Exploring Hanoi

Last night, Mom, Phoebe & I went to Chris, Al & Hank's room for fine dining. We had Pringles as our appetizer, Chef Al prepared a lovely Kraft Mac n' Cheese for our main course, and then we followed up with coconut crackers and Nutella for dessert. It was so nice to sit and chat and enjoy a meal.

This morning, we grabbed a taxi to a supermarket of sorts. Several of us were low on important things like diapers! Then most of us had peanut butter & jelly sandwiches in our rooms for lunch. I was excited to find a tennis match on television - Andy Roddick vs. Davedenko in a Tennis Masters Cup game, so I watched that for a bit (Andy won). I've been hankering for some new books to read and had read about a English-language bookstore called the Bookworm, run by an Australian couple, so I talked two of the other families into going with us for a book run. The gentleman who owns the store was so nice and I found three new books to keep me busy. We weren't far from the Old Quarter so we decided to walk for a while. It was great to stretch our legs and really see some of Hanoi. Of course, there was some shopping done along the way but we're all being more cautious now, since two of us have already had to buy more luggage just to fit all of our purchases (sorry honey!!!). We went past the most beautiful old church (Steve took pictures, which we're all going to get copies of) and then we ended up near a small lake and stopped for ice cream drinks.

One of the things I love about Vietnam is how everyone is willing to help. When it was time for us to head back to the hotel, the staff at the restaurant called us a cab. Since there are usually 6-8 of us, we can't jump into a regular taxi - we always need the larger sized vehicle. And everywhere we've been, we've asked the security staff (who are everywhere in both HCMC and Hanoi) and they've gone out of their way to find us a ride 'home'. Sometimes we don't even ask... we just look confused and mill about until someone takes pity on us. :)

We're going to head out for dinner this evening. Hopefully we'll have an appointment time to celebrate - Thomas is going to call us soon to tell us what he's found out from the Embassy.