As The Asian World Turns

Day 7 July 21, 2007
Wrote and submitted at 2:00pm on July 22


Gracie has proved to be a good sleeper. She slept from 8-3am before we could hear her sucking her thumb from her crib. After a quick diaper change and a bottle, she went back to sleep until around 7am. The rest of the family is starting to sleep in a little these days.

We all headed down to the restaurant to get something to eat and see if any of the parents were already down there. This is the time of day that all the parents seem to meet. Today several of us were going to the museum of Ethnology on the other side of Hanoi so we quickly ate and went up to the room to get ready for the trip.

Trip to the Museum of Ethnology

We were almost ready when the phone rang. It was Joe who said the taxi was waiting out front so we grabbed our stuff and headed for the lobby. They were just loading in the taxi when we reached the front door of the hotel. We successfully crossed the busy street and jumped in the cab ready to go. Joe had to call for a cab that would fit all of us since most cabs here are very small Toyotas. Within the group going to the museum was Joe & Amy with their girl Collett, Dawn and her daughter Eva, and Becky, Logan, Gracie, and I. The ride to the museum was a 20-minute drive through more traffic that’s similar everywhere in Hanoi. I’m starting to get familiar with some streets close by the hotel but for the most part it all looks the same. During the trip, we drove passed several parks with large tress that provide much shade. It’s good to see so many parks in the city and the people seem to make good use of them because there are always people sitting in the parks relaxing. We only experience one dramatic moment when Dawn spotted a bug from her seat in the back of the cab. She said she didn’t know were it went but it looked as though it headed my way. This got Becky pretty excited because Dawn said it looked like a roach. A couple of minutes later the bug appeared on the back of Becky’s seat (she was sitting in the middle of Logan and I and had Gracie on her lap). It appeared to be a roach so Becky went nuts. I was looking for something to smash it, but Dawn saved the day by swatting it with her fan. Becky thought it was dead. I didn’t have the heart to tell her it was just scared off and that it was still lurking in the cab. The cab driver seemed to get a kick out of this. The remainder of the trip was pretty calm. We reached the museum and unloaded the cab and headed to the ticket counter. The building was white and modern looking with curved walls. We all purchased our tickets and went through the gate to give another person at other window the tickets we just purchased. The woman at the second window saw my camera and said something in Vietnamese and pointed to the first window again. Then I noticed a sign that had prices for taking pictures. The cost to get into the museum for the four of us was 42,000 Dong but the additional cost to take pictures was 50,000 Dong. That’s equal to about $5.75 US so it was still pretty cheap. The lobby at the entrance was a circular open room that was two stories in height. You could see people on the second floor balcony. This room was the only air conditioned room in the entire place so we took a lot of breaks there. We arrived at the museum at 9:00am and it was already very warm. The exhibits usually had descriptions hanging on the wall next to them with English on the bottom. There were exhibits that explained the different languages in Vietnam and what families started them many years ago. It broke down what regions of Vietnam were populated by different ethnic groups. Gracie is a little light skinned so the area she came from referred to a certain group as “White Thai” so we are assuming she is part of this group. It doesn’t really matter, but maybe she might qualify for some educational assistance or something,lol. Logan was getting a little antsy during this time so we kept moving. He was a little upset because he wanted to put the sling on and carry Gracie but we needed to try the sling out on him in the hotel room first before he carried her. It’s great that he wants to take care of her.

We made our way to the second floor and man it was getting hot up there. There were some good exhibits of houses, weapons, baskets, dress, and other items but Gracie was getting crabby and Logan was getting bored and the heat didn’t help either. I took Gracie and Logan back to the lobby to cool off. The people walk by and love to see the babies. The people here will play with babies and squeeze their cheeks. It’s really great to see that babies are respected and adored by everyone here. Our group eventually got back together in the lobby so we decided to see the exhibits on the outside behind the building. We made our way down the steps but Logan didn’t see the first step and tumbled down several steps. Luckily the steps were very wide and not very tall because he stopped quickly but he did hurt his leg just a little so he, Gracie and I went back in the museum to sit and wait for everyone to return. The tour outside didn’t take long because everyone was getting hot so we had the museum call us a larger cab and headed for home. No bugs were found on the return trip.

Lounging at the Hotel

When we returned from the museum, we headed to the room to feed Gracie. Soon after her bottle we put her down for her nap and she went fast asleep. Man, the girl can sleep. The rest of us sat around and read, watched TV, and checked email. Becky is still trying to figure out a way for us to see our blog from the hotel room. She is very persistent.

After Gracie woke from her nap, we left the hotel to get something to eat. Logan keeps trying to get us to eat at the restaurant next door to our hotel because he still doesn’t want to walk anywhere. We told Logan that since Dawn saw that restaurant hanging their chicken and duck on a line outside all afternoon roasting in the sun proved we would never eat there. Then I quickly thought that this might be standard procedure for all the restaurants here. I sure hope not. We decided to walk a couple of blocks to a place called the Mediterranean. (Recommended by our friend Tara) It serves mainly an Italian menu with a large list of wine. Logan again had pizza and Becky and I had pasta dishes. It was a good meal but the price was a little higher than most restaurants here but it still only cost $25 US and that was with a glass of wine and a couple of Tiger beers. Not bad.

Walk to the Melia

After dinner, we headed off to the Melia to visit Tracy, Max, and Amy. Logan is getting used to crossing the streets. Logan went a couple of steps ahead of Becky and I because we were tending to Gracie and when I looked up Logan was about to cross the busy street on his own. I yelled at him to come back and he quickly did. This street was much wider than ours in front of the hotel with 4 lanes of traffic. He’s not ready for that one on his own just yet but maybe in another ten years. We made it to the Melia after about a 10 minute stroll. We ran into Tracy in the lobby who was on her way to pick up her laundry across the street. She said to go on up to the room because Max and Amy were there so we went on up. We visited with them for a while. Max is such a strong little boy and seems to being doing very well. He’s a little lankier than Gracie but the boy can really lift himself up. He’s able to can get up an all fours so he’ll be crawling very soon. We caught up with what’s been going on with them and took some pictures of Max and Gracie together. Becky used their computer to read our blog and look at the pictures that Julie has posted for us. Thanks a bunch Julie! After our visit, the Allsup family grabbed a cab for our hotel to retire for the night.

Soccer Game – Vietnam vs Iraq

The big game was at 8:30pm and I was hoping to go to one of the coffee houses on the lake to watch the game. Tong told me that was the place to see it on TV and watch the local people go crazy so I thought that would be fun. The only problem was by the time the game started, I was too sleepy and fell asleep shortly before the game started and I woke up with 10 minutes left in the game. Becky and Logan were already asleep before the game began as well. Vietnam lost 2-0. So goes another day.