Nope...nothing yet

Long day...no email regarding Julia's visa...kids ready to go home...parents ready to go home...people having a rough day...hoping to get a second wind tomorrow.

Enough about today.

USAmericans are really lucky when it comes to international travel. I am sitting here in the hotel lobby here and there is a group of Korean ladies that is trying to get some information from the hotel desk staff. One of these ladies just started complaining to me that the hotel staff here doesn't speak good enough English for them to communicate. As I have written before, this hotel accommodates people from all over Asia and Europe. Most of these travelers do not speak Vietnamese, and most of the hotel staff (as well as restaurant staff) don't speak Korean, Chinese, German, etc., but English. As difficult as it is sometimes for us to communicate here, at least when we are trying to communicate with people here we have the luxury of doing it in our native tongue.

That being said, the next time we come here (which we plan on doing when Julia gets old enough to appreciate the trip), we want to speak more Vietnamese before we come. If for no other reason then at least to show some respect to the people that we meet. We were and are woefully unprepared in that regard.

However, if we never get Julia's visa approved, I have been considering some possible ways of earning a living in Vietnam permanently. My first idea is that I would like to buy a junk ( a boat) in Ha Long Bay. This boat would offer cruises of Ha Long bay while serving the finest BBQ pork available in the entire country of Vietnam. We would also serve our own microbrewed beers on board. Vietnam has some wonderful food, but they really could learn something from the US with respect to BBQ pork and beer. I already talked this through with the tour guide who went with us to Ha Long Bay and he is on board with the idea. It sounds like a great way to spend hot days in Vietnam during the summer, at least.

A second idea that I have is to do the same thing, but without a boat (and not in Ha Long Bay because without the boat Ha Long Bay is too wet). We could set up in Hanoi and specialize in food for people waiting for visas for adopted children. We would serve chicken nuggets so that people who traveled with their children to adopt a child would be able to say to their older kids, "hey guys look! you can get chicken nuggets!" And then the older children would say, Wow! can we come here every night?" Then the parents would say, "No, because it is more expensive than the Vietnamese restaurants." Then the children would start crying. Hmm...maybe we'll just hope for Julia's visa to come through.

In parting, I shared this pet peeve with Barbie earlier today: although there many things about Vietnam that are wonderful, there is one thing that I will not miss. I will not miss when you are being charged 30,000 Dong (about $2) for something and you pull out a 100,000 Dong bill (about $7) and you get a look that communicates something like "you must be crazy if you think that I'm going to be make change for that kind of money!" It's a look that you might get if you pick up some Chicklets at the grocery store and try to buy them with a $100 bill. I won't miss that.

Sorry for taking you on a trip down my stream of consciousness. I'll collect my thoughts better next time.

Doug