The Long Journey to Viet Nam

From door to door it took us 36 hours to get here. It was a long long long trip. Even so, it was a pretty good trip. The first leg of our trip was from Atlanta to LA and it was delayed 3 hours due to bad weather along the east coast. The next leg of the trip was from LA to Hong Kong, and we would have missed our flight to Hong Kong due to the delay in Atlanta if it was not for our speedy pilot and some strong tail winds we picked up somewhere in Arizona. We had a packed flight and it seemed that just about everyone was in the same boat and had either missed connecting flights or were cutting it very close. The pilot was able to make up about 45 minutes of time, which was just enough for us to race from the gate where we landed to the LAX International terminal, get our boarding passes, race through security and to our departing gate. Whew! We flew Cathay Pacific, a 767 I think, which is one of those double decker planes with business class upstairs, and seats in business and first class that completely recline. We sat in economy but were lucky to get bulk head seats so we had a little more room. It was a very nice plane with extremely nice and attentive flight attendants. I watched 4 movies - The Love Guru (very funny, a little raunchy - my brother D would like it), Chronicles of Narnia, something about Las Vegas with Ashton Kuchter (sp?) and Cameron Diaz (mindless entertainment) and a 4th movie that was so memorable that I've already forgotten what it was. In Hong Kong we had a very short window to catch our flight to Ho Chi Minh City and thought we were in good shape when we saw that we would arrive at gate 61 and depart at gate 63. But no, we had to go to a central transit area, go through security again, and then go to gate 63. Once again, we got through all of this and got to our gate right before it was time to board. Our flight to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) was also on Cathay Pacific and this was either a new plane or a newly refurbished plane and was just beautiful - and again had an excellent crew. The flight from Hong Kong to HCMC was 2 1/2 hours and went across the South China Sea and down the coast of Viet Nam - very beautiful countryside. BTW, when we landed at Hong Kong it was a little like coming home. I was surprised after so many years that I would be so nostalgic, but it almost felt like I should be getting off the plane and heading to my little apartment at 100 Blue Pool Road in Happy Valley. To any of my friends in Hong Kong who might be reading this - I really would have liked to stop and see you but the logistics of this trip have just been too difficult and I needed to get to HCMC quickly so I could get my baby!

So, after arriving in HCMC we went through the process to get our entry visas, got our bags, went through customs clearance, had to pass our bags through security again (I felt very safe on the entire journey after all these security checks!) and officially entered Viet Nam. Mandala's staff Peter and Kevin (Mandala's VN staff) met us, got us loaded up in the van and we headed off for the hotel. We are staying at the Royal Kimdo Hotel in downtown HCMC (or Saigon as the locals still call it) - it is very nice, our room is spacious and clean and the staff are very friendly.

After checking into our room we got organized and then headed off to the Ben Thanh market, which is one of the larger local markets that has absolutely everything you could possibly think of. Believe it or not, I really was ready to stay in the room and take a nap as I was exhausted by this time, but my mom is a real trooper and she was ready to go SHOPPING! So off to the market we walked - a good 15-20 minute walk from the hotel. I could have spent a lot of money in this market - it was awesome! But I tried to restrain myself and think of how heavy all of our bags already are without adding a lot of stuff. I did buy for Lucie some traditional VN clothes - an ao dai, a cheong sam and a chinese outfit, and some very cute laquered shoes with sequins (the kind my dad brought my sister, me and my cousins when he was over here years ago). We are seeing the cutest baby clothes ever and I could spend a fortune here! Also, gorgeous embroidered linens, but I keep asking myself how many tablecloths does a girl need??? I think I have enough at home already!

We had dinner at The Rex Hotel (a famous hotel here in HCMC), and then came back to our hotel to get ready for "the big day." We had to pack a bag for Lucie - diapers, food, an outfit to change into for the Giving and Receiving ceremony, donations for the orphanage, gifts for everyone, my camera, the movie camera, etc. It was actually quite a lot to get together - and then off we went to bed with visions of Lucie dancing through our heads!

BTW, on the 36 hour trip we both wore compression socks. My friend S reminded me to get those for the trip. I've never worn them before and now I am a huge fan. My ankles always swell on long flights like this and these socks totally prevented any swelling. They were awesome - thank you S!

Here are a few scenes from Ben Thanh market.































This is Lucie's Ao Dai. I got a bigger size so she can wear it when she is older.




















And this is Lucie's Cheong Sam: