Third Day and Still WAITING

Day 3 Monday July 16, 2007

The day again started at 2:00am for me. I just can’t get on track yet. Logan didn’t come join me until an hour later so at least he is getting better. Becky is right on track. When it comes to sleep, she doesn’t mess around. I like getting up this early because I can keep track of the Cub’s game while it’s in progress.

The three of us went to breakfast at 6:30am. We are usually the first because we are the newest ones here. As time goes on I hope we will be sleeping in. Anyway, they changed the menu a little bit so this day Logan was able to find something more to his liking. I usually can’t wait until this meal because the coffee is very strong and almost resembles syrup. Good stuff.

After we ate, we decided to get an early start to the day so we could get out of the heat by 12:00. We decided to walk to a place called the Towers Mall. It’s just outside the Old Quarter and very close to the Melia where our friends are staying. I’m glad Becky and I didn’t tell Logan we were planning on walking the streets before breakfast because he would have lost his appetite. He still has a fear of street merchants. He’s probably more scared of the merchants than he is of our neighbor who dressed as the Michael Myers character in the movie Halloween. We made our way through the streets. All the storeowners were busy cleaning and arranging their goods before the busy day so everyone left us alone. This boosted Logan’s confidence. We took many pictures along the way. Becky noticed this chicken in the window of this very small meat market. The bird was whole sitting there and it was all a yellowish-green color. It looked like maybe they boiled it. It looked yummy. As we got closer to the Tower, the stores became more high-tech. You can find anything from air conditioners to Bose sound systems to cars. We got to the Towers mall after only a 15-20 min stroll. The building was mostly a high-rise apartment with some shops on the ground level. We toured the shops and stop in a convenience store to buy some water and other items. After a quick look in a golf shop and baby clothes store, we decided to see if we could find the Hoa Lo Museum better known as the “Hanoi Hilton”.

Prison Tour

The prison was right next to the Towers building. Apparently there was an agreement when the developers purchased the land for the Towers that they had to keep a portion of the prison as a museum. There is a little less than half of the original prison left. The tour was self-guided and costs $5,000 dong per person which is about 35 cents US and children are free. This is truly worth seeing. It takes your through the history starting with the French using it to detain the Vietnamese to the Vietnamese using it to detain the Americans. I tried to picture myself crammed with others in the small jail cell with my feet shackled to the concrete floor in the stifling heat of the summer. It was only 10:00am and I starting to sweat terribly. I couldn’t imagine what the prisoners must have felt. One section of the prison where the Americans had been detained posted information on how well these prisoners were treated. It almost described an atmosphere similar to a country club. I have my reservation about this. Anyhow the tour was interesting and Logan seemed to be interested in many of the exhibits especially the machine used to cut-off people’s heads. Good thing he didn’t take a closer look at the picture next to the machine. It contained the heads of three women without there bodies. They didn’t look so good. It was starting to get very hot and we pretty much covered all the exhibits so we headed for the Melia.

Swimming at the Melia

The walk to the Melia was only about 5 min but by the time we arrived we were ready for some AC. Tracy and Amy were at the pool so we sat along poolside. Logan was chomping at the bit to get in the pool but we didn’t pack any swim suits. We gave Logan the green light to jump in with his shorts on and as soon as we finished the sentence, he was already making a splash. We lounged about the pool for about an hour but it started to get hot at the pool so we decided to go up to their room. After we wrung out Logan’s shorts we took a cab back to our hotel.

Back at the Hong Ngoc for “the call”

We were told by the adoption agency folks to be at our room for a phone call to see when we will travel to the orphanage to get Gracie. Logan and I watched snooker(pool game) this afternoon. It was very exciting. Becky spent most of the time trying to load pictures on our blog. I could tell it wasn’t going well by the screams coming from the room she was in. We lounged around and ordered room service for lunch. Lunch consisted of two big orders of fried rice, an order of French fries, and a cheeseburger for about $12.00 US. Not bad. The lunch was good but Logan said “it aint no Kreckel’s cheeseburger”. About 2:00pm the phone rang. It was the Kenny from the agency to tell us that we wouldn’t be traveling to the orphanage today or Tuesday but that it should be Wednesday. So we decided to make the best of it and try to keep ourselves busy.

Logan and I both were on the bed watching TV after the phone call. It was very difficult not to want to take a nap. Logan kept closing his eyes but his mother’s screams coming from the other room was waking him up (just kidding). We decided to go down stairs to happy hour. We just sat at the front window and watched the traffic go by. The cyclo drivers still wave at you through the window while you are sitting inside the building to see if you wanted a ride. Tong was on duty that afternoon. He is the gentleman that asked if we wanted to go to the soccer game the day before. I told him Logan was pretty tired so I didn’t think we would go. Shortly after he left, we thought it would be a good way for us to stay awake.

Asian Cup Soccer

I asked Tong if his offer was still good. He said to be down at the lobby at 4:30. Logan and I had several minutes so we went up to get ready and returned a couple of minutes early ready to go. Tong had his 7 year old son with him and also waiting was three other guests from the hotel. These included one chap from England and two gals from Australia. Everyone in our group knew soccer very well except Logan and I. We loaded into a mini van cab and left for the game. This was the Asian Cup with Vietnam playing Japan for the semi finals so it was a very important game. As we got closer to the stadium the traffic was just crazy. I have never seen anything like it before. There were people on scooter, car, buses, and trucks coming from all directions. I got the sense that Tong didn’t have all his tickets he needed because he was really working his cell phone on the cab ride to the game. When we arrived at the stadium and started walking to the entrance, Tong was working his magic to get the remainder of the tickets needed. Once we got through the main gate, Tong passed his tickets back through the fence so his other friends could get in the game. There were probably twice as many people there as there were seats. As soon as we reached the top of the stadium steps the crowd let out a loud roar. The Vietnamese team had already scored the first goal. Too bad we missed it because that was the only goal they scored for the remainder of the game. The Vietnamese team was just out matched. When we got to our seats, Tong asked if we wanted something to drink so he went to get us all water. He returned with two bags containing 6 sandwich size plastic bags with drinking straws in them. I hope I didn’t disrespect him, but I had to ask if it was bottled water. He said they put bottled liquid in bags because people will throw the bottles towards the field. We saw many full bags flying over our heads during the game. It was fun to watch the crowd. They were really fired up. It’s too bad their team didn’t win.

After the game we headed for the exits to find a cab. Tong was again working his magic to find us a cab. This guy is really connected. We walked in the crowd of people, scooters, and cars for about 15 minutes when we approached a cab waiting for us. We piled in the cab for the long ride home. The traffic on the return trip was ecstatic about their loss. There were people celebrating everywhere. A truck passed us with people at the back beating drums and blowing horns. (I couldn’t believe it but there was a scooter with two people sitting on four half sheets of what appeared to be drywall) Logan fell asleep on my shoulder on the trip back to the hotel. When we reached the hotel, it took me several tries to get him out of the cab. He was totally exhausted. As he walked through the lobby, he drew several grins because the people could tell he was a walking zombie. When we got to the room, his mother wanted him to take a shower and I said he would never stay awake so he just headed to bed. I don’t think he will wake so early tomorrow.