Vietnam: Arrival - Day 1

We arrived in Vietnam on Tuesday evening. It definitely was a grueling day of travel without showers and there was nothing I wanted more than to shower and rest comfortably. Trying to sleep on the plane is, at best, uncomfortable. Unfortunately, everyone was already irritated/annoyed as there was some miscommunication between my mom, her sister (my Aunt) and the arrival/pick up time. So while we waited, we kept our eyes on our luggage and looked out for pick-pockets as we were warned repeatedly about.

Once our Aunt arrived, we packed into a van and headed to the hotel where she rented us a couple of rooms for the night to drop our stuff and settle in. Excuse the "blurry" photos, but I was so fascinated by the traffic. Motorbikes are the main mode of transportation for everyone and I had to try and capture it.

Notice this guy below as he attempts to cross the street in the middle of traffic.

 

So, after we got to our room we headed back out to get something to eat. It was a place literally right down the street so we walked over there and had our first taste of pho in Vietnam! Notice in this pic, there are no "doors", it literally is a walk up open space. Our cousin is in purple and the "cart" is where the food is stored to make our soup.

Here is everyone sitting down waiting for our order. Notice on the right, the microwave and next to that a small fridge. Yes, that IS the "kitchen".

The stove. Our soup was being warmed up!

Here's a clearer pic of the fridge/microwave, aka "the kitchen". One thing they don't have is a lot of cold storage. Drinks were warm and they provided glasses/cups with ice to accompany your drink. This was also the case for beer. :)

Imagine my shock of the condition of this "restaurant". Me, of spoiled American origin of standards and health codes. I remember looking at my BFF, J - who also gave me the same look - "Uh oh. Should we be scared? Should we be eating here?" In the end, I did of course eat (I think that's all I did this whole trip) because, here I was in VIETNAM and as the saying goes "When in Rome..." right?

Just a little side note: The pho was ok. My mom makes a MUCH MUCH better pot/bowl of pho.

Stay tuned for the next post: Our hotel room...

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Vietnam: Traveling - Day 1 (Partial)

After a small nudge from one of my Twitter peeps, I thought I'd at least start/try to blog a little about my Vietnam trip although I have 2GB worth of photos/video to go through. We were scheduled to leave Sunday evening and head down to SFO to catch our red-eye (midnight-ish) flight to Honk Kong. It's a direct flight (thank goodness for that!) but FOURTEEN hours on a plane is not my idea of fun. Especially since my mom was in RARE form even before we LEFT the house on Sunday.

I don't want to get into the nasty drama that ensued but thankfully, we were all on our merry way a half hour behind schedule (no biggie as we planned in some extra time). Our travel to SFO and our flight was very uneventful. I had bought and brought a new manual breast pump & my nursing cover with me. As most of you may know, I had not weaned the little Cub (although we were trying) and I didn't want to NOT have milk upon my return just in case. So that was partially my entertainment as well as my very own individual screen to watch movies, play video games or listen to music! They also fed us a couple of times on the flight and they had cup o' noodles for a snack in case we got hungry during the loooong flight.

Once we arrived in Hong Kong, we had a 7 hour layover. Umm, yeah. Not so fun - but at least the airport was HUMONGOUS and they had a STARBUCK'S?!!! This would be the last I saw of one until our return trip. They also had free wi-fi (thank goodness my bro brought his iPhone) AND we discovered a bit late unfortunately, that they had computer terminals available also. No pics prior to us leaving, but here are a couple of shots during our layover in Hong Kong:

Have no idea why I was SURPRISED they had a Disney Store, but I was and had a pic of me and my BFF, J taken in front of it. See how dorky we look? Touristy for sure, yes?

Not only did they have a Starbuck's, they had a Popeye's Chicken! Now, there's only one that I know of near where I live and I don't think they're THAT great to also have one in Hong Kong? Really?

See what's on the menu? And check out those prices!! But that's in HK Dollars. I didn't realize that Hong Kong has their own money and the exchange rate was $1 USD to $7ish HKDs.

The first thing we did once we figured out where we needed to be was to EAT! We found a place serving up dim sum and after this, I was totally DONE with seafood. Almost every dish we ordered (don't know why) had shrimp or tasted shrimpy. This here's my bro, D - Sis, L & Mom

This one is of my Oldest Sis, A and bro, D. Obviously we were hungry and waiting patiently for our food. Bro on his iPhone, texting away to someone.

Stay tuned for my next post: our arrival in Vietnam...

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I'm BAAACK!

Just a quick post... I'm back from Vietnam. Ten days with my family and BFF, J. A helluva trip. I'm glad I went, but I really really missed the Cub. Ten days was a little too long for me, but there was definitely a lot more to see and do that we didn't get to. Mainly we had family visit with us daily, our daily trip to the Ben Thanh market and we ate constantly. I ran out of money on day eight, but thankfully it doesn't cost a whole lot to eat there and I "borrowed" some money from my mother for the remaining days.

Thanks to everyone who pitched in and helped Pappa Bear in some way, shape or form - whether it was providing dinner for him and the Cub, watching the Cub or just checking in on him. He was able to get the Cub to sleep through the night (8ish p.m. to 7ish a.m.) so we'll see how it goes now that I'm back. So far, he's gone down after 10p, up at 5:30a, down at 930p, up at 6a... We'll see what tonight brings and look for more posts about my trip and Vietnam!

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I'm Going...

You heard it hear first (or not). I'm leaving late Sunday night/early Monday morning for 10 days with all of my siblings, my mother and my BFF, J. I'm still in denial/in a daze about the thought of leaving my Cub behind with his Pappa Bear while I head out of country.

This is an awesome opportunity to visit my Aunt, Uncle and cousins on my mother's side and see a little bit of the country which half my blood originates. Who knows when this opportunity will strike again? I'm all nerves but am excited too. What an amazing adventure it's going to be!

So there it is. 10 days. Vietnam. Here we come.

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