Homeward Bound

This is it--my final post from Vietnam. What can we say about the past 3 weeks that we haven't already mentioned? Vietnam is not like home; it may not be for the faint-hearted traveller. As with any place I've travelled, there are definitely less than ideal aspects of it. Yet I hope you've gathered from our posts the admiration we have for its people and sights.

Adoptive parents dreaming of this trip, I hope your day comes soon. When it does, come with an open mind and a willingness to experience new things. Bring a carrier for your child and a good pair of walking shoes and get out of your hotel room. There is much to see.

While we return to the comforts of home, Wyatt is entering a whole new world. I hope that he embraces it with open arms, as he has us. He is quite a charmer and I know that he will soon catch the hearts of our family and friends at home. I can't wait for you to meet him and for him to know the wonderful people who have waited so long to become his extended family.

Our return flight is basically a reversal of our way here. We have a 5 hour layover in Seoul and then head to Chicago--where Wyatt officially becomes an American citizen. We arrive home in Minnesota on Monday afternoon--over 24 hours from when we leave here. Wish us safe and speedy travels!

Outside the city limits

The limestone mountains we saw yesterday were beautiful, even though they were not in the ocean like the ones we had hoped to see in Halong Bay. This boat ride, as well, was quite different than the one we had originally planned—instead of an air-conditioned junk, we were paddled for 2 hours in a very flat and shallow row boat. Wyatt and Isaac were in the carriers, so they had to sit fairly still. Wyatt was bribed with food (Puffed Corn and Nerds) while Isaac requested story after story. We passed through rice fields (although the rice growing season is over) and numerous lotus flowers on the way to 3 caves. The caves were actually long tunnels, some with low overhangs where we had to duck our heads. We returned to the dock by the same route; on the way back our tour guide played Vietnamese songs on his bamboo flute which just seemed perfect for the setting.

Returning to Hanoi, we stopped to visit the first capital of Vietnam. While almost nothing of the original area remains, temples were built there to honor the third and fourth kings of Vietnam. It was very nice to have our English-speaking tour guide with us as we learned much more of the history than when we visited other temples and museums on our own.

Today we did another day trip with the same guide and driver. This time we went to an ancient village about an hour outside of Hanoi. This village is surrounded by a wall with only one gate leading in. Here we again visited temples, this time honoring Vietnam’s first and second kings. The village was filled with old houses and narrow streets; I would have liked some time to just explore it on our own. Lunch was served by a family in their traditional Vietnamese home (although they did have a TV and a cellphone!) While it was interesting to see how a typical family lives, it was also a difficult experience with 2 kids. Throughout the trip we’ve often been unsure how people perceive Isaac. Our adoption agency representative said that there is no Vietnamese word for autism. Another agency staff member has a nephew who is autistic, so he was able to help explain it to some of the people who questioned Isaac’s behaviors.

The last 2 days were a nice change from the city life we have experienced most of our stay. We passed many people working in the fields alongside water buffalo. It was the traditional Vietnamese photo I had in my mind.

Tomorrow is our last day here and I realize I haven’t written much on the scooter traffic. Check out any Vietnam adoption blog, and there will be an entry on the scooters; it is nearly a requirement! Bill decided yesterday that whoever proposed Chaos theory must have driven in Vietnam. For those of you non-math geeks, Chaos Theory states that even in something that appears to be random and unorganized, there is order. It is actually amazing that there are not more accidents, but they seem to have it down to a system (though it is not apparent to outsiders). Horns are used as a signal; passing is allowed anytime (and the on-coming scooters better get out of the way). The most amazing thing is that road rage doesn’t appear to exist! Coming from a country where it is not uncommon to see a single person riding in a SUV, we found it at first unusual to sometimes see 2 or 3 grown men on a single bike. Soon, however, you realize that’s the norm and there is much more you can carry on a bike—4 freshly roasted dogs, live chickens in cages, 2 men and 6 large speakers, multiple sections of 10 foot pipe, as many boxes as you can strap on!

We are hoping for good weather tomorrow to head over to West Lake. If so, I’ll likely blog one last time and post more pictures. If not, keep us in your prayers as we head for home late tomorrow night (which is actually noon Sunday in your world). I have mixed feelings about heading home.

In truth, I am quite a home-body and have never travelled this long. I am ready. What am I looking forward to? High chairs (anyone who has tried to take your child out to eat without one understands this.) My large home and yard (ok, anything is large after 3 weeks in a hotel room and I can’t wait to let the kids run!) Introducing Wyatt to Grandpa and Grandma (if you’ve met them, you understand.)

And yet I find it hard to say good-bye to this place that has given us Wyatt. We are blessed to have a relationship with Isaac’s birth-family and know that long-term this will be important for Isaac. For Wyatt, this trip is the best connection we have to his roots. I hope that we have enough memories, photos, and souvenirs to provide Wyatt a sense of his history until we return again.

Rain, rain go away

We went to sleep last night to the sound of rain and woke up this morning to more of the same. That darn typhoon! The remnants of it are heading directly our way and tomorrow’s forecast calls for 100% chance of rain.

We braved the weather and took a taxi to a suburb to visit the Museum of Ethnology, devoted to Vietnam’s minority tribes. The 2 floor museum had an impressive display of crafts, clothing and artifacts from a variety of regions. By far, however, the best part of the museum was the outside exhibits which had homes represented the architecture of different areas. The rain had subsided to a drizzle by this point, which the boys tolerated well so we were able to check out all the different buildings, including some unique tombs, one of which may be too risky to post of picture of.

After a very brief nap, we were anxious to get out of the hotel room—it is just too small for the amount of energy the kids have. Unfortunately it was still raining, though Bill felt it was letting up. We are definitely outdoors people, and there were no indoor places left we wanted to see. We decided to risk the weather and explore the nearby Old Quarter, an area of small streets filled with a variety of shops. As the rain increased, we worked our way towards the indoor market. Within 30 seconds of entering it was obvious that this was quite different from the market we frequented in Ho Chi Minh City. Surprisingly, there were no calls of “Sir, Madame, what are you looking for?” This market seemed more geared towards the local people and sold lots of clothes, fabric, and household supplies, not the endless stalls of souvenirs.

Having discovered that the forecast calls for rain through Saturday, we decided that we needed to find some other activities to entertain us for the next 2 days. Based on the recommendation from one of my adoptive parent yahoo groups, we scheduled private tours for Friday and Saturday. Tomorrow we head to an area referred to as “Inland Halong Bay.” It has many of the same limestone structures as we had hoped to see at the real Halong Bay, but hopefully the weather will be nicer (and it is only a 2 hour drive). We’ll return here to our hotel for the night, and then explore an ancient village on Saturday. Hopefully by Sunday Hanoi will dry out a bit and we can visit some of the outdoor areas on our last day in Vietnam.

Tourism and Typhoons

Wyatt has a visa to enter the US and become a citizen. Our visa “interview” today was a mere formality; Bill had to pay, sign a form and swear the information was true. That was it on our part, and our adoption agency representative picked up the visa a few hours later and delivered it to us. We are done with paperwork and free to come home at anytime!

This morning we visited some of the most popular “tourist attractions” in Hanoi. We started our day at the Temple of Literature, where students studied under Confucian. The temple had multiple parts, including stone tablets listing students since 1442, a temple, and statue of Confucius. From there, we followed the tour buses to the Ho Chi Minh museum, which we opted to visit since it was very cool inside and we were quite warm! It was interesting to read Ho Chi Minh’s ideas and quotes, though I couldn’t help but wonder if the country has lived up to his ideals (though this may be true of every country and their past ideological leaders).

Nearby is the One Pillar Pagoda, a small structure in the middle of a small lake. It has undergone major restoration after French bombing so the concrete pillar makes it look quite modern and less impressive than I had envisioned. Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum is closed for 2 months, as Ho’s body must be re-embalmed yearly. We didn’t really have a desire to see him, so that was ok with us.

The afternoon was quite rainy, so we didn’t go out at all, leading to antsy kids. This evening Bill set off to buy more diapers, which was not as easy as we had envisioned. Our agency rep had said that most small shops here in the Old Quarter would have them. While Bill found many places selling diapers, they only carried size small (up to 8 kg). He ended up walking quite a distance but eventually found our size (extra large, for 12 kg and up!)

I tried to book a tour for Friday to visit Halong Bay. Unfortunately, I was informed that a typhoon just hit the Southern China coast and tours to Halong Bay have been suspended. They may start again on Friday (depending on the path the typhoon takes), but I worry that the weather may not be good or the boat ride may be too rough for the kids. We’ll see if we can find enough in Hanoi to entertain us, or we may look into other day trips as well.

It is hard to believe we left home 2 weeks ago, and that Wyatt has been with us for over a week. It has been a busy trip, but we are glad we have taken the time to get to know Wyatt and the place he has called home.

So long, Saigon

If today’s flight to Hanoi was a preview of Wyatt’s future airline experience, I’m thinking that we may just stay here forever. I have never heard Wyatt scream and cry so loud, much less for nearly the whole 2 hour flight. The flight attendants and other passengers tried to be helpful and all seemed to think they knew what he needed. A couple of them even tried holding him for a bit, which really seemed to bother him. The whole episode was made worse by the fact that we didn’t have half of our supplies to try to entertain or comfort him. Vietnam Airlines informed me that I couldn’t bring a carry-on bag with wheels (even though it fit within their measurements). I tried to convince them that I had baby supplies that I needed and that we only had 2 carry-on bags for the 3 seats we bought, but they would not agree (mind you, I later saw other passengers that had bags with wheels.) We then had to try to fit all the stuff we needed in our one back-pack, which required a lot of elimination. When we then got back through the line to check our last bag, they told me that I was now overweight and would have to pay an excess baggage fee! Eventually they agreed that I should not be charged this. We eventually made it to Hanoi, with all of our luggage, and Wyatt fell asleep within minutes of getting off the plane, but it has left me fearing the long flight home.

Despite this start, our first impression of Hanoi is very positive. As I was expecting from the guide books, it is very different from HCMC. This was immediately apparent on the taxi ride in, where we could actually see trees and grass. It seems more relaxed and residential. This afternoon we took a taxi to Hoan Kiem Lake, which has a nice path encircling it. While there we visited a temple on a small island. On another island is Tortoise Tower, in honor of the large turtle who legend says reclaimed a sword for the gods.

We finished our walk with a stop to buy beverages—water for the boys formula and whiskey and Coke for me and Bill. Hard liquor is kind of hard to find here; I do like a refreshing beverage and while I like the local beer I then have a hard time staying awake much longer (these kids sure do wear me out!)

Wyatt continues to do well (other than the previously mentioned plane ride). He seems very interested in being like Isaac. This morning he had Isaac’s feeding tube and syringe and looked at his stomach trying to figure out where to put them. Earlier he was imitating Isaac’s toe-walking (I’m trying to stop that one now, as we don’t need 2 kids in OT). He also wants to eat whatever Isaac has, even though he doesn’t seem to know how to chew the tortilla chips; they both have been enjoying Puffed Corn. Isaac has been pretty good with Wyatt; he doesn’t make a point of interacting with him, but doesn’t get too frustrated when he messes with Isaac’s movie. Fortunately, Wyatt has shown no interest in Isaac’s blanket, or I think we’d have real problems.

Tomorrow afternoon we have our visa interview, which should hopefully be a quick formality. Before we were able to come to Vietnam, we had to have “pre-approval” of this, so now they just need some of the last documents from the g&r. This is the last official business we have to do, and then have until Sunday night to see more of the sights.

Back in Saigon

I have to admit that our weekend at the beach was not as perfect as I’d hoped. The beach is a whole different place with 2 toddlers—one of which didn’t like the water. There were multiple construction projects going on at the resort, and while I am a fan of construction the sound of hammers doesn’t make for a relaxing time at the pool. The driver charged us much more than we were expecting, which I guess is our fault for not confirming the price with the adoption agency staff who arranged everything for us. Parents hoping to travel soon, I’m not saying skip the trip to the beach, but maybe look at other hotels and determine if the cost is worth it for how long you will be staying.

Saturday we took a taxi a few miles to visit an old Cham temple. These were built in about the ninth century. There were 3 different ones at this sight, and it was a nice change from the beach.

We are back in Saigon until Tuesday morning, when we fly to Hanoi. Fortunately we got a bigger room this time (we even have a window!) as I’m not sure how many more sights there are to see here, plus many of the tourist attractions in Vietnam are closed on Mondays. Later this morning Bill will go to pick up Wyatt’s passport and the results of his visa medical exam; I’ll meet with the travel agent to get our plane tickets. In the afternoon, we meet with the adoption agency to complete the remaining paperwork to get Wyatt’s visa to come home.

Currently, Wyatt is busy playing with his new $9 toy—a TV remote he stole from Bamboo Village Resort. Before we checked out, they checked our room and noticed it was missing. Bill went back down to help them find it, with no luck. Sure enough when I opened up our suitcase here, we found it. Wyatt likes to take things in and out of places and I guess was helping us pack! I feel like even though I have “Isaac proofed” our home, that we’re going to need to add lots of extra child safety locks for Wyatt. Bill has discovered that the only Vietnamese word he really needed to learn was “no.” Wyatt is such a goofy child! He doesn’t like to be dirty, hence the dislike of the beach. If he gets any dirt or sand on his hands or feet he will whimper and give them to you to wipe off. The nannies have also gotten him in the habit of needing lots of bottles when he sleeps. They told me that when he wakes up, they give him a bottle and sometimes they’ll do this 4-5 times per night. I don’t feel like now is the time for me to be weaning him off this habit so I’ve been making lots of bottles in the middle of the night. The good thing is that he does go right back to sleep, but his diapers are just huge in the morning! He also has clothing issues, so I may need to head out later and buy him a few more outfits. We discovered the first night that he absolutely will not wear long sleeves. Yesterday I tried to put him in a polo-type shirt with a collar. He just pulled on it and whimpered until I took it off. We had the same experience with overalls this morning. Fortunately, he and Isaac are able to fit into the same size clothing (pretty sad, isn’t it? Isaac is 4, while Wyatt is only 19 months! What can I say, the kid likes to eat!!)

Life's a beach

We are currently far away from the hustle and bustle of Ho Chi Minh City, relaxing at a resort on the South China Sea. The four hour drive here yesterday provided a different view of the Vietnam country side. From HCMC to Ben Tre was quite flat, but here it is hilly. Wyatt slept nearly the whole car ride, and still went to bed before 9 last night.

It is so nice to do nothing other than relax and enjoy time with our boys. We are definitely starting to see more of Wyatt's personality. He gets into everything. Suitcases need to be completely zipped up, or he'll take everything out. He likes to pick up the phone, push buttons, and listen to the noise. Today we walked around the paths on the resort and he was determined that I was not going to hold his hand--he seems very independent. Fruits are one of his favorite foods, although he also likes yogurt and wants to eat whatever anyone else is eating too. The nannies told me that one of his 2 words is eat. The other is a swear word, which he'll accompany by stomping his foot (I haven't seen this yet.)

Last night we introduced him to swimming in the pool. When Isaac first splashed him, he looked so surprised as if he might cry! Soon he was splashing along with him, although didn't seem interested in the pool this morning. We have taken multiple walks on the beach and both boys are mesmerized by the waves. They excite Isaac, while the movement puts Wyatt to sleep.

The food here (as in most places we've been) is very good. Last night we ordered room service, as our dinner outing the night before was less than pleasant. This morning's buffet breakfast was a nice change from that of the past week--it included bacon and eggs! While I've become a fan of Vietnamese food, I do admit that it was nice to have a little bit of variety.

Things definitely move at a slower pace here, so I'm not sure if I'll post tomorrow. We will be here until Sunday when we head back to HCMC. We need to pick up Wyatt's passport and the results of his medical exam. Currently we are scheduled on a Tuesday morning flight to Hanoi, but we're going to see if it is possible to leave Monday evening. We feel we've seen and done all that we want to in Saigon and would like the time to explore Hanoi.

Hope all is well in Minnesota!