Saturday, March 29, 2008

Now where was I?

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to finish our Vietnam travel tale; this jet lag thing is not to be taken lightly--it has taken me a full week to feel normal again.

So at last report, we were on our way back to Hanoi from our weekend trip to Halong Bay. We got back to our hotel around 5pm Sunday evening, and this was Lauren's last night in VN (as she was returning home by herself a couple of days before the rest of us to get back to her classes) and her 20th birthday was on Mar. 20th, so we went out to dinner at Bobby Chinn's to celebrate her golden birthday. This is a pricey restaurant by Vietnamese standards, entrees ranging from about $15 - $22, but in the US this place would easily charge double what we paid here. We didn't have a reservation, and this is a popular restaurant, so we were seated in the lounge area for dinner. It worked out well, since we had a nice sectional sofa-type thing to sit on, and we spread out a blanket and let baby (we hadn't named her yet at this point) play there. It reminded me of what an opium den must look like, all surrounded with silk drapes over and around the seating area, rose petals on the table.


Ok, on to the obligatory foodie pictures. Don had the salmon and wasabi mashed potatoes:


Lauren had the filet, still mooing, just the way she likes it. This was the most expensive item on the menu at around $22 if I remember correctly.

I had the prawns. With a couple of unnecessary heads still attached. Still delicious though:

Anna had the bbq ribs:
Baby had the crayon box. It was a little tough:

The boys all had burgers, and those don't rate a photo. The waitstaff must have heard us mention Lauren's birthday, because after our meal they surprised her with a complimentery birthday dessert and "Happy Birthday" song, which of course she just loves having sung to her:

So I give 2 thumbs up to Bobby Chinn's. Not the cheapest place in town though. After dinner, Don and the boys and baby took a taxi back to the hotel while Lauren, Anna, & I went to the old quarter to do a little shopping. We got out of the taxi at the end of the lake by Highlands Coffee, and who do we run smack into? The former North Vietnam army colonel bud of Don's! He called out to us and we had little chat. Can you imagine running into someone you know in this huge city packed full of people? I'm still amazed. We shopped for a couple of hours and then everything started closing--it was around 10pm or so by then--so we grabbed a taxi and went home.
Next morning we had to get up early to get ready to take Lauren to the airport. Lauren had a hard time saying goodbye to baby. She had grown very attached to her, and I know they'll miss each other alot.
I can see the resemblence:
Don and the kids stayed at the hotel and Lauren and I went to the airport by taxi. It took about an hour and 15 minutes to get to the airport that morning; luckily the airport was not crowded that day and we didn't have much of a line to wait in to get her checked in for her flights. I said goodbye at the security checkpoint and returned to my waiting taxi for the trip back into Hanoi. Shortly after we left the airport, we went thru a tollbooth, and the tollbooth guy and my taxi driver had a few stern Vietnamese words at each other, and then the driver pulled ahead and off to the side of the road and parked. The only thing he could manage to say to me in English as he got out of the car was "sorry", and then off he trotted back to the toll booth and out of sight. I just sat there in the taxi on the side of the road and wondered if he would be coming back anytime soon, or if I might be about to be arrested and thrown in a VN prison for associating with a criminal, but my fears were for naught. He came back in about 5 minutes, muttered "sorry" again, and off we went. I have no idea what that was all about!
When I got back to the hotel, it was lunchtime, so guess what we did? Yep, off to eat again! This time we decided to go to an Italian place, Mediterraneo, and we decided to walk since it was a nice day. So, map in hand, off we went. A guy selling VN travel books kept following us practically all the way there, begging us to buy a book. Don finally gave him a couple bucks just to get rid of him. Otherwise, it was a nice walk, and the restaurant was easy to find. Richard didn't like the pizza, so he traded dad for his "bacon & eggs spaghetti", which got his approval.
William wasn't too fond of the pizza either:

After lunch, we went shopping in the old quarter for some gifts and souvenirs. I wish we would have had more time for shopping. I could have done some serious damage. The walking is difficult though, especially with kids, because of the obstacles blocking the sidewalks wherever you go. We ended up walking in the street more than on the sidewalks, and those scooters are everywhere. We bought several things, including the required cone hats for the kids. I found a red velvet coat and a knit hat and booties for sweetie to wear when we get back to the airport in Moline and have to deal with the cold. It was a pretty warm day and we were getting tired, so we stopped for a cold beverage at a corner cafe. She just hauled out a plastic table and a plastic chair for each of us and plopped them down on the sidewalk for us, thus creating one of those obstacles I spoke of.
The kids all had chocolate milk:
We had a nice cold brew:


As we sat there drinking our beverages, the cyclo drivers began circling us, eyeing their prey. We had planned on walking back to the hotel, but we relented to the high-pressure sales tactics of the cyclo drivers and employed 3 of them to drive us back to the hotel. What the heck, we wanted to try them out anyway:






The scooters just kept driving around us. Note all the helmets--Kim had told us that the VN government decided to require helmets for scooters a few months ago, and from what we saw, compliance was darn close to 100%. (On adults anyway; most child passengers we saw were not wearing them. I guess their heads are less likely to break.) Pretty amazing to have such obedient citizens. I can't imagine Americans being so compliant.



We got back to the hotel and since it was warmer than it had been since we'd been in Hanoi, we told the kids we could try out the Somerset's nice pool. Turns out it felt alot warmer on the streets of Hanoi than it did at the pool on the 4th floor of the hotel. The water was cold, but the kids got in for a while anyway. Even the "spa" was cold. It had bubbles though!








All that shopping wore her out. Such an angel~



No more pictures for this day; Richard wasn't feeling well after his dip in the frigid pool, so we just ordered room service from Jaspa's instead of going out for dinner.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very interesting!
Anxious to hear how everything is going now. Lily sure is cute little sweetie!
First day back after the Texan trip went well, but I'm back in my winter coat!
Nancy

Anonymous said...

Sheesh mom, took you long enough to update. But you didn't do a full update... hurry up and write more!
-Lauren