They are a couple from Madison with an eight-year-old they adopted from here at three-months-old. Their first G & R had been rescheduled so they were waiting to leave so they could go pick up their eleven-month-old. What a small world. At the doctor’s office yesterday, we met a woman who was adopting a six-year-old girl. I think I thought there would be more adoptive families, like I’ve heard from families who adopt from China, but maybe there are too many hotels in Saigon and the families are all split up.
After chatting with the family, then answering some emails, (I’m sorry if I don’t reply or my answers are super brief, but Layla either gets a little too hot in the internet lab or she tries to type too, so our time is brief there.) we went on a walk around Ho Chi Minh with the other families.
I have a hard time remembering what day it is, all I know is what’s on the agenda for each day, so I was surprised to discover it was New Year’s Eve.
As we went into the Reunification Palace, I saw people setting up and practicing for a New Year’s party or concert of some sort. The Reunification Palace, the place where North and South Vietnam officially reunified, was pretty straight forward.
There would be a sign which read, “Conference Room” and I would look inside the room and yep, there was a large table and a bunch of chairs with some decoration here and there. In the “Formal Dining Room,” there was a formal dining room table, chairs, and beautiful area rug. The palace did have a 60s feel to it.
And for some reason, people were opposed to taking the elevator so we had to walk up all four floors, but I walked up three flights of stairs to get to the second floor so I’m highly suspicious with the way they number the floors there. After getting to the roof, we got a well deserved ice cold bottle of water. Then it was time to go down to the basement. So we hooked up with an English speaking tour guide giving these British, Australian, French people a tour and down we went. Could we have not started off in the basement?
I learned 3 million Vietnamese died in the war and I realized how I never actually had a history class that got to the Vietnam War. School was always out before we got to that war. We then went to watch a video about the Palace at all that happened in there, but I couldn’t pay attention because someone was fussy. I had a backpack on, my Columbia jacket, without the inner lining tied around my waist you know just in case it rained, and Layla in front of me in the Baby Ergo. I was sweltering and I’m not a fan of heat.
We’re finally in an air conditioned room and Layla wants to be noisy and refuse to take her bottle. So at that moment I wished upon her, an adoption twenty-five or thirty years from now in the middle of the summer in some hot, humid land and her child refuses to let her enjoy the air conditioner. Take that little girl! I’ll be right by her side or rather I’ll sit in the air conditioned room and wave at her and my grandchild. Ha!
I’m glad I brought the shorts and skirts for her though I tried to dress her in pants because of the rain that can appear out of nowhere, but she gets too hot for that.
After the Palace, we walked to the mall where Christmas decorations were still out. A few places have decorated for Christmas, but nothing like I’m used to seeing at home. And some places still play Christmas music, Vietnam Airlines seem to really enjoy playing “Last Christmas, I gave you my heart and the very next day you gave it away.” Who knew the Vietnamese loved Wham. I’ve been singing along, but did explain to Layla this was an unusual occurrence. Christmas music is only allowed to be played after the turkey is eaten until 11:59PM Christmas night.
The mall looked very upscale, I had everyone on the lookout for Jory’s and Rowan’s garbage trucks, but all I saw were American toys. Even the bookstore was full of Disney books and other things I could buy at Toys R Us. I did see this cute little police motorcycle with a policemen attached that had working lights and sirens. I bought it, though did we really need another noise making toy in the house? I’ll just have to remind Jory that he needs to save his batteries. That’s very important to him, not to run down his batteries. Nice lesson, Oma.
We walked through a marketplace, which was very interesting. Anything I wanted to buy, I could probably find there. Though at times the smell of a fish was pretty overpowering. Whit, do you want some Louis Vutton luggage? I saw some at the marketplace. Can someone say Christmas gift?
On the walk back to the hotel, I saw a Circle K. Okay, am I in bizarro world? There’s no McD’s, but there’s a Circle K and KFC. These poor Saigonians don’t know the taste of those two all beef patties with the special sauce or more importantly of those crispy, golden fries. Is this what the world’s going to be like once the Anti-Christ is ruling?
As a New Year’s treat, we ordered KFC or rather the front desk at the hotel ordered for us because the worker at KFC couldn’t really understand our order. And the receptionist had problems understanding we wanted three three-piece meals with mash potatoes, cole slaw, and a biscuit. I got a blank stare at the use of the words “cole slaw.” I guess that’s one KFC item that didn’t make the transfer. The second being the biscuit though I did get offered the bread a hamburger comes on. I politely declined. But on the upside, KFC did deliver SCORE!! Particularly since it was raining non-stop.
Twenty minutes later, the order arrived and of course it was just one three piece meal. And my mashed potatoes became French fries. But I have to say, the eleven herbs and spices tasted the same. The fries weren’t half bad. And the Coke was in a real size Coke can and not in that miniature can that you can finish in two gulps.
There was a nice 30 Rock marathon on that I thought would help us stay awake to ring in the New Year. But my 4AM wake up had my eyes drooping at 10:30, this was after a 2 hour nap and my catnap as we waited to get the kids’ passports, so we didn’t ring in the New Year together. Though I did wake up at 1AM this morning and called home to wish them a Happy New Year! After mentioning, his garbage truck, Jory told me to buy the batteries for his airplane and Rowan’s too. Darn that Geo Trax for not mentioning any where on the box that the batteries weren’t included. Sneaky devils. Okay, it’s 4:42 and I better go to sleep before my head starts nodding at lunchtime. If it’s not raining, we may go out and see what stores are open today.
Here's a look at our room at the Lan Lan. It isn't my room but Nancy's, but they all looked the same.
Outside the Reunification Palace.
Outside on the ground floor.
Probably a conference room.
Lisa and Ben on the top floor of the Palace, where we were all dying for some nice cold water. Lucky for us on this humid day, they sold some.
An office maybe.
A very nice, large and I'm sure expensive area rug.
A sitting room?
A radio used in the basement bunker. The hot, humid basement where there were only large fans blowing. See why the air conditioned movie room was so important.
A model of the Palace.
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