Flight 2458 American Airlines Depart: Los Angeles Intl Arpt (LAX), 6:25 PM Wednesday, December 31, 2008Arrive: Dallas Ft Worth Intl (DFW)11:25 PM Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Today, we went to the Hanoi water puppet show and ate dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant in the Westlake District on the water. We really liked the puppet show. Sabian fell asleep in my sling right before it and we thought he'd sleep all the way through but he woke up as it started and he was pretty mesmerized for most of the 45 minute-hour long show. The puppets were in a big indoor water tank and were operated by puppeteers behind a screen. There were musicians and singers on the side. The water puppets were just so darn cute, for instance, there were jumping frogs, slithering water snakes, dancing tigers, and funny little sumo wrestler-looking boy puppets rowing boats.
Afterwards, we rode through the streets for quite awhile taking in all the sights of Hanoi on our way to dinner. It was the funniest scene with us trying to find something semi-edible to order and then attempting for ten minutes and with the help of several wait staff to understand how to order our food. We were sweating with stress to try and understand why they weren't just simply taking our order, but finally realized after the fourth or fifth person came over to try and translate, that the seafood was sold in kilograms and we needed to decide how many kg of seafood we wanted. And then, they stood over us the entire time as we ate, just inches away! They also didn't have a high chair, in fact, not many places do. When they do have them, they're not the kind we have that are safe. There aren't the right kind of straps to hold the baby in the chair. The other day, Sabian almost fell out of one of these contraptions, and I think the waitress finally realized why I put up so much of a fuss asking for a chair with straps. Don't even get me started on the strangeness of the safety issues here. Our hotel has windows that open up on the fifteenth floor wide enough for a baby to fall out of, yet hair dryers can't be plugged anywhere in the bathrooms by the mirrors. I had to go through a lot just to get a system rigged up by the staff where I could use a mirror as I blow dried my hair. Not that it matters much, because the dryers are such low wattage or output that I may as well towel dry my hair. Aaaahhhh, the conveniences of home! You should've seen where we went to find the baby formula Sabian drinks. The hotel food mart didn't carry it so the concierge wrote down an address for our taxi. The stores are these little tiny hole in the wall places you'd never guess were businesses. Jeff was wandering through this mass of skinny tunnel like alley-ways through a maze of vendors looking for the purple Pediasure can. he came back with it, luckily, because the last thing we need is a baby with an upset stomache on the airplane. We'll need all the luck we can get anyway, just to remember to pack all his necessities in the carry ons.
In a couple hours, we go to the embassy to get Sabian's Visa. That's the last item we need before we can come home.
It's such an interesting culture and country. I can hardly take it all in as we walk the streets and ride through the city. I'd love to stay until Saturday and go to more places, especially Halong Bay, but with a new baby, it's just not going to happen. We've had a great time, especially in Ho Chi Minh City, but it's time to go home and get in our routine there. I feel so blessed to have come on this journey and to have been given a beautiful son who we love more than anything else in the world.
decorating for the new year celebration-they're creating a dragon on a metal form, attaching leaves for the scales
before the water puppet show
After the show, the puppeteers come out from "back stage"
No comments:
Post a Comment