Friday 10/22

Today we visited a small school (Peace Village) for mentally challenged/physically disabled children. The building was old, but they had a PT room and dorm rooms (beds are hard cots with rattan mats) - but the children seemed happy and well cared for.
     Lunch was the same- soup, cucumber and carrot salad with pork, spring rolls, meat, shrimp, and morning glory greens. All aboard the bus for Haiphong - a large port and city. We arrived late to the orphanage in Haiphong so it was already dark and the children were eating dinner. They lived in eight  "home-style" cottages with about 8 children in each cottage, a mom, sometimes a dad. It was nice to see older children helping younger children. Again, the buildings were old but had a warm feeling. The kids were allowed to stay until they turned 18. Son Michael has a program for 18 yr olds to be trained for a job. Many of the children came back to the orphanage to volunteer to help.

Peace Village

Peace Village

Bringing toys and supplies to the orphanage

     On the return trip to the hotel from dinner, we got stuck in the hugest traffic jam of trucks for about 1 hour. Way worse than here!!!

Thurs 10/21 - first full day in Vietnam

Slept well and got up early. We watched the shop keepers from our hotel window start early bringing in their food and wares to set up shop. Breakfast was at the hotel and then we all went on a cyclotour to the lake. Again, I was overwhelmed by the sights, sounds, and smells. The streets are lined with small shop keepers. Every street has a "theme" - shoe street, clothes street, home goods street, etc. Beautiful and colorful displays of foods and wares - except for the cooked dog vendors! .... and some of the fish verdors are rather ripe!! Again, watching the flow of traffic is facinating - and now we were right in th middle of the mix.We also learned how to walk across the street with the traffic speeding all around us. Saw the large lake in the middle of Hanoi (Hoa Kiem Lake), a pagoda, and the Water Puppet Show (had me nodding off to sleep). Oh! and the electrical wires are an amazing puzzle!!! Lunch and dinner are similar - soup, salad (without lettuce), several meat dishes (tonight, one was rabbit), rice and dessert ( usually fruit). Lots of fish!! Back to hotel by 9 and early to bed. Wow! I forgot - our first stop of the day was the Hanoi Hilton. That's not easy to forget!

Wed. 10/20/2010 (I thnk)

I'm home now and will try to re-create the blog I wanted to write. I did not have access to a compute to download picture into my blog, so I decided not to bother writing  it while on my trip.

I know the time is 7:40 am - I'm not sure what day it is. I think it is Wed. 10/20/2010. We've made ot to Taipei and luckily, no sign of Typhoon Meigi (although it's raining out). Just flew 8 hrs. to Anchorage from Newark, 11 hrs. to Taipei, 51/2 hour layover and (I think) it will be 4 more hours to Hanoi. Exciting, but tiring. Landing in Taipei looks like any airport in any country. I'm getting better at reading the international symbols in all the airports.... I'm going to search for a Starbucks.
P.S. Not sure how to get the free Wi-Fi working.

Wed. evening (written Thurs. evening)

Made it to Hanoi late yesterday. I was overwhelmed with a facinating mixture of sights, sounds, and smells -exciting, bustling, moving ...... I could not stop watching the traffic. Cars, buses, but mostly motor scooters moving in and around each other in a facinating, woven pattern that lookd like it wouldn't work - but it does! Except when all traffic ws stopped for several bus loads of dignitaries...... Dinner was several courses - soup, several meat options (chicken, beef, and fish with several sauces), vegetables, and fruit. Pretty tasty - but then very exhausted so straight to bed.

1st day

We're finally here after many loooong hours traveling..... But, the sights, sounds, smells and hussle
and bustle are all worth it. We just came back from dinner at the Press Club and I'm exhusted, so going to bed. No photos yet, just wanted to say I was here safely (with no interference from the typhoon)

PS  Word is that a very famous movie actor and director are staying at this very hotel tonight. Too bad I wouldn't recognize them if I fell over them!!

Pre Vietnam test

This is just a test post to see if I can really do this blog stuff. The picture is from San Miguel de Allende, Mexico in 2008. I hope Vietnam will be as fun as this trip. More postings (for real) in a few days