To Vietnam and Back: Todays Fun

Things are getting better and better. Jayda is doing absolutely fabulous. Have I said how happy she is all the time. She wakes up smiling and laughing, she laughs and smiles all day long, She gives the best kisses, she just puckers up and goes mmwah, she is so sweet. When I say where is Mama, she puts her hand to my face and smiles,and rubs my cheek gently. I think we ended up with the best little girls in the world. Shae-Lee and Jayda are the best gifts we could have ever been given. The temper tantrums that I wrote about earlier were short lived. I have found that giving her a cookie or cracker to munch on when she gets fussy is a good fix for her, so simple as that, she loves to eat, but who doesnt, other than that, the fussing is minimal. We are just having so much fun. Of course, it would be much more fun with Clff and Shae-Lee but I am making the most of our short time left here, but I am looking forward to being together as a family again. Jayda slept in late today, really late, she didnt wake up until 10:00 am, I think she needed the rest, we have been on the go non stop, waking up early and not alot of down time. Now that all our paperwork has been completed the other families have decided to take a trip to Ha Nang while they wait for our Passports to be processed so they will be away from Hanoi for the next 5 or 6 days. Beautiful beachy area, nice warm weather. I decided to stay back, two reasons, we already had our Hotel booked here and we couldnt get out of our reservation, and second reason, I`m tired of packing around suitcases and getting on planes, so we ended up staying behind, and hopefully we will catch up with everybody right before we leave. Because we slept in, we missed our breakfast at the Hotel so we packed up our stuff and headed out. I decided to go to the restaurant that we had gone to the other night with the others. By this time, it was after 11:00 so we enjoyed a big bowl of Rice Noodle with Chicken soup, very yummy. I am really enjoying the food here, now that I have come to know of a few local places. In the table beside us, was an older gentleman that clearly wasnt a local. We started a conversation and I soon found out he was also from B.C., from Vancouver, had managed Condominions in Richmond and decided to move to Vietnam 7 years ago to make his Pension go further. We hung out for awhile at the restaurant, the locals of course loving Jayda, who wouldnt with that great smile!! After we just wandered and wandered, went to the lake that was close by, walked around, lots and lots of Brides having there picture taken, clearly a popular spot for bridal pictures. We just walked everywhere. I came across a great street that had several Bookstores and was able to find some books and puzzles for Jayda as well as a great Princess sticker book for Shae-lee. I got everything for just over $7.00. We started heading back through the streets, and headed back towards the restaurant we were at that morning as I was told that a block away there was a great place for Vietnamese Coffee (condensed milk and coffee, absolutely delicious, Starbucks may be out of the running for me from now now) for 15,000 (approx. $0.75) Typical little coffee shop, just on the corner of a street, outside cafe, they all are, just feet away from the craziness of all the people and scooters, little blue plastic chairs to sit on (children size chairs) that you would use as stepping stools at home. As I was sitting drinking my coffee, a lady came up and asked me to buy donuts. These donuts are sold everywhere, they look like timbits on a stick. I had always said no, but today I said yes, I will buy some. I thought Jayda might like to try one and I thought it would be a nice treat with Coffee. She clearly thought she could take advantage of the fact that I wasnt Vietnamese and asked me to pay 50,000, so I said no way and offered her less than half (which is what is the expected price, even that was too much for the donuts) In the meantime, the coffee shop owner joined in and saw what was going on, she could tell this lady was clearly overcharging, and than it began, yelling back and forth between the store owner and the donut lady, in the meantime, others joined in the argument against the donut lady, she was furious but so was the coffee shop owner and everyone else as they knew the donut lady was overcharging me. I was just sitting there, taking everything in, it was a little comical to watch. I had given 20,000, I really just wanted her to go away and stop all the arguing back and forth between everyone so I gave her another 6,000, still too much but at least she went away. I hung out for a little while longer, I have to say, I really just enjoy being in the middle of all of it. I love the busyness, I love to people watch and I just really enjoy hanging out with the locals. Finally, I decided to head back to the Hotel, I think I really tired out Jayda and thought we should head back so she can have a proper nap, and pick up my Laundry on the walk home. Now we are back, Jayda has been sleeping for the past 2 hours (its 6:30 pm here now) she should probably wake soon and than we`ll grab a bite to eat.


Jayda, enjoying her soup.


Thought I would try and get a picture of the two of us . The restaurant we are at for lunch is on the second floor. Completely hidden away, glad we found out about this little place, great food!!!