Halong Bay and a Rough Train Ride

Hi,

I'm typing at 1:22 pm on 30 December from our hotel room in Sapa Vietnam.  It is a beautiful, mountainous area in Vietnam (very different from the rest of the country), near the China border.  More about that later.

We took our boat tour of Halong Bay yesterday morning.  It was a good time.  It is so beautiful there.  The highlight was when we got into 3 rowboats on the bay and had local fisherpersons paddle us through a water cave that let to an almost-fully-enclosed-by-rocky-island pool.  The pool is 1.5 feet deep at low tide and 6 feet at high tide.  The floating fishing village residents (yes...their homes are floating on this beautiful bay...they even have a floating school) use this pool to teach their children to swim.  They also go into this area when typhoons come as it provides protection from the waves and the wind.

After the boat tour, we had lunch, and then took the bus back to Hanoi.  We went back to the hotel that is storing our luggage and did a quick switcheroo of stuff (that was pretty funny...we were changing stuff out of our luggage in the hotel employee locker room).  It was a bit like fruit basket upset.  Then we said goodby to Charlie, our friend, Betsy's dad, who has been traveling with us and had to get back to the states earlier than the rest of us.  We miss you, Charlie.

After eating dinner in Hanoi, our tour guide, Hang (a.k.a. Jack), took us to the train station for the overnight "sleeper" bus to Sapa (actually Lao Cai, down the mountain from Sapa).  We left the restaurant and boarded the bus to go to the train station.  After a minute of driving, the normally laid-back bus driver started yelling at Jack (our tour guide).  We came back to the same location that we got on and Jack was embarrassed to tell us that we were already at the train station and we could just walk from there.  This was more entertaining than the next phase of the evening.

Once on the train, Jack informed us that we had 13 (very small) bunks for the 15 of us.  Also, it turns out that I didn't have the nicest, cleanest sleeper train arranged for the group.  There was much discussion (as we really wanted to get some sleep that night, as we are touring most of the day today), and the best that we got was an "extra bed" placed in our sleeper compartment (this took a $10 bribe).  The "extra bed" consisted of a worn out folding chair with a tin box placed at the end of it.  A piece of plywood was put on those, and then a "cushion" (that looked like it had been in the forest for two years) was placed on the plywood.  Julia slept on this. Another child had to double-up with a parent. 

(I'm typing the rest of this now).  The train doesn't go very fast.  It covered around 200 miles in 8.5 hours.  Many times the train was going very slow up a steep incline.  Other times there were sharp turns.  Not many adults got sleep on the train.  The children slept most of the time on the train, but we arrived at our destination at 4:15AM and had to get up (no hotel room until noon).  We got out of the train to find ourselves on a cold, rainy, platform, and our tour guide was scheduled to meet us two hours later.  Yikes.

Fortunately, I had the phone number of our local tour guide, Gordon, and woke him up.  He quickly called a friend who had a restaurant a block away from the train station who led us to the restaurant for breakfast.  We were at the restaurant until maybe 7 or so, and then we took a bus up the mountain from Lao Cai to Sapa.  Many of the tired passengers were motion-sick on the way up, and right as we stopped, one 5-year old boy was poised to puke in a zip lock bag...but the bus stopping helped him hold it together.  Once here, many realized that it was colder/wetter here than expected, so they quickly bought some north face jackets here (real or fake is the discussion here). 

(I'm resuming typing this at 9pm at the end of the day).  We couldn't check-in to the hotel until noon or so, so we went to a waterfall (another twisty mountain road), which was quite beautiful, but shrouded in the fog/mist.  We saw a couple of accidents on the way up (we're thankful for safe traveling so far), and on the way back down we almost ran into several large water buffalo.  We had lunch, and then finally got to check in and get a shower and a nap (for some).  After that, we (except for Helen, who had a fever, and my mom, who wasn't feeling well) hiked up Dragon Mountain in the center of Sapa city.  It was quite a hike, but it was beautiful.  There was ice forming on the top of the mountain!  Julia got cold, so I put here fleece sweatshirt on her.  That brought many laughs to the mostly Asian tourists here.  We really are missing out on some great scenery given the fog/mist/rain that we have here.  I hope tomorrow it is clearer!

This evening we had another great Vietnamese meal at a local restaurant (except for my mom, who is now feeling some better and hopefully she is back and ready to go tomorrow).  We really are excited to spend the night on beds in a hotel.  It's funny what we take for granted.  Not so much looking forward to another night train back tomorrow night.  I am sure we will survive it.

As I write this, many of you might be thinking that it was a crummy day.  There were definitely some crummy things about today, but we are all in good spirits and we are still glad to be traveling together.  It is really a privilege that we have to be able to take a trip like this.  In three weeks we are seeing more of Vietnam that most Vietnamese people will every see in their lives.  For that we are very thankful.

Peace,
Doug

 The Atkins family in a rowboat on Halong Bay.

Part of the floating fishing village.  It is a odd thing, incredibly poor people with the best view in the world.

 The kissing rocks (or fighting cocks).  These particular limestone karsts are the symbol for tourism in Vietnam.

The entire travel party (including our tour guide, Jack.)

 Atkins family photo at Silver Waterfall (near Sapa, Vietnam).

Greetings from Ha Long Bay

Hello all,

Sorry for the delay in blog posts.  The internet connections have been spotty.  I have just a few minutes right now, so we will see if the internet lasts...

Christmas Eve day continued to be exciting.  The owner of the hotel that we were staying at invited us to a Christmas Eve Vietnamese buffet that a hotel in town was having.  These people mean business!  There was lots of food (including dog meat - you will have to ask Doug what he thought about it) and a slight bit of pushing and shoving by the people to get the food.  The meal ended with some Vietnamese karaoke.  Merry Christmas!  =)

Christmas Day was low key.  At the hotel, our group sang some Christmas carols and read the Christmas story.  The kids swam in the pool, some of us walked around town and we went to a nearby coffee shop to indulge in the best fruit smoothies that I have ever tasted!  The person who owns the coffee shop in a mid-twenty year old girl who wanted to practice her English, so she told us her mom was a good cook and invited all 16 of us for dinner the following evening.  (I told my kids in no uncertain terms could they just invite 16 strangers for supper some night, in case they got the wrong idea!).

On the 26th, we went on the local "hot tour."  It was a 6 hour adventure.  We got on a boat (Julia's home province is an  island) and toured a brick factory, listened to three women sing traditional music while eating local fruits, stopped for some fresh coconut juice, went to a bonsai garden, saw them making straw mats, 6 of us adults went on a bike ride through rural Ben Tre, ate lunch, then canoed down the river back to our boat.

After that, we went to the coffee shop for the aforementioned dinner.  She was right - her mom is a good cook (and a good sport!).  She taught us how to make banh xeo- a  Vietnamese type pancake that is popular in the south.  We ate outside on a beautiful patio and had a great time.

On the 27th we flew up to Hanoi.  While in Hanoi we are staying at the hotel where Julia and I staying the last 4 weeks that we were here the last time.  Some of the staff still works there and remembers us.  It is fun to see them again.  We also were able to reconnect with Mr. Hien, the nice gentleman who worked for the adoption agency when we were here.  He has been very helpful for this trip and it is so nice to see him again.

I am going to have to stop there.  We are on our way to go to a boat tour of Ha Long bay, and then tonight we take the night train to Sapa where we will be the next couple of days.  I am not sure how the internet will be, so it might be a few days before you hear from us again.  If that is the case, I hope you all have a great New Year.  And we will let you know how the view of the States going off the "cliff" is from Asia.  =)

Take care,

Barbie

                                          Enjoying our smoothies!

                 The kids with Miss Thu, our smoothie maker and dinner hostess.

              Doug and Barbie pausing during our Ben Tre bike ride on a monkey bridge.

              Paddling a wood canoe down a water coconut lined canal in Ben Tre.

              Julia, Thomas, and Helen at the end of the "Hot Tour".

Back where it all began

Happy Christmas Eve to you all,

Today, we are back where our life with Julia began.  We arrived in Ben Tre last evening.  The trip was 180 miles and took about 7 hours.  A lot had changed road-wise in the last 5 years.  There were a few new, smooth roads and a new bridge.  The bridge is big news.  It use to be that you needed to take a ferry to get to the province where Julia lived, but they finished the bridge in the last couple of years, and that shaves a lot of time off the trip. 

Anyway,  back to where it all began.  This morning, we were able to go back to the care center where Julia spent the first 15 months of her life.  She was so excited to go.  When we arrived, we were introduced to the director and another woman.  After a few minutes of talking with them (we were fortunate that the hotel that we are staying at provided a fantastic interpreter as a lot of people in this province don't speak English), a woman (Mrs. Chi) that was a nanny when Julia and her friends lived there, came in.  She was so excited to see the kids.  Within a few minutes someone had called two other women who worked there at the time when the kids where there and they came too.  As soon as one of the women (Mrs. Thao) got off her scooter she was crying when she saw the children.  Julia spent most of the time in the arms of Mrs. Chi.  We were able to spend almost two and a half hours there and it was an amazing time.  Julia was so happy to be there and be re-introduced to the women who took care of her.  And we are so thankful for these women who took good care of her for the first 15 months of her life until we were able to do it ourselves.  Thank you so very much Mrs. Chi and Mrs. Thao - words cannot express what you have done for us and for Julia.

                                                              Julia with Mrs. Chi

                                                          Julia with Mrs. Thao

     Julia with Mrs. Chi and Mrs. Thao.  They put in her pigtails when they decided she was too warm!

Merry Christmas from the Atkins clan!

Barbie

Last Day at the Beach

Today was our last day at the beach in Mui Ne.  Today we went to a little stream called Fairy Stream that winds down from the famous red sand dunes here.  You can wade up the sand bottom stream up into the sand dunes.  It is incredibly beautiful.  I have attached a couple of pictures to this post.  It is also really cool that as you walk up...there is someone's bull that they have tied up next to the stream.  Something else interesting, but not particularly cool, is that along the stream there is place that you can pay to ride an ostrich.  It was not recommended in our guide book, so we passed.

 

The kids really enjoyed playing at the ocean.  We don't have to go to Vietnam to have that experience, so we really need to work it into a family vacation at some point.  The beach that we are at is know for having dangerous riptides, so there are a number of places that we were either discouraged or prohibited from getting into the water.  The waves were awesome and the kids learned the joy of  building sand castles and having the waves come and wash them away.

Today Ryan (one of our fellow travelers) and I took a taxi to Phan Thiet (the nearest large town) in order to buy some supplies for the care center where Julia used to live.  As can happen in Vietnam, we had an interesting cab ride home.  We were a bit squished into a very small cab with ourselves, the driver, 24 large cans of infant formula, and many large packages of diapers.  The car apparently had some sort of transmission issues and the only way that our driver seemed to be able to get the car moving was to start it out in fourth gear (burnt clutch is such a pleasant smell).  Once we stopped at a toll booth, and we almost had to get out and push the car in order for it to get started moving.  At one point in the ride back, it appeared that the most appropriate response to transmission problems was to crank the radio as loud as it goes.  If you have never jammed to Whitney Houston's "Savin' all my Love for You" whilst in a partially disabled taxi full of diapers and baby formula, then I would submit tht you haven't really lived.  Ryan took a bit of video of that moment, and once he puts it on YouTube, I'll have to share a link.

Tomorrow at 9am we will take a bus (5-8 hours...we don't know for sure) back to Julia's hometown, Ben Tre.  Julia is super excited to be there to meet some the ladies who took care of her when she was a baby.  She is also excited to try some of the coconut candy that Ben Tre is famous for.  This is something that this girl has been looking forward to for at least a couple of years.  I think that it will be a wonderful experience for her, and I thoroughly look forward to spending more time in the place that Julia Binh An is from.  We'll talk to you from there!

Takc care,

Doug

Mui Ne Day 1

Well, rest easy dear folks in the US - we are 13 hours ahead of you and our world has not ended yet, so I presume that you are all safe!  =)  But on a more ironic note, on this winter solstice day, 3 members of the Atkins family did get some significant sunburn. We are taking a few very leisurely days in a town called Mui Ne at a resort on the ocean.  The day was spent swimming in the pool and playing in the ocean.  In between there was a lot of shell collecting.  They have some amazingly beautiful shells here!

Today was our first full day in Vietnam where we did not have some illness.  On Wednesday night, I fell ill with the stomach flu and felt pretty miserable.  This was a little disconcerting because we were headed on a long bus ride on Thursday and I wasn't sure how I was going to handle that.  Thankfully, it went OK for the most part and I feel great today. 

The bus ride took us from Ho Chi Minh City to Mui Ne.  If you look at a map, they are only about 130 miles apart.  The bus ride took 6 hours to cover that distance.  This is fairly par for the course - it is hard to get anywhere very fast here.  How there traffic flows without any accidents amazes me.  I was in the front seat, and countless times we would be going to pass a truck in front of us, just to realize that there was a truck coming towards us in their lane.  In the US, if we passed a car and the oncoming car was as close as they are here, we would be panicking.   After the first or second time, I didn't even bat an eyelash at that scene anymore.

Julia is attracting a lot of attention here.  They keep coming up to us and saying "Vietnam baby?"  Or they do a double take if she is holding Doug's hand as they walk down the street.  At the last hotel that we stayed at they had wood floors in the rooms (most places here either have wood or tile floors, there is very little carpet).  A women from housekeeping came in to clean our room.  She looked at Julia's stockinged feet, said something to Doug's mom, then she picked up Julia, sat her down on her bottom and took off her socks.  She pointed to Julia's feet and then the wood floor and gestured to us that it was not safe for Julia to wear her socks on the slippery wood floor.  That kind of thing cracks me up!  

We have one more day here at the beach, and then we head to the town where Julia was born. 

Thanks for checking in,

Barbie for the gang

2nd Full Day in Saigon

Today was our second and final full day in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City).  I decided to post a few pictures, however uninteresting.  Five years ago I didn't post one picture on the blog because I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong.  I have something to prove to myself. I must say that the picture taking effort to date has been somewhat lacking.  It probably has to do with my energy level in coming to grips with traveling 11 time zones away.

The first two pictures show us in Saigon.  The first is our family waiting for the bus to take us back to the hotel.  We made a fairly short trip into the city today as we didn't want to overdo it with Helen (she's feeling well now, we think).  The second shows Grandma A and the kids at the Reunification Palace.  This is the former home of the South Vietnamese president which is an iconic Saigon site, as it is the place where the US/Vietnam war ended.  (Perhaps you remember the video of the tank crashing through the iron gate).

The third and fourth pictures are taken from the observation deck of the building that Barbie talked about in the previous post. 

The last two pictures show where we have been suffering for the last two days.  It is really a nice place, and very comfortable.  We travel tomorrow to Mui Ne beach which is about a five hour bus trip away from here.  We will will continue our difficult lifestyle at a beach resort there.  It should be very nice, but I am really looking forward to spending some time after that in Julia's hometown of Ben Tre, in the Mekong Delta of southern Vietnam. 

Highlights from today include:

• Helen feeling better!
• Another perfect day for swimming at the hotel pool (90+ and quite humid here...and the sun feels super hot).
• I met with a person who is going to help us coordinate aid to the care center in which Julia spent the first 15 months of her life (if you are interested to help...just let me know).  By the way, this meeting was right next to where I bought a pacifier for Julia late on the night we adopted her (that story should be listed on a post from 23 November 2007).
• I think we are fairly well adjusted to the new time.
• It is good to spend time in Vietnam with our friends.  They are great friends, adventurous travelers, and people with whom we share a special bond, at least partially due to our interwoven family stories.

It is about 10pm local time here and I am the only one awake (that's kind of the way that it normally works in Minnesota).  Now that we have more fully adjusted our bodies to the time change, hopefully our days will be more loaded with stories to share.  I was hoping a little bit when I took a taxi back to the hotel tonight by myself (it is about 20-30 minutes drive from the city center) that the driver might pretend to know where he was going, but really not and then end up driving for a long time before taking me to the wrong place.  However, he drove straight to the hotel.  Oh well...

Take care,
Doug

Saigon Day 1

Greetings from Saigon,

It's 6:00 am here and I have been awake for 2 hours.  The jet lag hasn't been horrible, but the switch to a new body clock is taking some time.  I decided to use this time while Doug is hunting down some breakfast and the kids are still sleeping to update you on how we are doing.

Yesterday was our first full day in Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon).  The hotel is in a very scenic spot located next to the Saigon River.  We see many boats and barges head down the river as well as a surprising amount of vegetation, coconuts, etc.  The river moves pretty fast and is nice to watch.

We spent the morning at the outdoor hotel pool.  The kids loved that and had a great time swimming.  It made perfect sense to me that they could be outside swimming until I walked around the building and heard the hotel office playing Bing Crosby's White Christmas over their sound system.  I saw the kids perfectly content in the pool, heard the music and realized that I wasn't in Kansas anymore.  We chuckle at the scenes of frosted windows and snowmen and polar bears dressed in scarves that are prevalent around this city that doesn't get much colder than 70 degrees ever.  The Christmas lights and decorations are fun nonetheless.

In the afternoon we ventured to a more central area of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC).  We stumbled across a new skyscraper that I had read about in one of our travel books.  You could go up to the 47 floor and see a 365 degree view of the city, so we ventured up.  It was amazing.  It turns out that this is a HUGE city with building and houses spread out as far as the eye could see.  We had no idea that the city was so big.  It was also interesting to see how the Saigon River really winds its way around the city.  I like this kind of thing (view from tall buildings) so this was a lot of fun.

So, those were the highlights from Day 1.  I am not sure what Day 2 has in store yet.  One unfortunate thing is that one of our children woke up vomiting in the middle of the night last night.  We aren't quite sure yet if it is a result of lack of sleep, accidentally getting some tap water in their system or is the stomach flu.  I am really hoping it is not the latter (but fear that it is) as we have all been in close quarters over the last 3 days and have been sharing water bottles, etc. I guess we shall see.

Anyway, the kids are starting to awake, so I am going to sign off.

Take care,

Barbie

Hello from Saigon

Sorry no pictures...too tired for that.  It's 1:30 am and we are all finally in bed and mostly asleep 33 hours after leaving our house and the slush.

It's about 80 degrees here, and humid, of course, so it really feels like we aren't at home anymore.  Julia is thrilled to be in the country of her birth, and Thomas and Helen are glad that we'll get to swim tomorrow.  We hope to say something more tomorrow.  Have a good sleep.