain and apparently is somewhat handicapped with a handheld shower), we gave Gabe a bath in the sink. It is one of those bowl-type sinks that sit on top of the counter. It worked okay, but we both have to do it, he’s too much of a handful to do it alone.
We got to breakfast a little late so there wasn’t much to pick from. [the waiter here likes to hold G while I eat. I didn't like it at first, but it is easier to eat that way...I always rush though because I don't like handing him off like that.] They did have fried eggs though and toast with some Happy Cow cheese. Very nummy. When we got on the elevator, for some reason the doors started to close before I got on, so I put my arms in between the doors like I would do at home. OOPS, must not have an electronic eye since it pretty much shut on my arms. That’s gonna leave a mark! Thankfully Lina pushed the “doors open” button before it got too bad. [omg - I could not stop laughing after this happened. To see it from my side of the elevator...she put both her arms in up to her elbows and the doors kept shutting anyway. It looked like she was trying to get her arms cut off. I hit the button...and as soon as I knew she was okay, I couldn't quit laughing at the sight it was from inside the elevator.] Live and learn!
We went to Heather and Jim’s room to figure out what we wanted to do today and we decided to do a little sightseeing and shopping. Their room had a king sized bed and lots more room than ours and it didn’t smell or feel sticky. We decided to ask for a room like theirs. When we got downstairs to wait for Heather and Jim and N~, we were shown to the sofa to wait for the taxi and served tea. We asked to be switched to a bigger room and they were concerned since it was only one bed. We assured them it was just fine. We were to leave our suitcases in the room and they would make the switch for us. We also left a load of light colors for the laundry.
We took a taxi to the Hoan Kiem Lake where there was a temple. We saw Joe, his baby, sister, and Aubrey there. The temple was interesting with all of its symbolism and there was also a HUGE turtle that had died in the lake in 1968. It was in a glass case preserved with a humidifier [wouldn't it be a de-humidifier??]. Amazingly huge!
Again, on the way in and out of the temple area we were mobbed by beggars/book sellers. We did buy a set of postcards that depicted the typical daily life in Vietnam. We walked over to an area that had shops and I stopped to buy two more robes for Gwen and Joy. I bargained with the lady and got them for just a little more than I paid for the boys’ robes in Saigon. Lina bought herself a pretty pink nightgown and robe for $18. [okay, there is a story to tell here...It's no secret that I am overweight...and in VN I was almost 40 pounds heavier than I am now. Vietnamese people are tiny. I didn't expect to find anything there that fit me at all. However, this lovely woman was a hard-selling kind of gal. She took one look at me and exclaimed - "I have VERY BIG for you! VERY BIG!!! She was so proud of the fact that she sold stuff that would actually fit a BIG girl like me. I was dying inside laughing. She kept showing me with her arms "big" and repeating herself. She grabbed a size 4X and showed it to me proudly. At first I was like, "No thanks." But she was persistent and kept exclaiming, "VERY BIG FOR YOU!!!" I felt like a water buffalo. I finally just bought it so I wouldn't have to hear anymore "VERY BIG FOR YOU!!"] We were still being mobbed by beggars/sellers of hats, t-shirts, etc. It was hard to shake them sometimes. We walked down to where the streets are named after what they sell on them, like baby street is just baby items, etc. We found a place to buy burp rags and bought one along with a pack of Kleenex. On our way back to the main drag, an elderly lady sitting on a plastic chair leaned over to say hello to N~. Suddenly, the leg snapped and down the lady went. Jim stopped to help her up and she was giggling, as were most of the people in the vicinity. [It was so cute to see this woman laughing at herself.] Thankfully she wasn’t injured!
We decided to eat at the top of a five story building at a restaurant called City View. We sat outside and had a great view along with a lovely breeze. It is much cooler in Hanoi than it is in Saigon. It is still humid, but much more manageable. I had vegetable fried rice and it had pickles in it! I didn’t eat the mushrooms that were in it though, they looked really odd. Lina got some crab meat spring rolls that everyone said were very good. I didn’t try them. Gabe wet his diaper so much that it went through his clothes and onto Lina. Good thing we had a change of clothes and a plastic bag for Gabe. Poor Lina had to wear her pissy clothes. We got a taxi right outside of the restaurant and went back to the hotel. It cost triple of what we paid to get downtown!
[This is a view from atop the City View Restaurant:]
Our new room was fabulous. Just like Jim and Heather’s with lots of room! I called Jim and he and I met in the lobby and walked down to the shopping center to get water and snacks at the CitiMart. He was nice enough to carry my three bottles of water along with all of his stuff in his backpack for me!
We stayed in the room the rest of the night playing with Gabe, using the computer, watching “The Out of Towners” with Goldie Hawn and Steve Martin. Funny movie! First time we turned the TV on since we got Gabe. He ate some sweet potatoes and rice cereal finally. He has a runny nose and coughs every once in a while from the snot. We’re hoping it’s just a cold. He doesn’t seem to want to go to sleep tonight. Crying louder than ever before.
[But ain't he cute!?!]
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This is a flashback to one year ago when I traveled to Vietnam to adopt my son.*Written by my travel mate and aunt, M~ except for the added stuff in bold from me.
Dec. 19 I woke up at 4:30am again, but this time it was because it hit me that I had thrown away the Kleenex in my backpack that had my sim card in it!!!!!! GRRRRR I can’t believe I did that! I will never live that one down. [This is when Aunt M woke me up to tell me she threw her SIM card away. As if I could do anything about it. LOL. She cleaned out her bag to repack and threw it away.]
We got up early again and got everything packed up after we showered and bathed G~. He wasn’t so happy this time about the bath. We grabbed some breakfast, but it was so warm in the restaurant where we sat that I lost my appetite. We went back to the room and laid G~ down on the bed to finish up and he ended up wetting his diaper so much that his onsie and pants were drenched as well as the bed! Change of clothes already and we haven’t even gotten to the airplane!
The other single mom’s little girl (S~) sat on my lap on the way to the airport. Heather, she and I played “I Spy” all the way to the airport and had a great time. She stayed by Lina and I when we got to the airport until we were all checked in. Unbeknownst to us until we checked in, we had Business Class seats for the trip to Hanoi. We said goodbye to the facilitator and her daughter and I got a bit choked up!
[These pics are from the Da Nang airport business class lounge - the first one is Joe's baby J~)
The other G~ in our group
We had passes to go to the Business Class lounge, so we went in there and had free food and drinks in very comfortable seating until it was time to board. There was a separate entrance to the plane for Business Class, so boarding was very easy. There was so much leg room I could stretch out my legs completely and not touch the seat in front of me!
The seats reclined in an incredibly comfortable way and it even had leg rests that came up from below. We were served a complete meal on China! Very delicious! The flight was over almost before you knew it! Once we landed and were almost to the terminal, Lina laid G~ down on her lap and I did a quick diaper change. Worked slick!
After fighting for a place by the luggage return and retrieving ours, we made our way outside where Hoang was waiting for us. We packed ourselves into the van with S~ sitting on my lap. We played “I Spy” again, this time Lina played too. It was quite a long ride from the airport and we stopped at the American Embassy first to drop off the paperwork and babies’ passports in hopes that we could get our interviews on Monday instead of waiting until Tuesday. No such luck. Oh well, at least we have the appointments! S~ told me part way through that she had a secret for me. I told her “only if it was nice!” She whispered into my ear “I love you” and I just melted. I told her that I loved her too. She whispered that to Heather too. She can be so incredibly sweet.
Hanoi is very different from Saigon, but still busier and more populated than anywhere I’ve ever been. There are tiny shops all along the streets of all kinds of things, like Saigon, but somehow there is a difference. The buildings all look pretty old, more so than in Saigon. It seemed more smoggy than Saigon.We were a little worried when we pulled up to the Cherry Hotel II in the middle of what seemed like a bad neighborhood. We found out the next day it was not a problem and only two blocks away was a large shopping center with a CitiMart grocery store. Lina, G~ and I stayed in our room and hunkered down for the night. The room was very small, the bathroom STUNK horribly and it was really sticky, even when we turned the air conditioning on. It was a restless night to say the least. I called home to talk to my husband and son, but the connection wasn’t very good and they couldn’t understand me very well.
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This is a flashback to one year ago when I traveled to Vietnam to adopt my son. *Written by my travel mate and aunt, M~ except for the added stuff in bold from me.
Dec. 18 In the morning we got a load of dark clothes together to bring to the front desk for COLD water washing and then went in for breakfast. Had the usual eggs, banh pancakes, etc. The facilitator’s daughter came in early, around 9:40 to pick up the parents as she had gotten an earlier appointment to pick up the passports. I stayed in the room with Gabe while Lina was gone. [This was my first time having to leave him with anyone. I didn't like it. I know Aunt M~ was great with him, but I finally was here with him. I didn't want him anywhere that I wasn't when we were in this country. Too scared something would happen...paranoid would be a good word to describe how I felt.] It didn’t take very long and she was back again. They were in a bit of an accident on the way back to the hotel. A man and woman on a scooter rear ended the taxivan and the woman was thrown into the backside of the van. When the taxi driver opened his door to check out the damage to HIS vehicle, he hit another man driving by on a scooter. He just hit the door and kept driving, but the woman that had been thrown into the backside of the van appeared to be injured. The taxi driver was more concerned with his vehicle than anything else. He just got back into the taxi and drove away. [Ya, this is the kind of stuff I was worried about. I was watching the woman rubbing her forearms as we drove off...I had never been in a hit and run before, but this sure felt like one. She was older and I felt terrible for her. It only made it worse that our driver was so unconcerned about the PEOPLE and only about his VAN. Hello? I guess this is the way it is done here, but it sure felt wrong.]
We stayed in the room with G~ for quite awhile and played and cleaned up stuff to pack better, but then headed out to the market down the street with Jim, Heather and N~. I bought a t-shirt for Erik and Kai, then found a silk shirt for me. While I was picking out my shirt I saw some wonderful reversible silk robes and bought the boys each one. They were only about $15 each! Lina found a charming box with carving and inlays that had matching chopsticks and chopstick rests inside for Peanut. She also bought two more outfits for G~, ones that will fit him as he grows. We bartered prices down on everything except my shirt and the robes as they were in a “fixed price” part of the market. [I got a lot of strange looks when I had G~ in my front carrier in the market. An older woman made a face at me like, "What the heck are you doing with that baby?" LOL.]
We went back to the TAX center, bought a few other souvenirs at the place Lina got some and wandered over to Highlands Coffee for some cheesecake and beverages. We let Jim and Heather know how much we appreciated being able to spend time with them and their friendship. We went to the grocery store again for some more formula and peanut and cashew candy. [Yes - the candy. I want some. Now please. It was SOOO GOOD!!]
We walked over to the Rex Hotel where Jim exchanged some money and then went to the little park across the street. It was lovely—flowering shrubs, sculpted trees and a nice statue. We took some photos and just enjoyed the outdoors. It’s VERY noisy and smelly with all the traffic, but it was still nice not to be inside the hotel. We walked across the street to a shop that sold lovely paintings done by the artist right there. You could watch him paint right there. Jim bought three paintings: one with three Vietnamese women in traditional dress carrying poles with baskets attached at each end and two taller paintings that match with scenes from the Vietnamese countryside. VERY nice paintings!
We went from the painting shop over to the silk shop where Lina had ordered the ao dais. We stopped at a different shop first where I bought mom an embroidered table cloth. The ao dais weren’t quite ready, so we walked down to a ritzy area (there was a display in the window of Cinderella and her prince and her lighted coach outside the store) and ate at Green Leaf. Heather and I got the Margarita pizza, Jim got some kind of meat pizza and Lina got fish (sea bass!) and chips. It was all very good! On the way there and back we were accosted by several people selling “books and postcards” or just plain begging. They all call out “madame” to try to get our attention. We try to ignore them since if you make eye contact they WILL NOT stop bothering you. [The poverty was every where. You couldn't help them all and it felt so weird to have to ignore these people. I'm from a small town so the only other time in my life I had seen people begging was when we walked into a border town in Mexico. Heartbreaking. I still have the image of one of the Vietnamese people who had been badly burned on his/her face begging for money while sitting on the sidewalk. Those eyes will never let me forget the hard life many of the Vietnamese face each day.]
When we got back to the silk shop, the ao dais were ready. They looked so nice! Jim grabbed a taxi and we went back to the hotel for the night. The facilitator and her daughter were meeting us at 8:30am to take us to the airport to go to Hanoi. We packed up as much as possible so it would be easier in the morning. I called my husband and was able to talk to my son! They had just picked him up from Fort Leonard Wood. The laundry we had given to the front desk was all clean and dry and hanging in the closet. It had such a lovely clean smell! [The smell...was a little overpowering. Fresh floral scent. Some of my clothes still smelled like it after I washed them a couple times at home. I had to wonder if the tiny women who probably washed my clothes held them up and marveled in their....largeness. I felt like a whale much of the time I was in VN. That's okay though, it prompted me to lose 35 pounds since returning home.]
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This is a flashback to one year ago when I traveled to Vietnam to adopt my son. *Written by my travel mate and aunt, M~ except for the added stuff in bold from me.
Dec. 17 G~ had another somewhat restless night, not as bad as the first, but sleepless for Lina nonetheless. This time when she gave him a bath he seemed to enjoy it! We went to breakfast and of course, had some banh pancakes again. This time we had hardly any time to eat as we were to meet for the tour we were going on at 8am. While we were in having breakfast, we met another woman (and her parents) who adopted a little 8 month old girl through Children’s Home Society. Believe it or not, the woman was from Minneapolis!
We left for the MeKong River tour with Jim, Heather and N~ (their baby) and Joe, his sister and baby. The ride there was very interesting as we were able to see some “countryside” full of rice paddies, water buffalo and above ground graves sprinkled among the paddies and some quite close to the homes. The Vietnamese bury their family members on their land so that the land will stay within the family. No one wants to buy land with other people’s ancestors buried on it, it is bad luck. [Whenever anyone one in VN tells you it will be a two hour drive somewhere, you can count on at least 3. I found it funny...but it happened everytime you asked how long it took to get somewhere - a big under-estimate of the actual time]
We stopped at a Cau Dai temple along the way. It was very interesting—they use lots of symbolism. The main part is the eye at the top of the temple depicting the “eye of heaven” and is always the left eye as it is closest to the heart. There are always two statues at the entrance of the temple signifying good and evil and are to help ward off evil spirits. Inside was incredibly beautiful with a lot of bright colors everywhere. The ceiling was painted to resemble the sky. At the front of the temple there was a sculpture/painting with images of Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, a few generals from Vietnamese history. There was also an altar that had a statue of a stork on top of a turtle on both sides. The stork symbolizes success and the turtle symbolizes perseverance. Also woven into the symbolism is the phoenix (or pheasant), the dragon and unicorn (not the horse with the horn, but a bit more of a lion looking thing). [This whole thing was really interesting. From what our guide explained, the Cau Dai is like a merging of many different religions. That is why they have the images of Buddha, Confucious, Jesus and others all together. They hoped to bring people from all religions into the new Cau Dai].
Unfortunately, along the way to the river, I experienced a pain in my lower right abdomen that was so severe I started crying (quietly). Part of the reason I started crying was because of the pain (which was more severe than any pain I’ve ever had besides childbirth) but also because I was very scared. All I could think of was that it was my appendix ready to burst, or already burst, and that I was going to die in Vietnam. They don’t have very good medical care, we were pretty much in the middle of nowhere as far as a hospital was concerned and you have to slip money under the table constantly to get even mediocre care. I didn’t want Lina to know since she has enough responsibility with G~, but she asked me a question and I turned to answer her, so she saw me crying. That upset her too, but she was very sweet and calming to me. She asked me if I wanted her to say anything to the driver/interpreter but I told her no, since I figured what could they do anyway.[Okay - here is where inside I was FREAKNG OUT. All that kept going through my head was that my aunt was going to die in this place. My family back home would never forgive me for taking my aunt on this wild adventure and having her DIE here. I kept thinking that if I could just get her on a plane to Hong Kong or somewhere ELSE she could make it, but here she would surely die. I tried to keep my cool..but I was WORRIED.] When we arrived at the place where we were to board the boat, we were able to use the restroom. We were so lucky—the woman had just finished HOSING them down! Nice and clean and the toilet paper was only a little wet. I discovered then that the pain was actually menstrual cramps! What a relief, but I still felt like I was going to pass out. You can bet that I’ll be seeing the OB/GYN soon after arriving home.
We boarded the boat that chugged across the MeKong River with the six of us, the babies, the van driver and the interpreter. It was sunny and very warm that day, but the boat had a cover on it. They served freshly opened coconuts with straws in them for a refreshment, but as I was still not feeling too hot, I declined. Lina had one though and said that it was very watery. We saw a lot of traffic on the river and also a lot of fish farms. They are floating corrugated metal shacks (that the people live in) with a sort of cage underneath that trap the fish. Once they are in there, the people feed them to get them to grow bigger and then sell them. There were also a lot of large floating plants all over in the river, I think they were water hyacinth. They have floating roots, so they just bop around the river with the ebb and flow of the water. They help control some of the wave action.
We got to one of the 4 islands in the river (the four are called the dragon, the phoenix, the unicorn and the turtle), disembarked and were led to a little covered restaurant area (quite primitive) that served us 5 fruits: pomello, pineapple, papaya, finger bananas and rambutan. They were little fruits with a sort of thick hook-like hair that once you sliced them carefully open, had a white, almost clear inside. It was a sweet flavor but an odd texture. There were some men that played instruments and a few women sang some traditional music, but one of the last songs was definitely Auld Lang Syne in Vietnamese!
From there we walked to a small canal where we boarded little row boats that had a front and back paddler and room for only 4 passengers. Lina, G~ and I were on the boat with the interpreter and van driver. We were given pointy woven hats to wear as we wound through the canal back to the river.
Once at the river, we boarded the larger boat again and headed off to another island. We switched to a smaller motor boat and chugged down to a coconut candy making “factory” where we had some honey tea and watched them make the candy. G~ needed his diaper changed and so did N~. We had a changing pad, so Jim laid it on the ground and changed both Norah’s surprise poopy diaper and Gabe’s wet diaper in record time! The factory was an open-air building (very small) with one machine to split open the coconut and get the flesh, one machine that squeezed out the milk and a stove with 3 areas to cook the coconut with some other ingredients to make the candy. The stove was fueled by the coconut husks. We sampled some of the candy, wrapped in rice paper that you can eat, some banana liquor (strong but good) and some banana candy. It was DELICIOUS candy and we all bought some to take home. They had a python that we stood by and took photos. Norah was not afraid and reached over to scratch the snake! Then it was off to the big boat again that took us back to the start of the river trip.
On the way back to Saigon (residents of HCMC actually prefer the name Saigon) we stopped at an impressive restaurant for an 8 course meal. It was ISO 9000 certified! The first course was a beef and mango salad with a rice “bowl” to eat it on that was delicious, followed by a sticky rice ball that was strangely pretty good too. Then came deep fried scallops—fabulous! I don’t typically like scallops, but these were done to perfection and had some kind of dipping sauce that made them even better. Fried calamari, or squid, was served next with a little bit of lime and some kind of spiced salt. Again, something I have never wanted to eat before, but this was amazing! I had three pieces. Out came a whole fish that had been deep fried and stuck on a platter upright. The scales were somewhat curled up and falling off, but not all of them. It really was a bit of a frightening sight! The servers came around with gloves on, a platter with pineapple, mint leaves, lettuce, and rice noodles and yet another plate with rice wraps. The proceeded to pull the fish off and create wraps with fish and the food from the platter. There was a dipping sauce for this too, and again, very delicious. Another dish was a kind of sort of barbequed fish, nummy too. It ended with bananas flambéed with rum. WOW!
The babies were all wonderful throughout the tour, warming up to all of us the more time we spent with them. We headed back to Saigon and arrived about 4:30pm at the hotel. We went up for a rest and clean up time and then took a taxi with Jim, Heather and Norah to the silk shop across from the Continental Hotel to order custom made ao dais for Tia and Amy. They will have them ready for Lina about 6pm on Thursday evening, just in time for us to get them before we leave for Hanoi! She picked a beautiful red silk with an embroidered pattern of red on it and black pants. The shop girl wanted her to get white pants since that’s the color children should wear, but it is more practical for the girls to have black. Then we headed down the street to shop a little more, but ultimately went to the Saigon Center to check out their shops. Not much different from the TAX center, but definitely more expensive. We ended up eating at Highlands Coffee where Lina, Heather and I ordered toasted ham and cheese sandwiches with French fries. Jim had a chicken salad sandwich/baguette. Good to have some food like that once in awhile!
We walked back to the hotel and headed to bed. The parents will be leaving at 10:30am for the Vietnamese passport office with Diep to pick up the babies’ passports. Each night we spend some time cleaning bottles and preparing some for the night as well as cleaning some clothes here and there.
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