Monday, December 15, 2008

Happy Tuesday from Viet Nam! Is it Saturday yet? While we are having fun here in Viet Nam, we are SOOOOOOO ready for home. I'm ready for mashed potatoes, venti soy latte and simple things like my bath robe.
Yesterday we went to the Big C, which is like Wal Mart, and found some pretty cheap toys for the girls to play with here. Sophie loved the bouncy ball and the sit down scooter. The Big C has everything from fried pig and duck to clothes. We bought more food and headed home for lunch. Sophie is a picky eater. She does not like hot dogs and if she has a noodle dish the noodles have to be done just right or she will spit it out. Yes spit it out, this is what she does when she does not like something. Which make sense, if I do not like something I will also spit it out. After lunch and a 40 min nap we were on a mission to find a beckoning cat for Aunt Jackie...............................and we didn't find one. Why? Well because the beckoning cat is in Japan! So after an unsucessful day at the market we decided to head to pho 24. It's a really great resturant here in Nam and Sophie loves Pho. Let me tell you this was the WORSE expierence of my life. We walked into the place and we were stared at like we had 7 heads! We asked for water, they were out of it. We asked for rice, they were out of it. We asked for fried bread, out of it. It was very clear to us that they did NOT want us there. We went to pay and they would not take Hank's 100,000 dong bill because it had a slight rip in it. Then they proceeded to tell Hank and Rich that we still owed them 100,000 more dong. So basically the waiter keep an extra 100,000 dong to his self. We were then pushed out the door and the door was shut behind us. I was almost in tears. I can't belive they hated us so much. I felt like we were on parade. Finally on our way home this can't be bad right? Wrong! A lot of the cab driver's here are scam artists. We have found 1 good cab that will take us exactly where we need to go and charge us the correct amount. A lot of them take us the "long way" and we are quickly figuring out this is a way for them to make some extra dong! Some how we paid 50,000 dong to get to the market and we ended up paying 100,000 dong to get home----- go figure. So we are ready to go home! Sophie is ready too. Each day she get's more and more antsy. She is talking a lot more, but is still having trouble warming up to Hank. I hope that changes soon. We would like to go to Halong Bay, but that is an entire day trip and we do not think the girls would make it. Or rather, the Mom's. Sophie get's pretty heavy with her 20 pound self and carrying her for 12 hours straight would kill me. Hopefully, someday, we can go to Halong Bay (sorry Keller's). That's it for now. Enjoy some video.

After her bottle... Sophie and Mya playing with the new toys. She loves to pretend with pots and pans!

I love my new hat!
Mya Grace!.
Chillin with my Poppa.

Eating cookies with Poppa.

Feeding Mommy puffs!

Brushing Mommy's teeth!

4 comments:

Stevens Family said...

Sorry to hear about your bad experiences :( Very unfortunate.

We too opted out of the Ha Long Bay tour because our Autumn was still so traumatized. We'll go back again when Autumn is a teen and can enjoy the experience more.

Jackie, Rich, and Mya Grace said...

LOL! I love the "after bottle" Buddah belly! Pho 24 is black listed for sure! Donkey's!!!!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the update. Look how far you have come in the last month! December 20th will be here soon......
Lots of people love you and miss you and want you 3 back in the good 'ole USA.

XXXOOO

Max and Anne-Marie said...

I LOVE the brushing teeth video and she looks adorable in the hot pink hat! That restaurant experience sounds horrible - so sorry that happened.

We also opted out of the Halong Bay trip even though I had even brought a new toddler life vest along. Just seemed like a bit too much to ask for everyone considering the circumstances. I really wanted my husband to see it, since I already have. We figured we'd all have another chance when we come back to visit later. I'm sure you made the right decision.