Good News Received

Day 4 July 17, 2007

Before Jeff begins his long dissertation(sp?), we heard from our World Child staff today and it is a go for Wednesday July 18,2007. We will be leaving our hotel at 12:00 noon with a 2-hour drive to Thai Nguyen. Our Giving and Receiving ceremony is scheduled for 3:00 pm. I cannot believe in less than 5 hours Gracie will be in our arms, YEA!!!!!

I finally slept past 2:00 am, but instead I awoke at 3:00 with nothing to do but type. Becky and Logan were finally able to get on track with at least sleeping until 5 or 6:am. We all were up and ready to go by 6:30 am and headed for the restaurant downstairs. It was a tough morning for Logan because out of the 15 or so items on the menu, he only liked something that appeared to be pigs-in-a-blanket. He was happy that this was the first meal that Becky forgot to have us eat yogurt. At breakfast I introduced Becky to the Aussie gals that went to the soccer game with us the night before. They are very friendly and asked what we were going to do today. We told them we going sightseeing and shopping. Logan’s ears perked up and quickly asked if we would be taking a cab instead of walking the streets (he hasn’t come to terms with his fear of merchants). The gals sent they traveling for a few days to some Bay close but would be back soon. As we left our table we ran into the woman who is here by herself adopting a son. He has had some problems(cold like symptoms) and she seems to think the air-conditioned room may have something to do with it. I certainly hope the same thing doesn’t happen with Gracie because the cold rooms are a safe haven. On our way to the room we ran into Joe (who is also adopting with his wife Amy) from a room above us. We told him about our problem with not having brought the right cable to download our pictures and he said he had a flip-drive that we could put our camera disk into and download into our computer so we can send some better pictures home. We said we would catch-up with him later but never did. Maybe we will see him on Wed.

Temple of Literature

We decide to go see the Temple of Literature this morning. It made Logan very happy that the temple was far enough away that we had to take a taxi. It was about a 10 min cab ride to the temple through more traffic, shops, and street merchants. I keep thinking to myself now how easy it is to walk/bike across US 51 to get from the east to the west side of the highway. Except these people will actually try to maneuver around you. The temple sat on about 10 acres of ground surround by a tall concrete/brick wall. Another wall bisected the front and back of the property creating two separate sections. One section looked like a park with many trees and walking paths but it was closed off so we couldn’t investigate it. The other section contained the university. We could only get very limited information on the temple, due to the descriptions on the walls being only in Vietnamese. It was established in 1070 as a temple and then in 1076 it was turned into a university with the teachings of Confucius. The grounds had two large building with statues of the early leaders with artifacts throughout certain periods. There were also two large ponds in a concrete basin in which the water sat. Becky and I both agreed we could fix half the malaria problem by just draining the ponds of stagnate water. We ended our self-guided tour and headed for the cabs. We told the cab driver we wanted to go to the Intimex shopping center and he told us $5 US to get there. We told him it only cost us $3 US to the temple. He said the roads to the temple were only one way and would have to take a different route. I almost laughed at him because I haven’t seen a road yet where people drive only one way. Anyway we told him $4 US and he said no, so we proceeded to walk down the street. He quickly changed his mind and agreed to our terms. Logan was glad the bartering was complete.

Intimex Shopping

The cab dropped us off in front of the shopping center that was across the street from the lake and only a few blocks (if you can call them blocks) from our hotel. It was just basically a two-story department store that you had to check you backpacks at the entry because they must deal with a lot of theft. Becky did some browsing through the children’s department and bought Gracie some gifts. Tracy said she was going to buy her baby a Vietnamese gift for all birthday’s 1-18. Becky liked the idea so she found several items for Gracie’s future birthdays. We collected our checked backpack and headed for the streets. Logan asked if we were getting another cab and he was wasn’t happy we decided to walk but he did well. He is starting to tell the people no thanks. I just reminded him that some people needed to be told several times.

Shopping along the Streets

We walked along the lake looking for a small vendor to buy some water to drink. I spotted a place to buy water but it turned into a public restroom that charged for usage so we decided to keep looking. We crossed the street and went into the tourist information center again. It has a computer by the front door that we can access our blog since we can only post entries from our hotel room but cannot view the webpage with all the comments from everyone.

We went next door to a bar and grill on the second floor overlooking the street with a view of the lake. We ordered bread to snack on with drinks and cooled off for a while. It was starting to get very hot.

After we rested we made our way to the Water Puppet Theatre to see about getting tickets for tonight’s show. On our way, we stopped by a shop to buy Logan some DVD movies and a gameboy game. Pirated DVDs are great! They were only $1 US per DVD, so we splurged and bought him two movies. He got the new Rocky movie along with a “Mr. Bean” movie. The woman said the game was expensive at $9 US but we determined that’s half of the price back home for a used game so we went ahead and purchased it. I don’t think the DVDs will make the trip through the airport with us. We stopped by a couple of more shops on our way to the puppet theatre and found some small items to take back home. We went into a silk store so I could by a tie made in Vietnam for Gracie’s baptism. I wish I could say that was my idea but that belongs to Tracy. Way to go Tracy. The heat was really starting to get to us so we walked a short distance back to our hotel and collapse in the room. I went through 3 Tiger beers in about 45 minutes.

We met Michael and Dawn with their baby Eva in the lobby of our hotel. We chatted for a few minutes but the lobby’s air condition was poor so we headed to our room. A short time later they called our room and asked if we would like to join them for dinner. We agreed to meet down in the lobby at 4 and grab a cab to the restaurant.

Pizza for Dinner

This restaurant, Al Fresco’s was recommended by several people for the Italian menu and also because nobody has gotten sick yet by eating there. We took a table on the second floor. This was great because the air conditioning worked much better up there. Logan ordered a small cheese pizza and Becky and I had a Hawaiian pizza with thick crust. I’m glad Michael and Dawn suggested thick crest because thin must be more like a cracker crust. I had an Amber stout (they call it black) beer. I always thought amber was usually the color but here Amber is the name of the company. They brought Logan a glass of ice for his Coke and I didn’t pay any attention to it. Michael quickly told the server “no ice”. Way to go Michael! The pizza was very good. This was the first time since we have been here that I have seen Logan eat like he did at home. We will probably be back. It was getting close to our puppet show time so paid and left.

Since we have been here, we have been trying to find this place call the plaza. Michael and Dawn said it was right across the street so we all made our way there for a quick glance for future reference. It’s just like a mall back home except smaller and with about 4 floors of stores. After a quick trip through the mall, we parted ways with Michael and Dawn and we headed for the show.

Water Puppet Theatre

On the walk to the theatre, we walked by an International post office and went inside so we could send some letters home. The building was similar to the other French Colonial buildings without air conditioning. (I don’t understand how these people work in this heat) As soon as we got to the counter to ask for information, there was a young man ready to sell me postcards, travel information, and other small items that could be conveniently sent through the mail. He setup shop in a pretty good location.

We made it to the theatre and headed to the entrance. There was a sign that had the charges if you wanted to take pictures of the show. The cost to use a camcorder was $3 US and a still camera was $1 US. This is a scam because nobody checked to see who paid and who didn’t.

The theatre was small with seating for roughly 150 people and it was sold out. I’m glad we didn’t get there early because the air conditioning wasn’t that great. I was fine until about 2 minutes before the show started when this gentleman seated in front of us reeked of BO. On the way into the theatre, they gave everyone a free paper fan as a souvenir. I was working that thing overtime during the show. The show started with traditional folk music performed live. They were located to the left of the stage. The stage looked like a temple building with the curved roof. There was a large pool of green water under the temple like building (hence the water puppets). The puppets came from behind a bamboo door under the temple like building and acted out in the water. We were amazed at how they could move the puppets through the water at sometimes almost 10 feet in front of the building. There were 17 acts but by the time we hit act 10, Logan was getting antsy. The show lasted about 50 min. By that time I had had enough of the BO guy in front of us and was ready to get out of there. All in all I would recommend this to everyone. We quickly grabbed a cab and headed for the hotel.